Customer Reviews

Roll Them Bones (Novella Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Big Ronnie demands his three childhood associates, who became his friends after the incident bonded them, Jason, Frank, and Lizzy return home to Random, Illinois to complete what they started years ago. They thought that had destroyed the horror, but as Ronnie has informed them, they failed to finish the job. This Halloween they must achieve what they did not do when they were preadolescents.

Though years have passed, the incident when they were twelve years old still haunts each of them. Thus the trio race home to Ronnie's summoning. It has wrecked one's marriage and permeates every word of the horror novelist amongst them. Now the quartet knows they must confront it again, but each is wary as they know they ROLL THE BONES for the second time, but this time luck may not be with them and if not they will roll death.

Readers will wonder from the start what did the foursome confront as kids and will meet shortly as adults. The tension builds up until the altercation, but then picks up even more suspense until the final watery climax. David Niall Wilson cleverly keeps the audience off balance for a while wondering if this is a psychological thriller or supernatural chiller until the author brings the readers and the quartet into the beginnings of the confrontation. ROLL THEM BONES is a magnificent tale about for some you can't go home while others may have physically left but never mentally departed.

Harriet Klausner

Roll Them Bones is a tight atmospheric story with likable characters and a very satisfying ending. I was immediately impressed with Mr. Wilson's description of body language between the individuals. This use of non-verbal communication was just as effective as dialogue, but gave a deeper chemistry to the characters, which helped with their back story. The author was careful to drop hints throughout the novella, that when the final moments are revealed, the puzzle was complete and never felt forced. I look forward to reading longer form work by David Niall Wilson in the horror genre.

When I was a kid, every neighborhood had it's own "haunted house", and very often an old widow woman resided in the house who the local children imagined to be a witch. It was deliciously scary fun, and this marvelously evocative and lyrical novella by Tomb Fave David Niall Wilson brings back cherished memories of those wonderfully terrifying childhood moments. This a spooky, atmospheric tale of children bound together by terrifying Halloween night adventure that stretches into their adulthoods and brings them back together to face their haunted pasts. There are three of them: Ronnie, the grade school bully; Lizzie, who's divorced and brokenhearted; and Jason, who left the little town of Random, Illinois to find fame and fortune as a writer. None of them has been able to shake the lingering nightmare of that Halloween night of long ago, the night of the burning house and the old woman in the dark woods. Jason, in particular, has spent his life hearing an old woman's voice croaking, "For an evil past, no deed atones; to know the future? Roll them bones." And roll them bones he will. How lucky or unlucky will that roll of the bones be for Jason, Lizzie and Ronnie? There are only 129 fast moving pages before you'll find out! Stunning exterior artwork by Alan M. Clark and beautiful interior illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne. [...]

I'm glad the other reviewers enjoyed this book. I was very disappointed. It started off well as the main characters reunited in Random. With Jason's homecoming, the author captured the feelings one has when returning to a place that once was home. It was fun to read the conversations among the old friends. However, when the hike into the forest began, the story became repetitive. I wish I had counted how many times Jason "hugged Lizzy closer." I didn't feel any tension at all. Even the revelation of what happened years ago didn't help. Perhaps if this had been a short story, it would have been tighter and more effective. One reviewer thought the unspoken communication among the characters was helpful to the story, but I found the overuse of it annoying. I constantly felt aware of the author filling the pages with too many words. I kept wondering why this ever got published. The ending was just unsatisfactory. I bought this, signed, from Cemetery Dance, probably during one of their special offers, so I most likely didn't pay full price, but I wish now that I hadn't bothered.