Customer Reviews

Wetbones

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This isn't your namby pamby, tip toe around the details Horror. This is in your face, Oh my God I can't believe that just happened, Horror. Good Horror.

The story is both involving and intriguing as well as extremely heart wrenching. Also, it's undeniably gross. A Lovecraftian tale of the less subtle variety; of things existing just beyond the threshold of our reality and the next.

An unspeakable horror, capable of reducing a human to an amorphous pile of gore and bones in seconds. A creature that endows men with the power to control the thoughts, and actions, of others. A creature that thrives on the darkest perversions. A creature that hungers to be very much a part of our world.

You will be amazed. You will be shocked. Your eyes will bulge, your gorge will rise.

The talent of John Shirley is apparent here. This was the first piece of writing I had ever read by the author (except for the lyrics on Blue Oyster Cult's album Heaven Forbid) and now I can't wait to read more of this demented man's work.

A word of warning to the faint of heart: Wetbones is what some might call Splatter Horror. It bears all the subtlety of an upside down crucifixion. So pregnant women, people with heart conditions, and those with weak stomachs, proceed with caution. But by all means proceed.

Don't let the numerous typographical errors sway your judgement either, this is a damn fine example of Horror fiction, even if the editor assigned to it was a complete idiot.

A lot of things can be said about this book but "dull" has no place in any description about this book. And yes, stick to Stephen King if you want the same old predictable and formulated horror novel written from the imagination and not the soul / from experience. The only problem with WETBONES is that it's horribly misunderstood. The author presents us with a familiar surrounding - the filthy and one dimensional city of Los Angeles. However, we find out that it's actually 4 dimensional. For the most part the other reviews here do describe some of what goes on in this book so I won't bore you with attempting to elaborate... just read this book.

John Shirley speaks from his own horrors of drug and sex addiction and when an artist pours his soul into his work it ceases to be pornography, it is art. This book is dark and ugly and highly confrontational in regards to addiction and its consequences as well as the nature of humanity. It is raw and visceral and honest in ways I've never experienced before. This book is a profound story with a message which may be too honest for most people to handle... John Shirley pulls no punches and even I wished that I could put the book down and forget I had heard of it, but I couldn't because it's too compelling as a horror novel, as a drama, as well as somewhat of an autobiography in symbolic and metaphorical ways. John Shirley simply made it severe enough that people would take notice. Whether you love it or hate it WETBONES leaves its mark. It's a pretty hardcore book and not for the squeamish. It is ultimately about hope and pulling through the darkness of our souls (and what feeds on them)however it is a long and hard journey through that darkness and the only way past it is through it. Read this book and if you don't feel anything than stick to flat and "dull" works of other horror writers who only wish they could write like Shirley. Wetbones is a journey to places within ourselves that we don't want to be or see, but that's the beauty of it and the formula for really good horror. Out of a possible 5 stars I give it 10. There is no other book like this and more than likely there never will be again.

WETBONES is a novel about addictions. In it, you will find vivid depictions of heinous behaviors fueled by compulsive dependencies on both substances and actions, including alcohol, crack, sex, power, ego, self-mutilation, torture and murder. Set in LA, Hollywood and Malibu, (where else?), the characters are a mixed bag of active addicts, addicts in recovery, future addicts and even an addict-come-preacher who has to fight his own cravings and compulsions before he can save his daughter from the greatest addiction of them all - the need to feed the blood lust. But that's not where the real horror lies. The real horror here is that Shirley attributes addictions - all addictions - to myriad species of inter-dimensional, worm-like parasites that infect human hosts and feed off the pleasure the hosts receive from indulging their addictions. These astral worms, or Akishra, in turn reinforce the addictions and manipulate their hosts in mind and body by supplying "reward" or "punishment" - direct stimulation to the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. What I found profoundly disturbing about this novel is Shirley's reduction of addictions to entirely external forces. Effectively, he removes all personal responsibility from the addict and places the onus of the addicts' behavior squarely on otherworldly shoulders. He demonstrates graphically, that the things that we crave can possess even the most innocent among us.

WETBONES is the first of John Shirley's novels that I've read. It was a recommended selection from Amazon.com based, I'm sure, on my recent purchases of books by Poppy Z. Brite, Douglas Clegg and Brent Monahan. I'd previously read many rave reviews of Shirley's work and decided to give this novel a try. I found WETBONES to be an imaginative story that was riveting, well written and utterly decadent. I loved it. And I will definitely pick up a few of Shirley's other novels for future reading. But while I found the story to be engaging and well crafted, I was distracted throughout the entire book by a string of careless typographical errors. The book was littered with them on practically every other page. This is certainly no reflection on the author. He crafted an ingenious and highly imaginative story. For the connoisseur of the sticky macabre, this is one of the stickiest and certainly one of the scariest. But my question is this ... Where was the editor? A respectable publishing house would never have been so careless as to allow this imaginative, but sticky mess out the door. If I were rating strictly the author, this book would have received 5 stars ... but because of the sad, sorry shape of the supposedly edited product, I could only rate the overall package 3 stars. And I suggest that Mr. Shirley start looking for a more professional publisher. His work deserves better than this.

Before reading this "splatterpunk" novel I skimmed the reviews of Amazon. So I was not totally unprepared. I expected the explicit sex and gore this book contains. However I had not prepared myself for how tight the plotting was, in this story about struggling screenwriter trying to discover the truth that led him to identify his ex-wife Amy's corpse and his friend Jeff finding his missing btother Mitch Shirley juggles his subplots with aplomb as the story heats up. The friends discover, along with an ex-addict counsellor looking for his daughter about the Akishra. Astral plane parasites that feed on addictions.

This novel as others have pointed out is a cautionary tale in a maccabre setting about addiction. Like all the best horror however there are undertones such as a not so covert indictment against the shallowness of Hollywood and the upper classes in America. Shirley doesn't preach just let his prose scare the bejesus out of his audience setting us straight. A casual read may lead one to think this novel was aimed at a younger audiences(for intstance those that love the slasher movies), but with the subtext tight plotting expand the demnographic that can appreciate this story into any horror fan. I strongly recommend checking this title out, just as long as you havem't eaten immediately beforehand.

Wetbones is not a book that will make one feel good but it makes for a fast paced gross fest. There is a supernatural force under the mask of a glistening silvery worm, feeding on any evil that a human can do. The menacing forces called Astral worms that feed on human addictions take a well know Hollywood couple as hosts; the Denvers. They live in the Doublekey Ranch near Malibu, a place where money, sex, power and death intermixed freely as grotesque things started to happen and people harmed themselves under the influence of the alien parasites. The tale begins with Prentice, a young Hollywood writer who shows up at a hospital to identify the body of his ex-wife Amy. Malnourished and slashed, she is said to have been a masochist who cut herself up and ended up dead. Prentice being overwhelmed by depression cannot shake the image of his blood drained wife on the cold steel table as he keeps running into similar incidents that involve missing or mutilated people who somehow all partied at the same place; the Doublekey Ranch.

He joins his friend Jeff whose missing brother Mitch was reportedly seen with Amy last. At the same time they try to indulge in the Hollywood racy way of life, where parties overflowed with cocktails, plastic surgery victims who were ready for incestuous romps and drugs freely available started to cloud their minds. The story crosses with that of Garner and his daughter Constance. Garner, a recovered drug addict, turned drug counselor and his teenage kid both ends up doing more that summer than they bargained for. While working at the hardware store, Constance rings up a purchase for Ephram, a bold older man who seems intrigued and fascinated. Little does she know that he has kidnapped and tortured many female victims, luring them with mind control giving them waves of pleasure or punishing them with pain. Ephram has ran away form the ranch using his powers on his own to lure victims and abuse their life sources.

The story is quite intriguing, where all the important producers, writers, agents and movie stars dabble in the forbidden pool, using humans who sacrifice themselves, under hallucinatory waves, who hurt themselves and others and give their life energy to the astral worms. The important ones who party at the ranch feed the worms with humans who in turn give them power. I liked the fact that all the separate story lines of Garner, Constance, Ephram, Prentice, Jeff, Mitch and others were on a collision course that lead to the ranch. I enjoyed reading how they tried to put clues together to help solve the gristly murders and help their friends find the missing loved ones.

I would have given the book a higher rating if the characters were developed more and if the story moved a little away from addictions form time to time. At times really hard to put down, the pace of the tale would get clouded with strange descriptions of drug overuse and self mutilation dragged over and over before finally reaching the climax, twenty pages short before end of the book. I felt that sometimes Mr. Shirley wrote words like a sick patient in heat, describing disgusting scenes of torture, rape and sickening enjoyment that bad buys got from it over and over and over as it did little to enrich the story. The violence felt slapped on and overused, not reaching its full shock value from the repetitiveness. Overall a gore fest but not a book that haunts me for a long time after reading but it kept me interested enough to finish the story, and the final ending was a good twist considering the entire story and how it was handled.

- Kasia S.

_Wetbones_ by John Shirley combines the 3 Ms - murder, mutilation (to the point of maceration), and mind control into an erotic, yet extremely graphic splatterpunk novel probably too strange for the mainstream.

A cult-like group can manipulate people by stimulating their brain centers and doling out Punishment or Reward. Several people with nothing apparent in common -- a man hung up on his ex-wife's death via self-mutilation, another searching for his juvenile deliquent brother, a reverend who counsels drug addicts, and an ex-cult member performing grotesque murders -- all find their paths crossing at the cult's compound. At the compound they discover unspeakable rituals and the cult's secret of mind control.

However, _Wetbones_ does more than just describe the horror of hacked-up human bodies; it is also a study of addiction and the depths of despair. Its intensity and flat out weirdness make this book a highly recommended read for the "slice-and-dice" horror set.

John Shirley is conveying alot more than most people will understand in wetbones.its a great story, full of great characters and bizarre, twisted,horror on the surface. but one of the things i really liked about this book are some of the underlying themes relating to the occult, the astral plane, and all aspects of addiction, that would be difficult to convey except through the metaphor of the most bizarre creatures ever imagined.its a smooth read with good suspense,interesting ideas to ponder and best of all the kind of relentless horror that goes just enough over the top that its exciting and disturbing and freaks you out. this is a great book for recovering addicts, those of you out there who read it will know what im talking about.

The publishers seemed to have "dumned down" the back cover synopsis and changed the title of the book to make it more mainstream and palatable. It's actually more cerebral than what is described. The term "Wetbones" doesn't even appear until halfway through the book.

The basic premise of the story is this; the pleasure we derive from our addictions are controlled by these invisible demons called the "Akishra," who feed off the energy. Now the trouble begins when a few people attempt to summon and manipulate the Akishra for their own nefarious purposes. The Akishra become more powerful, more hungry and are able to influence us rather than just feed off of us. Worse yet, conditions are ripe for them to reproduce, so if you think the world is in the toilet now, buckle your seatbelts!

My only problem with the Akishra and the whole concept, is that it really raises more questions and issues than the book has time to address. However, the characters and their relationships were the real heart of the story. Shirley creates some really believable and unique protagonists. One becomes completly wrapped up in the fates of these people, so much so that the book becomes hard to put down. Lastly, there is plenty of blood, sex and gore to balance the thought-provoking plot.

I had heard about how good this book is. It is good, but not great. I would recommend it to people who prefer the "ugly" horror novel. The book wants you to like some pretty ugly characters, and it succeeds to some degree. The main problem with this book is the editing. Another reviewer commented on how poorly written it was, but that is not the author's fault. Mr. Shirley should never use this editor again. The odd thing with this book is that it takes place in California, but much of the language is British. The word "color" is spelled "colour" and the word "tire" is spelled "tyre". Confusing. Plus the editor goofed at one point and even screwed up on one of the characters names! Lonny became Lenny for one page! These editing errors did distract from the book since there were so many mistakes. But, if you enjoy books on mind control and books with a very bleak view, then read it. Not one of the best I have read, but I am glad I did.

Oftentimes it's said that too much gore got in the way of some interesting concepts but many times I feel the reverse holds true as well. In this book a few new ideas are raised but it seems like more often then not intellectual ramblings are traded in for splatter. Though I can't say this has the perfect balance for everyone, I can definitely say that it worked well for me. With a fun and different, although not entirely new, sci-fi twist on the vampire theme it manages to stand its own. A large character list and a couple different subplots drive the story forward at a quick pace, despite a few gory entries so extensive they nearly take you out of the storyline.


If your looking for a fun page/stomach turner this is a great choice. It's the first of his books that I've read... and I plan to read some more.