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.
When three strangers appear on the mountaintop looking for the creature in the woods, Mattie knows their presence will anger William. Terrible things happen when William is angry.
***
Another masterpiece from Christina Henry. Near The Bone tells the story of Mattie, and young woman living in the mountains with her husband William. She thought William was the only monster on the mountain, but it turns out there is something worse lurking the caves above, something that wants the mountain to itself.
Henry captures the horror at not only discovering the beast brilliantly, but also the horror and terror of living with a monster. Mattie has been beaten into submission until she is convinced this is the only life she has ever lived, but the arrival of a kind face rekindles something in her mind and she begins to question a time before William, before the beatings started.
It was heart-breaking to follow Mattie’s story as she unravels the past and reveals some of the atrocities inflicted upon her by William in the cabin and before. We can only read on in the hope that she will survive by the monster and William, physically at least.
What prompts her sudden will to change is not only the monster in the woods, but a group of strangers who come up looking for it, believing it to be a Big Foot. Little do they know what they are about to get themselves into and what follows is a tense game of cat and mouse which not all of them will survive. The wilderness is a harsh place and they all learn how the weather can change quickly. What was once your advantage can turn into a disadvantage in a single moment.
Like the best kind of horror novels there is no explanation to the monster, it simply is, and while I can appreciate some people’s annoyance at not getting its backstory and information on what it is, the novel isn’t about them. The book is about Mattie and her facing her demons, real and otherwise, the monster is simply there while also being the manifestation of evil that Mattie must face daily. But, this book also shows the kindness of humanity, and how it only takes a small act of kindness to potentially change someone’s day or set them on a new course.
I think the most unnerving thing about the book was the control which William had over Mattie and how long he must have been planning the cabin to get away with it. Henry shows us that the monsters we face daily aren’t the stuff from fairy tales, they’re the ones living in your home.
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