The Bone Mother

by David Demchuk

Three neighboring villages on the Ukrainian/Romanian border are the final refuge for the last of the mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. Now, on the eve of the war that may eradicate their kind—and with the ruthless Night Police descending upon their sanctuary—they tell their stories and confront their destinies.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Mythology, Canada, Magical Realism

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2017

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read 10/6/20:

As good the second time as the first! Definitely creepy and still rather unusual (for me!). Gotta love horrors coming right out of the Old World. :)


Original Review:

Oh, wow! I think I may have found my new favorite horror author!

Well, new for me, anyway. He's been around for many years but mostly as a short story artist. But after meeting him and listening to him speak at a convention, I knew I had to read his work. Sharp mind, deep horror sensibility. :) But even without meeting him, this book is an awesome treat.

Ukranian in flavor, we have all the Slavic influences at the fore. Each story in here makes up a much larger picture of the surrounding area filled with VERY creepy influences. You know, like the Night Police, parents eating their children, mass starvation, government-sponsored assassinations, children never growing up, Strigoi, old witches feeding children worms, and a dark mystery that weaves through every story in the best possible way.

Sound cool? It gets better. Demchuk has a WAY WITH WORDS. At first, I thought he was writing in a minimalist way, but it's better than that. He writes like poetry.

The rhythm to his writing is more than compelling. It takes over your heart and pumps your blood for you. I generally never get scared with horror books. Generally. But this one managed to burrow under my skin and wrap around my spine, making me twinge with every new creepy reveal.

I'm totally thrilled. It's like Angela Slater decided to focus on horror. :) My eyes are wide open, now. I'm going to keep a very sharp eye on this writer. :)

[Sadie Hartmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must have for lovers of horror-especially if you enjoy folklore (creepy, dark folklore!).
I'm of Bohemian decent, so the Romani influence and language here was a specific treat for me. This book is a "big picture" story as well as many individual stories which are interconnected and help to develop the big picture. But I don't want to reveal too much because most of the fun is discovering a new author's voice/narrative and style and story for yourself.
Some of these stories scared me so bad! I felt like they got more and more frightening as the book progressed, the pictures even becoming more intense and creepy, until the last picture seriously freaked me out! I didn't want to look at it in bed at 10pm!
There was one story, "Ivan" which followed two men as they enter into an abandoned hotel to find the ghost of their Uncle. It was terrifying! I kept telling myself to stop reading because it was late and I'd have to turn the lights off soon.
That's the mark of a good horror book!
Some of the stories, especially towards the end, were so shocking! I would re-read portions of it because I couldn't believe what I actually just read and too my surprise and horror, the story said exactly what I thought it said! AHHHHHHHH! Nooooooo!!
David Demchuk has a wonderful way of storytelling. It feels so real, like these stories are factual accounts of real events as the narrator experienced them-really, really effective way to freak me out, I'll tell you what!
I highly, VERY highly recommend this book to all my friends who love to feel unsettled and terrified at night. The perfect Autumn read! Get it!

[Char · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can sum this one up in two words: LOVED IT!

Told as a series of short stories, I adored the way THE BONE MOTHER was presented. Each tale was preceded by a photograph and I found that those photos gave a face to the characters in each vignette.

The tales themselves were very dark. They all came together,( mostly), at the end, to tell a story of pure evil. Told from Ukranian/Romanian points of view, these characters named horrors that I admittedly know little about: The Holodomor, for instance. Easily over 3 million dead, yet most Americans I've met know nothing about it. Why? References to Kristallnacht, and other horrific events in history also appear, all of which add to the darkness and brutal honesty of this volume.

In some ways, though, these tales do have a lighter side to them-isn't it often the darkest of times that bring out the best in people? These characters sacrificed and loved each other, despite the often miserable lives and events they faced. In that way, this book SHINES.

The writing was gorgeous and descriptive without being overly wordy. The presentation just blew me away. The photographs, the stories, the horror, the love and finally the darkness of it all-combined they make THE BONE MOTHER.

My HIGHEST recommendation!

*I received this paperback from the author with no strings attached. I read it, loved it and here we are!*

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one kind of got away from me. I was very engrossed in the first half but then I sort of started to feel like I was waiting for something more.

Some of the stories are fantastically eerie even despite their simplicity, but others were less striking and seemed a bit more like filler. There's not really a solid thread connecting all the stories beyond the ominous "thimble factory" and the different monsters that appear throughout.

I would definitely recommend it still as I think many people interested in horror or short stories would really enjoy it.

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooktober 2021, book #2.

Now this is the kind of horror stories I love: unsettling, creepy, rooted in the folklore of spots on the map that time forgot. “The Bone Mother” is described as a novel, but it’s more a collection of little stories that seem unconnected at first, but that are all about people who live in three small villages, somewhere in Ukraine – or their descendants. Those small villages surround a thimble factory, which employs many of the locals, but nothing in that corner of the world is quite what it seems, and no matter how far people go, they take a little piece of home with them…

This is my first time reading David Demchuk’s work and I am impressed! I don’t creep out all that easily, but he has just the touch to make me hide my face in my hoodie as I’m reading – which is really the highest praise one can give a horror writer! The only reason it gets 4 instead of 5 stars is because I wished the links between the stories had been explored a bit further, but that is in no way a complaint about the quality of the work.

If you like to get your creep on, look no further!

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is no secret, I love mythology and have read my fair share of non-fiction books as well as fictional tales with mythologies from all over the world. One very fascinating figure, to me, is the Baba Yaga.



Lo and behold, Baba Yaga is also known as the Bone Mother.

We are somewhere along the border of Romania and Ukraine shortly before World War II. The story is about the mysterious Grazyn porcelain factory that produces famous thimbles. So famous, even a Czarina supposedly had one. Their workforce consists of men from the neighboring villages who give up their lives in exchange for a workplace that will keep their families fed and taken care of. But that's not all; the workers themselves - while not allowed to return home whilst alive - are also well fed, clothed and even receive an education. No small feat considering that the rest of the country has to face a famine and poverty. Even cannibalism isn't unheard of. And as if that wasn't enough, Stalin also terrorizes the people by sending out his Night Police.
All of which is basically a metaphor for the old and new world order fighting it out for survival/dominance. Thus, we have supernatural creatures such as domovoi, rusalka, vampires, witches clashing with natural human monsters trying to kill everything other (and everyone believing in the old tales, too).
If or if not that is the reason why the Grazyn family is so protective of their workforce, you will only find out if you read this book.

As much as I love mythology, tales that include mythic creatures need to also have the right kind of atmosphere. Interestingly, not every author manages to conjure up the right kind of world for such a story to take place in. Demchuk did. The desolate landscapes he evokes, the cold of winter, the desperation of the people, the creepy sense of foreboding he sent creeping up your spine ... it was all delicious (excuse the pun).

Like most books these days, I read this in its audiobook form and I have to congratulate the narrators, Natasha Soudek and Victor Bevine, on their marvellous rendition. Not just the way they read was perfect, but also their linguistic skills with the Slavic names and designations.

I had never heard of this author before, but I loved the audiobook so much that I immediately ordered the paperback version for my collection. And that is basically all you need to know about just how great this tale is.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
This is such a unique horror book. Told in a collection of interconnected short stories, this one does not read like a traditional novel. Yet in this case, the narrative worked incredibly well.

Written by a Canadian Ukrainian author, these stories are woven through the traditions and folklore of this heritage. The novel includes real photos which add a creepy authenticity to the narrative.

These stories are so strange, so unique and so quietly creepy. I highly recommend this novel to readers looking for a smart, literary piece of horror. 

[Chris Berko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some cool individual stories but as a whole unfulfilling. I liked the structure and thought it was an interesting way to present the overall story but there was just not enough "there" there and none of it was scary to me at all. Three stars because it did hold my attention and I flew through it but was left feeling, meh.

[Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should have saved this book for Halloween. (Right now is a scary time too. This review is being written in New Jersey, USA during our second month of the Covid-19 shutdown.) Like Halloween candy these stories are easy to gobble up. They are short, tasty, and this reader kept saying to herself, "I'll just read ONE more..." I put other books aside to finish this - couldn't help myself.

Most of the stories take place in three neighborhood villages on the Ukranian/Romanian border during the mid 20th century. We meet several mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. A few of the stories are set in Canada, of all places. (The author, David Demchuk, is Canadian.) The action is subtle and the author slips explosive sentences into otherwise placid descriptions. I needed to go back a few times, "Did I really just read that?" For instance, a character finding tiny hands and feet in the soup being eaten.

And as if the stories aren't great enough, the illustrations are great too. Each Slavic story begins with an old black and white portrait taken in Romania between 1935 and 1945. (The Canadian stories got drawings.) I would stare into the eyes of the people in the photos and wonder what lay ahead. Many times after the story creeped me out, I'd go back and look at them again. Reading this was just not entertainment - it was an experience.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

With each story adding a new voice to the chorus, David Demchuk has built an eerie portrait of an Eastern European village where the myths aren't just myths any more. The stories are frequently unsettling - just as much for their portrait of humanity as for the monsters who live with them side by side - but there was a folklorish feeling to them that was almost comfortable.

Definitely one I'd recommend to any horror fans with the patience to allow a picture to be built brick by brick and story by story.

[Mindi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was sent from the publisher to the Night Worms reading group in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Mother is a collection of interconnected Eastern European folktales. Each story has an old photograph before it, in the same fashion as Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It often felt as if Demchuk discovered the photographs and then wrote his stories based on the unknown people in the pictures.

These stories are dark, and most of them involve mythological creatures from Ukrainian and Romanian folklore. A few of them were familiar to me. If you read or watched the television series The Strain, by Guillermo del Torro, you probably remember the vampire in that story was referred to as a Strigoi. I was actually surprised that I knew a few of these creatures already, and the ones that were unfamiliar to me were just as disturbing as the creatures I recognized.

Some of the stories in this collection are only a couple of pages long, and some of them are much longer, but they all combine to tell a tale of the creatures and the horrifying Night Police, both of which descend upon the villages in these tales in order to eradicate the people who live there. Combining the real life war element with the mythological threats made this a harrowing read, and one that was often downright disturbing. These are truly dark tales, and Demchuk doesn't shy away from the unpleasant details.

If you like dark folklore I highly suggesting picking this one up. The real photographs make this one even more chilling. This is a genuinely scary and disturbing collection of real and imaginary monsters.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was many years ago, back in the first land, when my grandmother was still alive and I was a small child. I would be sent to visit her in the woods, and while she was cooking she would tell me stories of the Bone Mother. The little girl came up to the Bone Mother's house and knocked on the heavy wooden door. It opened all by itself and the little girl, who was very much like you, saw the Bone Mother at her giant wood stove. There she stood, throwing handfuls of vegetables in a big black pot made of iron, just like her teeth. And then my grandmother would smile with her teeth made of iron, and I would giggle and shiver.

According to the “About the Author” blurb, David Demchuk “has been writing for theatre, film, television, radio, print and other media for more than thirty years. The Bone Mother is his first novel.” As a collection of twenty-five short stories (some as short as a couple of pages and all broadly considered “horror” stories), I don't know if I'd really label this a novel. I also find it an odd selection to discover on this year's Giller Prize longlist – but because I can glean a spark of deeper meaning, and because I happened to have read it in the days leading up to Halloween, I'm happy to have picked this book up; yet, wouldn't necessarily recommend it beyond to other Giller completionists.

Most of these stories take place somewhere in the Ukraine and primarily center on the three villages that neighbour “The Thimble Factory”. We learn that they who inhabit these villages must serve a mandatory five year stint working at the factory, and if they survive, they will have earned a pension that can support themselves and their families for life. If they don't survive, well, the factory has its own graveyard and funerary services. Whatever the work that really happens here, it's so important that we learn in a late story that during the great famine, or Holodomor, these villages are singled out for food relief shipments (guarded by starving soldiers who might risk their lives for a stolen apple). Interspersed with these more “realistic” tales about the Thimble Factory are fables and ghost stories, horrifyingly populated by the strigoi (undead), rusalkas (knife-toothed water nymphs), nyavkas (forest witches), but most perilously, by the Nichni Politsiyi: the Night Police who come knocking on doors in the dead of night, disappearing people without warrant or protest.

I now know that no matter how far or how fast we run, our ghosts and demons run with us, and are always close at hand.

And this is what I eventually determined to be the deeper meaning: With a long history of war and famine and iron-fisted government control based far away, the people of the Ukraine have suffered more than their share of actual physical horrors – no wonder they have such a rich lore of spooks and monsters. Even when characters have been forced to move away from their villages – to larger cities or even different countries – their ghosts and demons follow; a remote farm in Manitoba isn't beyond the reach of the Nichni Politsiyi.

I liked that most stories started with an old photograph – attributed to Romanian photographer Costică Acsinte and taken between 1935-45 – there's not much more spooky than an old black-and-white photo of a stern-faced Slav as it decomposes around the edges (think Miss Peregrine without the costumes). And the stories themselves could be chilling, with horrifying creatures unfamiliar to me. (Also chilling when it's implied that the plummeting birthrate during the Holodomor might not have been a natural process.) I might have enjoyed this reading experience more if I had dipped into these tales one or two at a time, but the bang-bang-bang of short, short story after short, short story became a bit monotonous – and if this is to be considered a “novel”, then I guess that's the way it's meant to be read.

[Cameron Chaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A big thanks to the author for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review! Full video review to come...

While reading this book at work recently, my boss approached and asked what I was reading. "The Bone Mother," I replied. She then followed up with a question I am asked often, but really stumped me this time around: "What's it about?" That's a good question. How the heck does one begin to describe The Bone Mother by David Demchuk? I guess it is possible to describe a book as unique and bizarre as this one, it just takes some contemplation first, otherwise I just end up saying a bunch of words that make no sense out of context.

The Bone Mother is a dark fantasy novel with elements of horror and magical realism under the umbrella of Ukrainian/Romanian history and folk tales. It is at once a novel about war and prejudice against European people with mystical abilities while also being a short story collection featuring vignettes of these people throughout the past and present. We see tales about child-eating witches, mediums, mirror-trapped spirits, and many other creatures you may be unfamiliar with. Each fairy tale is accompanied by a vintage photograph showing the person we're reading about. Of course, while the people in the photographs are real, the people in the stories are not...or are they?

The Bone Mother is very much a novel about storytelling and how these stories impact the lives of those in the future. Are the urban legends that are passed to us only stories, or are these legends buried deep beneath our skin, waiting for the right time to make themselves known as fact?

Scary, intriguing, quiet, and disturbing, The Bone Mother is a patchwork quilt of nightmares meant to be enjoyed on a dark and stormy night.

NOTE: As Chizine (the publisher of this book) has closed its doors due to the unfair treatment of its authors, I recommend buying a signed copy of this book directly from the author at his website where he has a limited number of copies for sale. You can also wait for the eventual reprint that is coming soon!

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description of this book is a little misleading, for it implies a more explicit narrative than is actually contained within these pages. Certainly the stories are connected, and I appreciated that, but to call it a novel confuses expectations. There are many ways to define a novel, of course, and I don't subscribe to a specific limited number of them. Many so-called novels that I read would not be considered as such by other readers. But I do think that in certain cases the way a book is marketed does not necessarily benefit potential readers. On the back of the book Samuel Delany offers what I find to be a more apt description:

David Demchuk's The Bone Mother is a book of gnomic tales, Slavic in flavor, in which strange things occur that, as the stories go on, seem even more disturbingly off than we thought...wise and claustrophobically beautiful.

I have not read many blurbs from Delany, but if this is representative of them, then I would say he is on top of his game (not surprisingly). This is a book of 'gnomic tales' (they are both terse and enigmatic), 'strange things' certainly occur in all of them, they are 'Slavic in flavor' (steeped in that region's folklore and geography), they do become 'more disturbingly off than we thought' as the book progresses, and finally they are both clever and confining.

I wanted to like this more than I ended up liking it by the end. At brief moments I found it riveting, while at others I wished for more from the prose. There was something about the telling that kept me too distanced as a reader. Demchuk is a skilled writer, no doubt, but it was as if there was too much artifice employed, as if he was trying too hard to mimic the nature of folkloric storytelling. It's no easy task to write in this tradition and make it seem both genuine and original. I thought the photos added an element of authenticity and I appreciated his vision of weaving the past into the contemporary, but in the end it didn't coalesce into what I was expecting. Probably more like a 3.5 and I'd still like to read more from him.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

A study in compression, most of the lightly interlinked stories in this collection manage to convey a carefully developed folkloric weird-tale arc in four or five pages with a spare simplicity that probably resulted from a lot of paring and refining of theme and narrative. Honestly, I could have stood for a little less paring and simplicity, as many of these stories were intriguing enough to warrant development. On the other hand, if each was given twice the length, it would bloat and break the polyphonic structure of the novel as a whole. And we do get four longer pieces, unsurprisingly three are the overall standouts here, but whereas the short works unfold in the hinterlands of Eastern Europe in the first half of the 20th century, the longer pieces are elsewhere and contemporary. I almost wonder if the essentially unrelated longer stories were written first, and the shorter provided to deepen them and create a sense of interconnection that they lacked on their own, but the dialogue between them all actually works quite well. By the last of the longer tales, I was completely absorbed in the meta-narrative which it dealt most directly with. I also appreciate the balance of male and female protagonists here, both handled with equal finesse. I less appreciated the illustration decisions -- the deteriorated family photos that punctuate the story are fittingly eerie but seem a little contrived, and the drawings of matroska dolls felt strangely amateurish to me compared to the precision of the rest. Still, an enjoyable exploration of the voids at the center of the 20th century and their fallout.

[Luciano Bernaroli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ne parlerò più avanti perchè devo decisamente metabolizzare questa meraviglia.
Assolutamente consigliato, racconti weird del più alto livello, intrisi del folklore dell'est europeo.
Da leggere per gli amanti del genere, brividi assicurati.

Ne parlo QUI

[Audra (ouija.reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bone Mother is a very unique set of interconnected short stories. Each story begins with an old (and often haunting) portrait or illustration and each is told from the first person.

The stories have a dark aura, but often the true depth of the darkness isn't uncovered until the very end. Demchuk certainly has a flair for making the reader feel as though they've missed a step in the dark—feeling that strange plummeting of your stomach, the truth of what you though you knew ripped out from under you.

While I liked the interconnected structure, I felt that the world of the stories could have been explored more. The stories are so short, most of them just a couple pages, that I never really felt attached to any of the people or their specific narrative. But at the same time, each story didn't seem to further the world-building enough that I felt I had a full picture of this place, the timeline between characters, or the events that happened there by the time I finished the book.

Though the writing is captivating and there are some truly scary moments, I felt this narrative was just too scattered for me to really connect to it, which would have been fine if it were just a short story collection, but as they are meant to be linked, it left me wanting more cohesion and finality.

I would definitely be interested to read more writing by this author. He has a strong and unique voice, and I love that he decided to shine a light on Russian folklore and history in this way.

My thanks to Chizine Publications for sending copies of this one to the Nightworms to read.

[Carol Ann Tack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror people: read it. It's deliciously scary, creepy and unsettling.
4.5 stars.

[Stephanie (Books in the Freezer) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ther was a lot that I liked from this book. It's told in a series of first-person short stories set in a village in Eastern Europe. Each chapter had a black and white picture to introduce the story, which I thought was a great touch. There were some stories that were legitimatley unsettling and gave me goosebumps. I have a soft-spot for folkloric/urban legend type horror, so it worked for me. Happy to see that this was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award, and I'm looking forward to whatever Mr. Demchuck does next.

[Ashley (spookishmommy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Chizine Publications for providing the Night Worms free copies of The Bone Mother in exchange for honest reviews.

The Bone Mother was very enjoyable! Dark folklore stories set in Eastern European villages? YES PLEASE. These are actually a bunch of little stories that come together to make a bigger story. I chose to read it as a novel and it seemed to work well. Each little story begins with an illustration. What I liked about the illustrations was they set the foundation for the often creepy story. These stories took the illustrations where I thought Miss Peregrines was going to go but didn't. Like I said, these stories are DARK so be prepared.

[Netanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been saving this book for Halloween, and it did not disappoint! David Demchuk is a treasure, and this, his debut novel, is incredible. I'm very, very happy that I read rather than listened to the audiobook, because otherwise I would have missed the beautiful and haunting photography that is included between each of the interconnected short stories. The photos are from the license-free Costică Acsinte Archive, which has digitized the wartime photography of Acsinte. Currently the Archive is under maintenance, but the photos can still be viewed on Facebook or Flickr.

The book itself is revolves around three small villages on the Ukrainian border, who are under the protection of a mysterious porcelain thimble factory. From there each story of a different character weave into and over each other, introducing characters from the 1930s to the present day, even moving into major cites in Europe, such as Kiev and Krakow, and then across the ocean to Canada and back. And amongst them are figures from folklore, the baba yaga and the selkie and the bone mother, amongst others, whose lives are entangled within the villages and the factory.

I simply loved this book. I need to find another Demchuk read.

[Alex | | findingmontauk1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bone Mother has been on my shelf for a few months and I picked it up this week to go ahead and read. It's got dark folklore, Ukranian/Romanian creepiness, and an overall vibe that can be a little unsettling. That's what pulled me into the book initially. But now that I am done reading it, I don't feel one way or another. I don't even feel like I read it and I am left a little empty. This review will be slightly different format than others. So here we go.

What I liked:
-I really enjoyed the overall concept of the book and being introduced to all sorts of creatures and mythological beings and whatnot from another culture
-I think that the drawings and black and white photos that preface each story are haunting and amazing in a way that is similar to Miss Peregrine's for those who have also read or seen those books
-Demchuk writes with such a unique, eerie, and almost poetic style
-The cover of this book is STUNNING and I love every single thing about that!

What I did not like:
-I could not connect to a single story. The stories I found myself wanting to be further engaged ended in 2-3 pages whereas the stories that bored me mercilessly tended to drone on for page after page
-I am unsure why this book had a part one and a part two? They never seemed to fully connect to me and maybe that went over my head, I am not sure. But I find myself trying to make these stories connect to a bigger picture and it shouldn't be that difficult. I should be enjoying and relishing in the stories themselves not trying to make sense of them. (This could just be on me)
-I rarely felt that anything happened. Al the stories just seemed to be a precursor to some bigger, darker story and just did not feel complete to me. Over half the time when the story/chapter ended I found myself thinking, "Hmm, so that's over now...?"
-I simply wanted more. The creatures and mythological beings seemed to be talked around in circles sometimes but I did not get a full sense of them. I know that folklore is a little loosey-goosey and there are lots of ambiguous aspects to them, but these are stories based on folklore and myths... I think Demchuk could have delved a little deeper for fiction's sake.

I am still not sure if I am settling on a 2.5 or a 3, so my star rating will just round up to 3 at this point. I think I am the odd review here in a jumble of 3-5 star ratings. I did almost DNF this book twice even. There are plenty of positive reviews out there to read as well. I am not one to discourage anyone to read a book ever, as we all have our own tastes and fetishes, but this book was just not for me.

Thanks to Chizine Publications for sending copies of this book to the Nightworms to read and review!

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
Quiet and unsettling, this was a very unique piece of literary horror. While this book was marketed as a novel, it read more like a themed collection of themed short stories. Folklore horror is not my personal flavor, but fans of the subgenre will absolutely love this one.

[exorcismemily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into with The Bone Mother. First I thought it was a novel, then I thought it was a short story collection, but it's really a mixture between the two. It's a book of dark folklore stories set in small Eastern European villages.

Overall, I liked reading this book. I think the concept was fun, and I enjoyed hearing stories about different people's lives. However, I think that this book would have worked better for me if there were fewer & longer stories. Many of them are only two-three pages, so at times it felt very abrupt.

I think once I figured out what sort of book it was, I expected it to be like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which has four long connected stories. I would have liked to go deeper on some of the stories of this book - some were truly fascinating, but I've struggled to remember anything about the others in the days since I finished this book.

This book had two big standouts for me - the first is Katerina, which is partially about the Highway of Tears (a heartbreaking and tragic subject, but one I've researched on my own time). I could have read an entire book about that story. The other one was Gregor, which is about some dark stuff going on at a nursing home. A few of the tales (like Katerina) are spooky, and I enjoyed that.

Just a heads up, this book deals with some taboo subjects like incest and pedophilia, so it gets pretty grim at times. There's an overall dark vibe for the book as a whole, which I liked. Anyway, I wish that these stories would have had more in common because it did feel disjointed at times. I still found them to be promising, so I would try something else from this author.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't what I was expecting, but I can't say I was disappointed. I thought it was one cohesive novel, but it's actually a series of interrelated short stories, and let me tell you, some of them are terrifying.

There is a lot of folk lore and actual history in these stories, and I enjoyed them very much. I actually started googling things as I was reading, and was shocked to read that some of these things - like the Holomodor - were actual occurrences that I had never heard about.

The stories are engaging and well-written. The only complaint I have is that some of them are too short to even make sense, but on the whole I was pleasantly surprised. Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will probably really like this book, as it includes old and sometimes very chilling photographs that may or may not have inspired the stories that follow.

4 stars. Would unhesitatingly recommend.

[Emily Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this last night and then didn't sleep at all. Utterly claustrophobic and delightfully creepy while bordering on flat out horrific. Less a coherent narrative and more a selection of overlaying vignettes that range from the uncomfortable to the disturbing. The Slavic flavor made it all the better.

[TraceyL · Rating 1 out of 5]

This anthology was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed some stories, but most confused me or I didn't see the point of them. Unfortunately I don't think I'll remember any of them.

[Steve Stred · Rating 5 out of 5]

** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **

‘The Bone Mother’ has been on my radar for a bit, and when it finally arrived on top of my TBR pile – guess what?! – controversy around the publisher erupts. I let some time pass after reaching out to David to read this, wanting to let the review breathe and be as untainted from that as possible. I’m hoping this book finds a home so that more folks can enjoy it!

KR: The Bone Mother has indeed found a new home with Proving Ground Press and will be released 26/5/20

What I liked: This book is hauntingly gorgeous. Made up of small biographical chapters discussing ‘odd’ children and people on the cusp of an ‘event’ Demchuk blended their normal lives and goings-on with darker events that begin to ramp up more and more as the story progresses. I loved entering the worlds of these people, seeing how things moved along and it was incredible to see how each chapter had its own narrative voice.

What I didn’t like: it may sound trivial, but I kind of expected this thing to end with an all-out ‘war’ type chapter. While I have put this in my ‘what I didn’t like’ segment, trust me when I tell you the ending to this thing is beautiful and ripped my heart out.

Why you should buy this: when you can get your hands on this, know you are in for a real treat. Demchuk has been in the film and theatre world for some time and the blocking/flow of each chapter was superb. I’m by no means a fine-literature/cerebral-literature reading, writer or reviewer, but this book is on another level and was phenomenally well put together. Included throughout are some truly amazing photographs which heightened the emotions that each chapter delivered.

I look forward to seeing more from Demchuk in the future, and I’m hopeful more people can read this soon.

[Ian Carpenter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read anything like this. Soaked in a Romanian mysticism with ghosts and witches and an obsessive focus on the body and bones and what goes on inside us and what we inherit from our ancestors - the world is deep and detailed and an absolute pleasure to disappear into.

[Christie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this is a whole new kind of creepy for me!