Bone White

The atmosphere in this book is so amazing. Very creepy and cold out in the small town in Alaska. I actually got scared at moments and was very impressed with the build up of the story. The ending felt a bit rushed and I was a tad disappointed in that but otherwise it was great and I intend to try out more from this author

Thanks Sassyquatch for bullying me into reading this ;) This was super creepy!! I really enjoy Malfi's writing, as it's super atmospheric. I felt the cold and loneliness in backwoods Alaska, so he's a super effective writer. The story was really interesting, though some of the events and ways people reacted to Paul seemed a bit OTT in order to shroud the situation in more mystery. Overall though, I was mostly able to buy that the people in "The Hand" really were that secluded and unkind to visitors. (view spoiler)[Though I do have to wonder, why on earth would the dude who killed his son and then himself go on hunting trips in The Hand twice a year if the town is so spooky and the residents are so unfriendly?? Of all places to go... (hide spoiler)] I did feel that there were some threads that weren't super nicely tied up, but I think the ending explained enough that I'm not too bothered by it. At one point I was worried I wouldn't get an explanation, which often annoys me in books like this, but I found that Malfi managed to explain things without holding my hand and walking me through it, so I feel mostly satisfied. I do have a couple nitpicks though. I feel like the book could've benefitted from one more edit, as there were some things that were repeated too much. Things like Paul's dog bite were explained more than once, so that it seemed like he'd put in a reminder explanation far into the book, then went back and made other references to the dog bite earlier in the book. It was weird. Also, Erin's character and the whole manipura thing could've been edited out entirely. (Credit to Sassy for this explanation): it felt like Malfi liked the manipura idea and wanted to inject it into his story, so he shoehorned in this (presumably) Indian woman to add it to the story. After looking up manipura, I see the parallels to the story, but it felt a bit appropriative coming from a white author, which is never necessary imo. Finally, and this is a SUPER nitpicky thing, I truly don't understand why he insists on calling Advil "aspirin"!! It annoyed me more than it probably should have haha. Overall, very spooky book! It's definitely worth the read!