Rating: 2/5
* I was given a free ebook copy of this ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
Book summary from Amazon:
"Mattie can't remember a time before she and William lived alone on a mountain together. She must never make him upset. But when Mattie discovers the mutilated body of a fox in the woods, she realizes that they’re not alone after all.
There’s something in the woods that wasn’t there before, something that makes strange cries in the night, something with sharp teeth and claws."
Okay I wanted to like this book, I really did. I didn't hate it, but I just could not vibe with it. It felt like the book was having an identity crisis. It couldn't decide if it wanted to be a domestic thriller with a big twist, or if it wanted to be a claustrophobic creature feature horror book. It tried to be both and it just didn't work out very well. You got two partially developed themes which both had potential. I just wish that Henry had chosen one or the other because they both felt like afterthoughts. How do you have a cohesive story that really just consists of two afterthought plots? They were just both so underdeveloped and there was a problem with convenience. And so much happened "off-screen" that it took away from the more gruesome horror aspect. I have no clue what the creature looks like. I have no idea what it wanted, what its level of intelligence was. All of these things were skirted around and never fully developed.
Speaking of not fully developed, what about William? Don't get me wrong, I don't care about him as a person but what were his motivations? Why did he do the awful thing that he did, what was the process behind that? We get this cognitive dissonance out of Mattie pretty early on, but there was nothing to incite it, nothing that would have triggered these memories. It's important that she starts having these memories, but for it to make sense, there has to be something that triggers these sudden memories. Without it, it's just that she randomly started having thoughts for the sake of convenience and so now her behavior is going to change-- Oh look! A monster I guess? The abusive aspect of the story felt incredibly lacking in nuance. Which is a problem that I feel like I see in a lot of novels with domestic violence as a plot device. The abuser is always so one-dimensional, they hurt for the sake of hurting, they never have a "nice" (or just pretend nice) side. But like, realistically, would there not another faker side to the abuser where they just behave like a normal person? Let me stress that I don't think that abusers should be written as sympathetic characters or written as to appear justified. I just want it to feel more realistic, less forced and just clunky. Where is the Willam that got her there in the first place? This kind of leads me into my next problem, the characters all felt flat, even Mattie felt pretty flat. The dialogue felt forced and also kind of clunky.
There are some positives, I think that the twist was really shocking and creative. The horror scenes that we do see were very visceral and gruesome. Henry really knew how to set up the horror in the book and follow through in a way that kept the reader on edge. The use of description in general was very adept. I felt like I was in the moment with the characters, there was depth in their emotions (if not their personalities) that was very well done. I don't think that Henry is a bad writer at all. I just think that the premise as a whole, just didn't end up working out for me.
The concepts were there, but the execution just wasn't for me. Once again, if this had just been a domestic thriller with Mattie trying to escape her husband and the two of them just playing cat and mouse on the mountain, that would've been great. That could've gotten developed so much more and added so much more nuance to the characters. Or if it were a book about a couple trying to survive on the mountain while being hunted by the monster, that would've also been really cool! But as it stands, it just wasn't for me. Hopefully I can read another of her books sometime and improve my overall opinion of her as a writer! even though I didn't love the book, if you're considering it then go for it! Near the Bone by: Christina Henry is currently available everywhere as of Tuesday (April 13th 2021)! Thank you so much to Berkley for allowing me to read this book early! Even though I didn't love it, I still wish the author the best and I hope that there are plenty of people that do.
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