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The Bone Tree
Above a Civil War graveyard in the backwoods of Texas, Kevin and Bobby’s treehouse was their haven against the world. But the day Tom Plecker comes screaming through the creek below, terrified of a shadow man, that all changes. Walking Tom home they see it — the tree, its branches twisted like the pain-wracked frame of a fleshless corpse, knotty snarls of bone-white wood clawing the sky. The Bone Tree is more than a stark, twisted visage. It’s alive, and it's gaining power. When the shadow men come to call on the boys, they must fight a supernatural force they barely understand…
99 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
2 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Fulbright
47 books37 followersChristopher Fulbright is the author of short stories, novellas, and full-length novels of fantasy and horror. His short stories have appeared in many venues--webzines, magazines, and anthologies--since 1993. Fulbright received the Richard Laymon President's Award in 2008 from the HWA, and his short stories have received honorable mentions in "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror" and "Best Horror of the Year."
Christopher is a former journalist turned technical writer, but his real job is raising four kids with his wife and sometimes collaborator, the Bram Stoker award-nominated author Angeline Hawkes.
Christopher is a former journalist turned technical writer, but his real job is raising four kids with his wife and sometimes collaborator, the Bram Stoker award-nominated author Angeline Hawkes.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 22, 2014
Two childhood friends are reading comic books in their treehouse, when another boy comes running by--and what he's running from will inescapably change their lives....
Christopher Fulbright does a fantastic job weaving the magical world of childhood friendship, in a time where differences in appearances were not always tolerated well. Bringing together this poignant time in young Kevin and Bobby's life, with a supernatural force that neither can comprehend, Fulbright has created an atmospheric tale that vividly captures the imagination. There is an evil force that has sprung up in their town. Whether they can understand it or not, both boys know that they need to confront it in order to survive.
A well written novella that I finished in a single sitting.
Recommended!
Christopher Fulbright does a fantastic job weaving the magical world of childhood friendship, in a time where differences in appearances were not always tolerated well. Bringing together this poignant time in young Kevin and Bobby's life, with a supernatural force that neither can comprehend, Fulbright has created an atmospheric tale that vividly captures the imagination. There is an evil force that has sprung up in their town. Whether they can understand it or not, both boys know that they need to confront it in order to survive.
A well written novella that I finished in a single sitting.
Recommended!
May 28, 2020
This is a chilling novella set in the late 70’s about two young boys who are forced to face down their biggest fears at the source, the wicked and scary (or wicked scary, if you’re from my neck of the woods) “Bone Tree”.
Set in a simpler time, back when boys looked forward to a new batch of comics, played with Atari’s, watched The Incredible Hulk on tv and dealt with bullies by using their fists, The Bone Tree really captures the period and blends the mundane and the eerie seamlessly. Kevin and Bobby are best friends and two good kids who enjoy nothing more than spending their afternoons hiding up in a tree reading their comics. One day they spot a younger kid running in terror through the woods who says he’s being chased by a “shadow man”. They walk him home, see the shadow man themselves and run into the clearing where the terrible and strangely beautiful bone tree resides. They swear they can feel the spirits that surround it and are soon plagued by fear.
Some terrible things happen in “The Bone Tree” but the crafty thing here is that it isn’t all up in your face. The author has a way of alluding to events which put fear in your heart but he doesn’t get all gory on you. It’s a short novella but it’s packed full of fabulous description and has lots of heart. It made me go all misty eyed over the deep felt connections between the characters and that’s what I love most about reading.
Kevin watching Bobby great his mom:
Unexpected moments like these melted my heart and made me care about the characters. It’s a nicely done creepy, coming of age short that never forgets that it’s the characters who make or break a book. I’ll have to check out more by this author.
Set in a simpler time, back when boys looked forward to a new batch of comics, played with Atari’s, watched The Incredible Hulk on tv and dealt with bullies by using their fists, The Bone Tree really captures the period and blends the mundane and the eerie seamlessly. Kevin and Bobby are best friends and two good kids who enjoy nothing more than spending their afternoons hiding up in a tree reading their comics. One day they spot a younger kid running in terror through the woods who says he’s being chased by a “shadow man”. They walk him home, see the shadow man themselves and run into the clearing where the terrible and strangely beautiful bone tree resides. They swear they can feel the spirits that surround it and are soon plagued by fear.
Some terrible things happen in “The Bone Tree” but the crafty thing here is that it isn’t all up in your face. The author has a way of alluding to events which put fear in your heart but he doesn’t get all gory on you. It’s a short novella but it’s packed full of fabulous description and has lots of heart. It made me go all misty eyed over the deep felt connections between the characters and that’s what I love most about reading.
Kevin watching Bobby great his mom:
“She pulled him into her arms. At twelve years old, he was almost as tall as she was. She hugged him tight, closed her eyes and the expression on her face was one of pure joy. Seemed like she felt about him the way I felt about my mom. Like a hug or a smile from her boy was all she needed to erase the meanness of life for a while.”
Unexpected moments like these melted my heart and made me care about the characters. It’s a nicely done creepy, coming of age short that never forgets that it’s the characters who make or break a book. I’ll have to check out more by this author.
May 19, 2012
This was a pleasant surprise of a story. The Bone Tree is a insidious presence in a cemetery, which is not the only horrors in this story. What made it that much better than just a horror story, was the growing up problems the buddies in this story faced. The main protagonist a white kid tells of his youth and his best pal Bobby a black kid and their discovery of the bone tree. He takes us through his horrors of bullying and racism, due to them being best buddies which others don't approve of. He tells us of his worries of death and the fear of what evil lurks in the shadows and the mysterious bone tree.
This story is written so well and does not let up at all.
It hooks you in with really good storytelling.
This story is written so well and does not let up at all.
It hooks you in with really good storytelling.
"The trunk of the tree was thick; it's roots were bunched and gnarled rising from the earth in every direction fom it like the knobby knuckles of broken hands. It split out from its trunk in many directions, looking very much like graphing claws; branches twisted like the pain- wracked frame of a fleshless corpse. At each bend there was a knotty snarl of twisted wood, like diseased elderly joints. It had been struck by lightening; it was split and shocked. Still it grew. Somehow though, there was not a shred of greenery or life upon it. It was backless and stark white.
The living bones of death."
October 1, 2011
Christopher Fulbright has completely captured the essence of time, place and age with this ghost story. The actions, reactions and behaviors of the young boys were so dead-on and brought back memories of those time. Think The Goonies or Stand by Me and you have that age of young male bonding combined with being faced with something out of the ordinary that changes their lives forever. I only wish it were a full-length novel. Hopefully, Fulbright will write many more novels in this vein.
October 18, 2014
First read by this author and it makes for a solid and quite impressive introduction. Nothing particularly new here, a very traditional coming of age story with all the prerequisite nostalgia thrown in. The writing was good, although a tad too folksy and Texany for me. This was an enjoyable quick read.
July 9, 2019
The writing was good, but the “resolution” felt like a copout. The story needed to be fleshed out—the characters weren’t quite flat, but had the story been longer they had potential to be great. There just wasn’t enough. As for the plot, I finished it thinking... what was the point? It ends with the narrator thinking, “Maybe I’ll call up my old pal tomorrow to reminisce with him. Or maybe it’s better to leave that in the past.” I guess the unresolved mystery of what was really going on with the tree is what some readers enjoyed, but it was just too simplistic for me. I wanted a twist, or some deeper meaning, or... something.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 18, 2013
I've known Christopher Fulbright for several years because he's a Robert E. Howard fan and fellow author. We've spent a considerable amount of time talking at Howard Days in Cross Plains and I've always enjoyed our conversations. His novella THE BONE TREE is the first thing I've read by him, but it certainly won't be the last.
THE BONE TREE falls into the rural horror category, if there is such a thing. It also features a couple of adolescents as its protagonists and it's set in the past, the late 1970s in this case, and in those respects, along with its rural setting, it reminds me of some of the work of Stephen King. Fulbright has his own voice, though, and it's an assured, engaging one.
The narrator Kevin and his best friend Bobby both live in the country between Waxahachie (been there) and Maypearl (haven't been there, but I know right where it is). Having grown up in north central Texas myself, I can say that Fulbright paints an absolutely accurate picture of life there for a couple of adolescent boys. I'm about twenty years older than Fulbright, but things hadn't changed that much from the late Fifties to the late Seventies.
Kevin is white and Bobby is black, a fact that plays into the plot to a certain extent but isn't really that important to them. They're much more concerned about the evil spectre that's stalking a younger friend of theirs. When that situation takes a tragic turn, they know they have to do something about it, even if it means venturing into danger themselves, because they don't want the same fate to befall their own families. But in true kid fashion, fighting cosmic evil has to wait its turn in a life of playing video games, reading comic books, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Fulbright spins an excellent yarn that really rings true. It's fast-paced, genuinely creepy when it needs to be, and punctuated by moments of humor. THE BONE TREE is a fine blend of horror and mainstream fiction, and it gets a high recommendation from me.
THE BONE TREE falls into the rural horror category, if there is such a thing. It also features a couple of adolescents as its protagonists and it's set in the past, the late 1970s in this case, and in those respects, along with its rural setting, it reminds me of some of the work of Stephen King. Fulbright has his own voice, though, and it's an assured, engaging one.
The narrator Kevin and his best friend Bobby both live in the country between Waxahachie (been there) and Maypearl (haven't been there, but I know right where it is). Having grown up in north central Texas myself, I can say that Fulbright paints an absolutely accurate picture of life there for a couple of adolescent boys. I'm about twenty years older than Fulbright, but things hadn't changed that much from the late Fifties to the late Seventies.
Kevin is white and Bobby is black, a fact that plays into the plot to a certain extent but isn't really that important to them. They're much more concerned about the evil spectre that's stalking a younger friend of theirs. When that situation takes a tragic turn, they know they have to do something about it, even if it means venturing into danger themselves, because they don't want the same fate to befall their own families. But in true kid fashion, fighting cosmic evil has to wait its turn in a life of playing video games, reading comic books, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Fulbright spins an excellent yarn that really rings true. It's fast-paced, genuinely creepy when it needs to be, and punctuated by moments of humor. THE BONE TREE is a fine blend of horror and mainstream fiction, and it gets a high recommendation from me.
June 26, 2017
2.5 rating. I will never discuss plot out of respect to the author. If you want that, read the blurb. The book cost 2.99 which is cheap for any book . I bought this looking for a short read that I could finish in two day's time. I was recommended this book a while back, so that's how I was lead to it. The book was a roller coaster as it went from good to uninteresting a few times. I didn't care for the filler information in the middle, which I found odd because it came out of nowhere. I think if it had a place, it should have came earlier in the book as not to disturb flow, but that's just my opinion. So the constant crying of the characters through me off some (annoying), as well as the filler information which made me put the book down for nearly two weeks (shouldn't happen with a short read). But I picked it up today and really enjoyed the ending. It was so well written and full of heart that it made me wonder why the rest of the book didn't display this talent. As I wrote before in other reviews, I will never say don't buy a book. Instead, I think you should read the sample and see if you like it more than I did. My opinion is not the end all, people!
April 25, 2013
This is a very well written short story and Fulbright does a great job developing the characters and the atmosphere. His characters are likable and the story is at times very chilling. I just felt in the end that something was missing, like an explanation as to what The Bone Tree really was. He hints at this in the epilogue but never comes out and says exactly, opting instead for an "it could have been this or it could have been that" approach which didn't do the rest of the story any justice.
3 STARS
3 STARS
January 9, 2014
I really enjoyed Fulbright's horror/supernatural novella set outside a rural Texas town not too different from my old stomping grounds of Cleburne & Joshua. A spooky tree seemingly made of bones grows (!) in a clearing devoid of all life and haunts the surrounding countryside - especially two friends Kevin & Bobby, who have a treehouse not all that far away...
(An added bonus to the creepy overall tone of the story was that Fulbright really captured the feel of growing up in Texas in the early 80's.)
(An added bonus to the creepy overall tone of the story was that Fulbright really captured the feel of growing up in Texas in the early 80's.)
November 11, 2014
I was disappointed with this one. Started out with promise but didn't deliver. More of a coming of age story than a horror.
This review was written before I started to take my reviewing seriously. I would need to re-read the book to give it a serious and fair review so the above review was what I posted at the time.
This review was written before I started to take my reviewing seriously. I would need to re-read the book to give it a serious and fair review so the above review was what I posted at the time.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews