The Taste of Tiny Bones – Vincent Heselwood

4/5 stars

Were you afraid of the dark as a child? Convinced that if you put so much as a toe outside your blanket, the monster under your bed would snap you up? Secure in the knowledge that your nightlight would keep the thing in the closet from getting to you? If your parents ever threatened you with The Bogeyman, put this book down and continue to live your life with the knowledge that The Bogyeman isn’t real and can’t harm you….you’re safer that way.

I grew up on creepypasta, and Vincent’s “The Taste of Tiny Bones” is a great callback to the old stories I used to read and the process of how creepypasta are created. He takes the idea of The Bogeyman and goes a step further, turning him into a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. So long as you are convinced that The Bogeyman isn’t real, you’re safe; but as soon as you start to believe, all bets are off.

His monster was genuinely creepy and made me so uneasy! It’s something that he made so plausible that I had no choice but to sit up and take notice. I loved the progression from this horribly scary monstrosity to something that could be controlled and contained in a way that was absolutely brilliant! I wasn’t sold on Evie for the first bit of the book, but she really grew on me by the end, and I was so happy to see her growth throughout the book.

Where I think the book suffered a little was with all the dialogue. Something would happen with The Bogeyman that really built the tension, and then there would be a lot of dialogue and exposition that took away some of the atmosphere. While it helped to further the plot, I felt like it broke up the horror a bit too much in places.

Thank you to Horrorsmith for letting me read this early, and I look forward to more stories by this author!