The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones

by Jack Wolf

An explosive and daring debut novel set during the Enlightenment that tells the tale of a promising young surgeon-in-training whose study of anatomy is deeply complicated by his uncontrollable sadistic tendencies.

Meet Tristan Hart, a brilliant young man of means. The year is 1751, and Mr Hart leaves his Berkshire home for London to lodge with his father's friend, the novelist and dramatist Henry Fielding, and study medicine at the great hospital of University College. It will be a momentous year for the cultured and intellectually ambitious Mr Hart, who, as well as being a student of Locke and Descartes and a promising young physician, is also, alas, a psychopath. His obsession is the nature of pain, and preventing it during medical procedures. His equally strong and far more unpredictable obsession is the nature of pain, and causing it. Desperate to understand his own deviant desires before they derail his career and drive him mad, Tristan sifts through his childhood memories, memories that are informed by dark superstitions about faeries and goblins and shape-shifting gypsies. Will the new tools of the age-reason and science and scepticism-be enough to save him?

Unexpectedly funny, profoundly imaginative, and with a strange love story at its heart, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is a novel about the Enlightenment, the relationship between the mind and body, sex, madness, the nature of pain, and the existence of God.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Horror, Fiction, Historical, Fantasy, Gothic, Unfinished

549 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Jack’s debut novel, The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones, was published to critical acclaim in the UK and US by Penguin Random House in 2013. It was listed for the Edinburgh Lit Festival Best Debut Novel and for the Polari Prize for Queer Fiction, and won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel award that year ahead of strong competition. Jack subsequently completed a PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and taught at Bath Spa for several years on the university’s BA and prestigious MA in Creative Writing programmes.

Jack now teaches on the Open University’s online MA in Creative Writing and also offers freelance manuscript consultation and mentoring.

Mammoth and Crow is Jack’s second novel. A third novel, The Devil and The Rainbow, is planned for publication in 2023.

Reviews

[Christina (A Reader of Fictions) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do not be lured in by the Cover of The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones to expecting a Novel packed with Action and Magic. It is nothing of the Sort. Instead, Raw Head, as I shall henceforth refer to this Book for brevity's sake, is a slow-moving, pretentious Tale of Psychosis, Pedophilia, and Sado-masochism. While I cannot necessarily say that this is a bad Book, I can say that it is an acquired Taste, one I have no interest in ever personally acquiring.

You may perhaps be wondering at my newly discovered Love of Capitalization. I do this to prepare you for the Experience of perusing Wolf's Novel. Every single Noun within these Pages is capitalized. Wolf presumably does so to emulate the Style of classic Works, which would capitalize particular Nouns, or perhaps to hint at foreign Origins, as I know German does this. However, I found this Style entirely off-putting. In English, capitalizing Nouns in the middle of Sentences is not the done Thing, so my Brain kept trying to place additional Emphasis on those Words, resulting in a stilted Reading. The Capitalization forced me to skim most of Raw Head, as that way I was less bothered by the errant capital Letters. Either the Reader will find this unique Touch endearing or eminently frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating, let us discuss the Plot! Raw Head opens with a young Tristan Hart. He does not begin as a promising Youth, and lives in the Shadow of Nathaniel Ravenscroft. He admires Nathaniel and does whatever Nathaniel does. He becomes rather obsessed with Nathaniel much in the way that Sal Paradise wishes he could be like Dean Moriarty in On the Road. Then Nathaniel disappears for most of the Novel, but, don't worry, he will be back, sort of like Outbreaks of a venereal Disease.


Certainly the book could have been thinner.

As Tristan grows older, he discovers Passions, the first for Science and the second for causing Pain. His primary Hobby is that of performing Autopsies on any dead Animals that can be found. He saves the Bones as a Collection. A short way into his sexual Education, he begins to find that he is turned on by the Pain of Others, and tries to abuse a gypsy Woman who was going to willingly have sex with him. She curses him.



Of course, he blames his Madness on this curse, but, really, he's just psychotic. He has Spells of a Time where a Story comes to life around him, and he believes them to be True. Only later, when Others tell him of his Foolishness does he know these Happenings never occurred. During the time of his Madness taking hold, he is studying Medicine. I love to think about Sadists practicing Medicine, don't you? He also visits a whore House and whips the Whore kept for the Sadists.


If you thought that was bad, get ready. At this Point, the Novel adds another Element: a Romance. Yes, Tristan, psychotic Sadist, deserves a love Interest. Who does he fall in love with and marry?, you may ask. I shall tell you. He meets her when he is twenty Yeares of Age, and she is but twelve. Yes, that's right. Here's the Pedophilia I warned you about. Conveniently, Katherine is a little Slut and quite taken with Tristan. Also, surprise bonus, she is a Cutter and loves Pain. A Match made in the Heavens, truly.



Worst of all, they do not come to an unhappy End. Instead, they raise two Children, which simply gives me the Shivers. What was the Point of this Novel? Is there a Lesson I should have learned from this? Is it that sadistic, psychotic Murderers make wonderful family Men? That's all I'm seeing.



None of this interests me, especially due to the overblown Style with which Wolf told the Tale. However, if you like old-fashioned Language and Spellings, and also always wanted to know what it would be like if Patrick Bateman and Humbert Humbert were combined into a historical Character, then this has been written just for you.

[johnny ♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

when You capitalize every single Noun and Needless other Words it makes Me want to gouge My Eyes Out. this Author is as Pretentuous as they come. this Novel is Trash. trigger warning for Pedophilia; it is a Tale of a Man who, "on occasion, like[s] to fuck."

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) in the eighteenth century, close by the white chalk horse, Tristan Hart spent much of his childhood with his best friend, Nathaniel Ravenscroft, the beautiful son of the village rector. Nathaniel has two characteristics that only Tristan seems to be aware of: one, he always, always, escapes trouble, seeming to disappear into thin air and letting Tristan take the blame for all their mischief; and two, he has a habit of suddenly snatching terns (a kind of bird) out of hedgerows and eating them raw. But he is Tristan's best friend; in fact, his only friend, as Tristan, unfortunately for the times, takes after his Jewish mother, Eugenia, with his dark colouring, while his older sister Jane looks like their father, the Squire.

As Tristan grows into an intelligent, ambitious young man, he finally gets his wish and leaves home for London to study anatomy and medicine with Dr William Hunter at the hospital of St Thomas. He stays with an old friend of his father's, the novelist-turned-magistrate Henry Fielding (he who penned Tom Jones: The History of a Foundling). But Tristan is more than a surgeon-in-training: he is psychotic. Since he was a boy he has suffered from the occasional hallucinating fit, a period of madness that quite takes over his rational self. More than that, Tristan has an obsession with pain. He does not like to be in pain, but he derives an erotic pleasure from inflicting it. A whore at the brothel of Mrs Haywood satisfies this side of him and teaches him much, but his fascination goes deeper: he seeks to investigate the affect of pain upon the body, and even hypothesises that pain could be an important step in healing.

It isn't until he meets Katherine, Nathaniel's young cousin, that Tristan finds a woman after his own heart. But there is a dark, painful episode in Katherine's past and the truth of it will unhinge Tristan and send him deep into his own insanity.

The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones is a multifaceted one: a personal history, even a coming-of-age story; a story of science, medicine and reason; a fable of local English folklore come to life, complete with scary fairies, deceiving goblins and changelings. It is a story of one man's journey into the darkest recesses of human desire, and a story that merges all of this together into a highly detailed work written with an eye to historical authenticity. As always I am amazed and deeply impressed by the amount of research and sheer dedication that must have gone into writing a book of this scope, and in this style.

Set in the mid-1700s (the main part of the story is set in 1751-2), Wolf has written Tristan's narrative - told in the first person - as if it really had been written at that time. Complete with an older style of spelling and expressions and an abundance of capitalised nouns, it does take a while to get the hang of reading this book. As the narrator, Tristan is never "out of character" - unlike most historical fiction written today, the novel maintains this style throughout and never once drops into a more modern speak; no "gotten's" to be found here! It begins fairly slowly, and the capitalised nouns did throw me at first, but you soon get the hang of it and it speeds up. That said, Tristan is a very reflective, introspective sort of person and provides a lot of detail, so the narrative never feels especially fast.

The details, however, provide a fascinating look into the period in which it's set, one that I'm sure is modelled on Tom Jones itself (I haven't read it yet but I do remember watching a BBC adaptation many years ago - the one starring a very young Samantha Morton as Sophy). It contains some interesting tidbits, like the fact that until 1751 (or it may have been 1752, I lost track), the New Year was held in March. Then Parliament moved it to the end of December, and later they shaved off several days in September. I love getting these kinds of reminders that something we today consider as immutable - the calendar - was played around with a fair deal, and was far from fixed for the longest time.

Then there is the sense of atmosphere and the reality of living in this period, which is vividly rendered. Far from the rigid sensibilities and careful skirting-around-the-point of Jane Austen, writing some fifty years after Tristan's time, the earlier 18th century seems almost vulgar, in comparison. This was a time of great scientific exploration, when doctors and philosophers had made great inroads into what is now modern science, yet were still affected by centuries of superstition and folklore, which creates an unusual set of ideas to the modern reader, ones which are far from resolved today.

"Do you then admit the Possibility that every living Thing may have a Soule, of one Sort or another?"
"I do not know," I said, looking him in the eye. "I know that I cannot equate Soule with Mind, as Descartes does. But to say that all Life hath a Soule would give Soules to the intire animal Kingdom."
Do Animals have Minds? I wondered suddenly. Doth Thought equate with Sensation? 'Tis the old Problem: Doth Sensation dwell within the Mind, or in the Body?
Mr Glass shrugged both his Shoulders. "Perhaps they have them," he said, and went back to his Study.
Dr Hunter laughed. "I perceive you are a good Aristotelian, Mr Glass! 'Tis well enough; perchance what this Profession needs is a few more Englishmen who recognise the Necessity of a Place for God in God's Creation. Man is not a Machine, Gentlemen!"
I joined in the Laughter, which was far from unkindly meant, altho' I still had achieved no useful Answer to my Query. Yet I began to ponder mine earlier Judgement that the Cadaver had been no more than a broken Clock; for if it were a Machine after Death, it had to have been one before it. I remembered again my Theory that mine own perceptual Difficulties had resulted from some physical Cause. The Machine of my Brain had become ill, and my Mind had suffered its Effects. [p.155]

Tristan is an interesting protagonist, one of those highly unreliable narrators whom you can't help but like, immensely so. He reminded me of Humbert Humbert, in that regard. I kept expecting him to turn out a lot worse than he actually did. I thought he might turn into one of those serial killers, a psychotic one who uses his victims for vivisection. And it's true that there were times when Tristan seemed to teeter on the brink of becoming such a man. Yet he is possessed of a conscience, and aspires to be a certain kind of man. A good man, who sees and feels the beauty in moments of raw humanity.

As the good Doctor's Blade bit into her Flesh, Lady B.--- screamed. At once, my Fire was back, as if 'twere never doused. Her Scream was a white Arrow, swift and light, a feathered Shaft vibrating with a stinging Hiss, and climbing, climbing, extatically high, one shining silver Note; but then, as it reached the Apex of its Flight it was suddenly gone. The Room rang with its Silence.
"She hath fainted," said Dr Oliver. "Good."
Good? I thought, with a cruel Spit of Anger. Good? My cheated Body howled Frustration. The aethereal Beauty of the Moment had dissolved into an ugly Lust that had neither Object nor Hope of Satiation. For the second Time, I could have wept. [p.180]

Interestingly, I found that my experience of reading so many erotica and erotic-romance novels over the last few years enabled me to understand Tristan and explore his life with an open mind on my part. I might not be able to relate to him, but I certainly enjoyed seeing life through his eyes, his perception, and feeling what he felt. The best fiction can do this for a reader, and Wolf certainly excelled at taking me right into Tristan's mind.

He recognises the kind of monster he is (one who is excited by a woman's scream) and owns it, but he also is honest about what kind of monster he is not. He is lucky indeed to have found Katherine, who actually needs to feel pain and cuts herself routinely, until she met Tristan anyway. The two are a perfect match, which makes Tristan's descent into madness so painful. I couldn't help but want things to work out for him, and for him to find happiness. He is not a bad sort, just different from what is considered normal.

One of Tristan's on-going hallucinations involves the fae: he believes that the gypsies who come through Shireland and its surroundings are actually fairies, and not a nice kind. I won't go into the details of it because it would rather spoil things, but an element that Wolf achieved extremely well - and this is what I meant by Tristan being an unreliable narrator - was in making the reader completely unsure as to what was real and what was Tristan's psychotic fantasy, or one of his hallucinations. I liked the way that played out, but for quite a while there I was almost in agony, for fear that Tristan was a lot madder than he realised.

I do know that there is terrible Monstrosity in me; that I, if I were to permit My Self, would happily and at one Moment's Provocation, transform into a Bloody Bones of chilling worldly Ambition and ruthless Curiosity, who would drag to my grisly Den and do real harm to Friend and Foe alike with little Care for anything except the Fulfilment of mine own Desire for Knowledge. I know too that this intellectual Evil, which is of a Species peculiar to me and other Men of Science, will remain within me, spreading its bloody Filaments thro' my Tissues until the Daye I die; but I will never seek its Excoriation. I control it. I am that Kind of Monster. [p.546]

I haven't yet referred to the title of the book, I just realised. I'm not sure how much to say and how much to leave for new readers to discover. I will say this at least: Raw Head and Bloody Bones are characters out of legend and superstition, the kind of fae creatures used to scare children into being good. As Tristan's friend Erasmus Glass tells him at one point, in an attempt to shake Tristan's conviction that they are real, every county has its own version, but they are nothing more than superstition. Tristan comes to identify himself as Bloody Bones, which also becomes Katherine's affectionate, intimate nickname for him; so who then is Raw Head, and what did he do to Katherine several years ago? The truth is more apparent to the reader than it is to Tristan, who is blinded by old loyalties and love.

But it is his journey into his own mind, its tricks and delusions as well as the truth it hides from his own self, that binds this whole novel together. The mix of folklore and science, superstition and reason, makes for one heady, imaginative story as Tristan seeks to find a balance within himself, between his deviant desires and his moral compass, as he also finds a way to combat those Fae foes that seek to destroy him. This book satisfied me on multiple levels: my love of fantasy and folklore, my fascination with the darker sides of human nature and what goes on inside a person's mind, my appreciation of a good story and my interest in history. Jack Wolf has written a compelling and highly original debut novel.

My thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book via TLC Book Tours.

[Mieneke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is definitely something different. It's a dark and twisted tale that leaves the reader both uncomfortable and fascinated. Wolf makes some interesting stylistic choices that might be hard for people to overlook, as they can be quite alienating if one isn't prepared for them. However, I hope that people do look past these challenges, because beyond the presentation there is a tale worth reading and some interesting questions to ponder.

What are the stylistic choices that might flummox people? First and most obviously, there's the grammar, spelling, and capitalization. Wolf uses a form of these elements that imitates the mode of 18th century novels, harkening back to Fielding, Sterne, Smollett to name but a few. It could almost be a pastiche of the early English novel, but for the fact that it handles subject matter and contains language that the previously named authors wouldn't have dreamt of using in a novel. For a modern reader the excessive use of capital letters – which is actually similar to the use of capitals in modern German – and the use of declined pronouns (such as mine own) and the strange, rather random spellings of words might be somewhat off-putting. The imitation of the classic 18th century English novel also causes the book to have somewhat of a meandering feel, which is due to the narrative no clearly delineated plot; the book follows Tristan's life from childhood to adulthood and there isn't a clear formula to the story, such as a mystery, a romance, or a crime to solve. A familiarity with 18th century literature will definitely help in appreciating what the author does and will also decrease the barrier of the old fangled way of capitalizing the text.

The other stylistic choice that might be a hurdle for people is the fact that Wolf tells his story through the lens of a spectacularly unreliable narrator. Our protagonist, and narrator, is Tristan Hart. The eldest son of a humble country squire, Tristan grows up quite privileged and at the same time rather lonely. Having lost his mother at quite young age, Tristan is allowed to run rather wild as in his grief his father largely retreats from his children emotionally. His best friend and closest companion is Nathaniel, the eldest son of the parish rector, Reverend Ravenscroft. Nathaniel is handsome and charismatic and is everything Tristan isn't. At the same time, there is also something sinister about Nathaniel, who is not good or well-behaved and always lets other people bear the consequences of his misbehaviour. Tristan takes many of his cues from Nathaniel, whom he idolizes, and it's no surprise that Tristan grows up to be a thoroughly unlikeable brat. He's also quite intellectually gifted and fixates on medicine as his field of study as quite a young boy. It is here that his disturbing nature first rears its ugly head. He is rather cold-blooded in his anatomical investigations of the local wild life. When he reaches puberty he has his first episode of madness. What this episode is never becomes exceedingly clear, but it resembles a schizophrenic break. Through all of this runs the thread of Tristan's connection to Nathaniel, the escalation of his sadistic tendencies, and the folk tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones. All of this ties into Tristan's mental imbalance and lends many of the things he narrates an air of ambiguity as it's unclear whether the reality Tristan perceives is actually real or just a delusion. Wolf plays with this theme, leading the reader down the wrong path several times only to find Tristan is delusional or for the people surrounding Tristan to realise that he was actually telling the truth and not hallucinating. It makes the narrative a delicious puzzle and leads to several aha-moments when you realise that Wolf has yet again managed to make you doubt yourself and Tristan. Despite Tristan being an unlikeable character, this doesn't mean he's unsympathetic. He's most definitely not. In fact, especially during his lucid period London, I really was hoping he'd make a happy life for himself. And once he meets Katherine, he seems to have met his soul mate and someone who complements him in every way.

The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is an exquisite exploration of madness, it's distortion of a person's perceptions, of sadism, masochism, and other behaviour generally thought deviant then in a time where polite society and appearances were everything. How does the knowledge of someone's mental problems affect our perceptions of them? In truth, once his friends, Erasmus and Lt. Simmins, discover Tristan's madness, they do treat him differently. The book is also a fascinating look at the Age of Enlightenment and its effects on people's psyches as they struggled with moving from a wholly religious viewpoint to a rational and scientific way of looking at life. A development that was strongly mirrored in the evolution of early medicine. Like Tristan's mentor in the book William Hunter, and his brother John, the medical men in the Age of Enlightenment or Reason went from the traditional humour-based Galenic medicine to a more evidence-based, modern form of medical practice and it did so at an astonishing rate. However some of the hypotheses put forward by Men of Science at the time must have been highly disconcerting for non-scientists, much like Galileo's theories about astronomy or Darwin's much later theory of evolution were thought blasphemous and wrong by their contemporaries. Wolf includes some of the more prominent figures of 18th century British history, such as William Hunter and Henry and John Fielding and Henry's second wife Mary, in his narrative as well as some well-known London locales, such as St. Thomas's Hospital and S. Bartolomew's Hospital or Hunter's Anatomical Theatre. But he not only includes historical references in his book, there are also many literary references. Most prominent of which is of course the tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones itself, but also the name his gypsy enchantress gives him, Viviane. Viviane carries with it lots of Arthurian connotations as she is not just the enchantress who entraps the Merlin in an oak, she is also associated with madness. Another is the name Tristan gives Viviane, Caligula, the Roman emperor known for his cruelty and insanity. This is of course a playful acknowledgement by Tristan of his own nature. Tristan's true name, Tristan is also Arthurian in association and of course can also be seen as a nod to one of the most quintessential 18th century novels, Tristam Shandy. In addition, there are the folkish superstitions that Squire Hart's housekeeper holds and these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Jack Wolf's The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones makes for a fascinating tale and if you can get past the stylistic choices, this is a book that despite its heft reads easily and quickly. It's a book that I can see being taught in literature courses in the future as it's not only a great commentary on the 18th century novel, Wolf also uses lots of imagery and symbolism and discusses themes that are relevant to today even if they are clothed in period costume. The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones was an unexpected pleasure and I hope many more people will discover this powerful debut.

This book was provided for review by the publisher as part of a book tour.

[Liviania · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was eager to read THE TALE OF RAW HEAD AND BLOODY BONES. If there's one thing I love, it's a fairy story. And the bogeyman Raw Head may not be well known on this side of the pond, but I have heard of him because I am just that much of a geek. (Okay, so he was in the latest Dresden Files novel.) Throw in a genius young man who might be mad and I'm there.

Then I started the book and worried about what I'd gotten into by signing up for the TLC book tour. There was the capitalization of every noun, the archaic spellings - I despaired. I get going for atmosphere, honestly, but it's pretentious and unauthentic. After all, the words are misspelled the same way every time in a modern text. And it doesn't start with Tristan Hart going off to be a physician and studying pain. Oh no, it starts when he's a little kid with a best friend, Nathaniel Ravenscroft, who is a little jerk obviously going to grow into a bigger jerk.

Then when Tristan gets older and finally goes off to London, he stays with Henry Fielding. The Henry Fielding. It was an odd intrusion of reality that I wasn't into. And well, I was struggling with Tristan's fantasies. The guy has some mental health issues, although those around him are more aware of it than he is. (Animal lovers: beware.) But I'd promised to read this book! And about 200 pages in, it started clicking. It was his first surgery - a scene that's gruesome, but the physical action is overwhelmed by both Tristan's lust and his competence as a doctor. I loved the duality of his talent and his sadism.

As THE TALE OF RAW HEAD AND BLOODY BONES goes on, people and places from the long beginning start showing up again. But it's hard to know if they're really there, because Tristan is the narrator and Tristan is crazy. The text is channeled through his psychosis and it's hard to know what's really happening because Tristan doesn't know. Then things really get interesting when it turns out Tristan might not be as nutty as he seems. (He definitely takes his sadism beyond safe, sane, and consensual, but still, less nutty.) It's one thing to know he's an unreliable narrator - to think that he might have been reliable at certain points in the novel is rather startling.

By the climax I was utterly enthralled. I had no idea what Tristan might do, how he might react, how he might save himself. I was impressed by his humanity, the goodness he managed to cultivate despite believing himself a Monster. I liked how the book explored many types of desire, and showed how there can be benefit in even the darkest kinds. I liked his relationship with Katherine Montague, Nathaniel's cousin, a young girl betrayed by her family and suffering emotionally, but undaunted and irrepressible. It was the fairy story I was promised.

In addition to the intriguing, perhaps nonexistent, paranormal elements, I enjoyed the historical aspect of THE TALE OF RAW HEAD AND BLOODY BONES. Tristan is interested in both philosophy and medicine. His questioning of religion is quite radical, as are his insights into the source of strokes. It's exciting to see a character puzzle out something that we know based on what he can observe. I also liked that Tristan was well-to-do, the son of a country squire, but not well-liked or received because his mother was a Jew and he took after her in looks. He's aware of certain injustices of the time that another squire's son would not be.

I'm not going to lie; the beginning of THE TALE OF RAW HEAD AND BLOODY BONES is rough. I found the style artificial and felt the book wasn't delivering the creepiness promised. Then the style started disappearing into the background and I fell completely into Tristan's worldview. THE TALE OF RAW HEAD AND BLOODY BONES is a rewarding, cathartic novel if you're willing to give it a chance. I'm very happy I stuck with it.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hard book to summarise.

Jack Wolf explores the mid eighteenth century, a time balanced between the scientific future and the superstitious past, a time when talented and intelligent Tristan Hart grows up on his father's country estate west of Oxford. Tristan’s mother is dead, his father remote and lost in grief, and his only companion is Nathaniel Ravenscroft, tearaway son of the local Vicar.

Tristan is attracted both by the sensual life that Nathaniel pursues and by the urge to study science, specifically anatomy. Eventually, he persuades his father to allow him to study medicine in London, under the care of novelist and magistrate Henry Fielding.

Tristan's life is pulled three ways. He has an ambition to become a surgeon and investigate the world – especially, the causes and cures of pain - using rational investigation. He is obsessed with the woman Vivianne who he believes is a fairy queen and terrified of her dark world of gnomes and goblins and of the dark stories of Raw Head and Bloody Bones. Finally, there is the dark pleasure he takes from others’ pain (" 'Tis a species of love") which he is able to indulge in the pleasure houses of Covent Garden.

These forces shape Tristan’s life and as they twist and turn they are reflected in a narrative also taking place on three levels - the rational everyday, episodes of madness or delusion which he suffers, and the world of dreams which he - and those around him - take very seriously.

It is hard to separate these themes and to know whether something “really” happened as Tristan describes, or whether it is a delusion or a dream. At times I began to wonder whether Nathaniel was actually real: it’s noteworthy that he never suffers punishment because he disappears as soon as any trouble arises. Is he really no more than an imaginary friend?

Wolf skilfully uses these different levels of meaning to drive Tristan's attempts to free himself of his "madness', save himself from Vivianne, find his friend Nathaniel and discover the truth about the girl he has fallen in love with. I think it's a testament to his storytelling skills that one can at the same time sympathise with Tristan, find his behaviour repellent, and wish him success while not having any clear idea what “success” would actually mean.

There is murder here. There is gory dissection. There is cruelty, pain and abuse of the innocent. The crimes ands sins of a century are woven into a compelling story, the story of a Monster (self described) and his attempt to redeem himself. Whether or not he succeeds is, I think, a nice matter of judgement: I’m just not sure.

A final point – twice, I nearly set this book aside. The first occasion was nine or ten pages in, when I realised that the pseudo-18th Century Style, and Spelling, with all the Nounes capitalised, would go on throughout the Booke. I soon got used to this, however. The second was Tristan’s first visit to Mrs Hayward’s establishment in Covent Garden with its accompanying manacles and whips. This is a matter of taste, but I’d really rather not read about such stuff. In the end, though, there is actually not that much of it in the book. (This information may be of use both to those who like to read about such things and those who don’t!)

[Christoph Fischer · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones” by Jack Wolf was a surprise-find and a real treat for me. I saw it advertised by my favourite bookstore in Bath and decided to try this local author.
The book is an incredibly well written account of the life of Tristan Hart, a physician in England’s 1750s, who battles with genius and insanity and a (sexual) fascination with pain. The books is told from the mentally ill protagonist and therefore leaves the reader at times unsure as to what is real and what is product of his vivid imagination. He struggles to find his way in life as he encounters cursing Gypsies, family and class issues, love and his professional ambitions.
The most impressive aspect of the book is of course the language which sounds so authentic and perfect that it puts the likes of C.J. Sansom into shade; there is just such a natural feel to it and it reads so easily and comfortably, it is a hard to believe that this should be a first book.
The title refers to a nursery rhyme or story that is shared between Hart and his lover and introduces the theme of goblins and other creatures that wander the mind of the mentally challenged physician. I am not normally fond of poems and stories within a story as they often can kill off the spell I am under while reading but these inserts are well placed and add to the enjoyment of the writing.
I look forward to Jack Wolf’s next book.

[Havenlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot to say about this book but the number one thing I would ask myself before deciding how to rate it would be, "Would I read this book again?". The answer is no, I don't think I would. The premise and plot were interesting enough but I never felt connected to any of the characters. The language and spelling was distracting although I appreciate that it was written thus to reflect the time period of the setting. The internal musings of the main character about the meaning of life and all its forms and whether or not there is a God was interesting in its way but not engaging. I think these ideas would have been better conveyed had they been less directly stated and woven more into the fabric of the plot and characters. I always finish a book no matter how slow the start, and this book did have a slow start to be sure. I overall enjoyed it but will think no more about it now that I am done reading it. That is how I know it does not deserve 5 stars.

[alexander shay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is nearly too strange for words. I liked the idea of reading about a crazy guy in the 1700s but because it's written in first person that makes it impossible to weed out what's real and what's a hallucination. I understand that that's the point, but at the end I felt basically like it left it up to the reader whether the hallucinations were in fact real or not. On top of that, all the random capitalization for several words in the sentences kept throwing me out of the book for the first little while, and the older (though appropriate for the time) language also made it hard for me to understand a fair amount of the content. I then found out there is a love story in it, which I suppose is nearly inevitable in all books, but I didn't notice it mentioned on the back so that kind of irritated me(romance is the one genre where I would sooner hop over a cliff than read). I am also not a scientist by any means or religious at all, so all the religion and science garble was way over my head, meaning I skimmed nearly 10% of the book probably. Good idea; interesting in the beginning (Nathaniel's character intrigued me in the first chapter)but essentially a slow, plot-less feeling spiral to the ground.

[Lel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a weird one. The main character Tristan is studying to be a doctor and exploring the link between the body and brain when it comes to pain. He has some very questionable methods and strange ideas. That in itself doesn't sound very thrilling to read but there is a whole host of fairy type characters and Tristan's mental state to keep the story plodding on.

Im not sure about this book. I think I enjoyed it, I got to the end at least. It didn't have a lot of action or even a likeable main character but something kept my interest. The way the author explored Tristan's struggles with his desires and dreams was interesting.

If you liked Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this is an interesting take.

[Ghiomara Beov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quise tomar un respiro del libro "fantasmas" de Chuck Palahniuk que por qué estaba muy fuerte y comencé este, jajaja, peor no está pero tampoco mejor. Son sumamente bizarros los dos.
Es una combinación entre sadomasoquismo y medicina con un toque de magia, eso sí muy buen escrito y muy entretenido. Ame a La murciélaga.

[✦BookishlyRichie✦]

I am eye-fucking this cover right now. I love it.
The book sounds awesome too.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am SOOOO glad I didn’t listen to the reviews discouraging me from reading this (and SO glad I wasn’t too lazy to get through the 1750s-imitation prose!)

It’s true that this book is extremely dark, and the protagonist/narrator is both insane and a truly evil person. That being said, concluding that the book is therefore bad or not worth reading is like being shocked at the behavior depicted in like, American Psycho, and saying “Wait! He’s doing bad things! This movie is bad!”

Actually, the two share a lot of similarities. They are both existential psychological thrillers in which it’s hard to discern reality from hallucination, they both have shocking, gripping drama and rewarding plot twists, and both land us at the same question: in the absence of a god, does it matter in the grand scheme of things how you choose to live your life, or will you be forgotten regardless?

[Carson Quarnberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is twisted and fast-paced. The end was not at all what I expected, and I’m okay with that. The writing style is that of the late 18th century, when the book takes place; that’s my favorite part of the book. It deals with the topic of “madness” in a respectable way, taking the reader along with Tristan Hart’s ravings instead of making a spectacle of them. I would be willing to read this book again. It’s not one I’m likely to lend away :-)

[Avery (ThePagemaster) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of the first books I bought when I first got back into reading, and I've been pushing and pushing this aside for sooooooooooooo long(roughly 6-7 years). Now that I've read it, it's not that bad, or as bad as other reviews that I've read say they are. I did enjoy the ominous, Sweeney Todd vibe and inspiration throughout the story. And despite my confusion at times, I liked how Jack Wolf tried to bring the time/era of the story more to life with its language at time; more random capitalizations than a Trump tweet. But, I will say, there were some boring, slow, stretched paper thin parts of the story that I did skim through.

[Geneste Lola · Rating 1 out of 5]

Archi nul. Les persos sont tarés et le style d'écriture est illisible.

Tw : pédophilie, viols, vivisection, description de cadavres, torture

[Nat Bat · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the concept more than the content itself 🫠

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Sweeney Todd had gone to medical school instead of applying his entrepreneurial talents to the baker-barber business, he might have been Tristan Hart of Jack Wolf’s The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones. Surely, Tim Burton must have influenced this novel as much as any eighteenth century picaresque or gothic romance.

Although the protagonist is not an impoverished foundling, he feels abandoned. His mother died when he was five. His father cannot even meet his son’s gaze long before the adolescent thrashes his tutor near to death after he witnesses the man’s devolution into malignant gnome.

Despite occasional bouts of violent distemper, inspired by paranoid visions involving a bat-winged infant, a vindictive gypsy, and a goblin knight, Tristan exhibits genius…for anatomical studies. He transforms his mother’s chambers into his personal laboratory where he practices dissection on mice, badgers, foxes, and other animals. Eventually, he convinces one of his father’s old friends, one Henry Fielding, of his intellectual acumen, and the famous novelist provides Tristan with his introduction into the London scientific community. Tristan eventually becomes apprentice to the surgeon-anatomist Dr. William Hunter.

Throughout his medical career, Tristan struggles to manage his fascination with pain. In one scene, he becomes sexually aroused by a patient’s screams. One would hardly expect such a character to hold his own as a novel’s male romantic lead (unless, of course, he were being played by Johnny Depp, who is, alas, too old to play Tristan). And, yet, it is an unconventional love story that serves to center Tristan’s gyre of madness. One might not expect a narrator who sees goblins crawling out of woodwork to hold his plot threads together, and, yet, he does, with the help of his fourteen-year-old love interest. Their relationship is fated from the moment he catches the girl in the act of applying fork prongs to the inside of her elbow. She is the one who first identifies Tristan as Bloody Bones, one side of the two-headed bogey man whose tales have haunted him since childhood.

“They all…will meet grisly Ends in the clutching Claws of Raw-Head-and-Bloody-Bones,” Tristan is told by Nathaniel Ravenscroft, a cohort in boyhood mischief (5). “They,” here, refers to the latter boy’s all-too-ordinary relatives. Although Tristan plays Bloody Bones to Nathaniel’s Raw Head, these characters do not fit the usual alter ego paradigm. One is not good to the other’s evil. When judged by normative standards, both are monstrous.

But what kind of monster is Tristan? And if his character combines that of Mary Shelley’s creature and his maker in one being, can he, bolstered by sympathetic relations with a compatible female creature, discover a happily-ever-after despite his mental disease?

(Disclosure: I received this book via First Reads giveaway.)

[Ciska · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book on Netgalley from the publisher in return for an honest review*

Author
Jack Wolf was born in Bath, and has spent most of his life in rural Somerset. He wanted to be a singer until his interests in faerie tales and in social history led to a writing career. The Tale of Raw Head & Bloody Bones is his first novel. He is currently studying for a PhD and working on his second novel.

Review
I first saw this book on Giraffe's Day from Shannon and was intrigued by the idea of the old English combined with a story of a psychopath. As soon as you open the book you are pulled into an atmosphere with a dark gray feeling to it. Tristan clearly is a boy who thinks to much and has weird ideas, starting with a disturbing obsession with his boyhood friend to his love for dissecting animals without even flinching. As the book develops more and more of his interesting ideas are brought up even though the way it does makes you consider at points that he can actually not help himself. Still it is hard to connect to Tristan.
The story itself is carried by atmosphere more than story.There are parts of the book I felt where to detailed where other parts where not detailed enough. This makes you think the detailed parts hold a significance but that did not always become clear. This made me feel that the pretty big 500+ pages book could have done with a few less pages. I found the psychotic episodes from Tristan difficult to read. Not because they are pain full or depressing but because they are to weird and I could not really follow them. I understand this should give a better idea about what is happening in his head but it confused and distracted me from the story. I did like the whole health development history. Tristan wants to become a surgeon and the knowledge that was available in that period was worked out well and some of the conclusions made by doctors in that time really made me cringe with the knowledge I have of the same diseases today.

[John Lawson · Rating 2 out of 5]

An intelligent young man in 18th century England discovers a propensity for sexual sadism and the medical arts. He is also convinced that he is being stalked by the Goblin Knight. Surprising little ensues.

The book bills itself as something of a Gothic horror. It suggests the element of the supernatural. And agreed, there is a bit of lurid sexual kink, especially when he tortures the prostitute and courts the 15 year old. But really, very little happens. It's just about a dude who is struggling with psychopathy in an age where there are little resources to help him. That's why I shelved this book as historical fiction.

It offers plenty of tantalizing threads, any one of which would have made for a fascinating read. A man who channels his sadistic tendencies into being a better doctor. A man who becomes a doctor to indulge in his sadistic tendencies. A man who defies the mystical Goblin Knight (real or imagined) and suffers the consequences. A man who defies a gypsy queen (real or imagined) and suffers the consequences. So many others. But in the end, the story is really very conventional and very little happens.

He is something of an 18th century Patrick Bateman, including experiencing events that other claim never happened. Like Patrick, he is something of a very unreliable narrator, so the true events of the story are really up to your interpretation.

It's written in the olde tyme style, with lots of misspelled words and arbitrary capitalization. At first, that was EXTREMELY distracting. After a few chapters, it just became mildly distracting. But it's a really long book, so if that kind of writing annoys you even a little, I suggest you reconsider reading this book.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the people who say the main character Tristan Hart is unlikeable are very misleading, or else they didn't understand the book. Tristan Hart is a medical genius, but also insane. When he is in control of his senses, he is very passionate and uses logical reasoning, being a man of science. When his mind takes over, though, he walks down a dark path that he cannot control no matter how hard he wants to. He is obsessed with the concept of pain as well as preventing it, and later, causing it. The pain turns him on, but also gives him vision. When he hears someone scream in pain, he can picture every muscle, bone and ligament and in turn makes him a better doctor.
The book is set in 1700's England and written in beautifully executed old English but isn't confusing to read.
The book is extreme for an extreme time. The more insane Tristan gets, the more it's hard for him to discern what's reality or fantasy. He believes the old children's faerie tale Raw Head and Bloody Bones and is certain goblins and boogeymen are out to get him. The book features fantastic plot twists that always take the reader by surprise. jack Wolf grips his readers making it impossible to stop reading while making them feel uncomfortable, and as Tristan spirals deeper into his dark mind trying to figure out if he is truly good or evil or if there is such thing as either, the crazier the book gets (in more ways than one!)I highly recommend this to anyone who likes original stories and doesn't mind feeling uncomfortable, also people who like psychological thrillers. This is a book I tell all my friends to read!

[Dom Perry · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars*

This book was pretty weird. Based on the description, I thought it would be action-packed and mentally terrifying. In reality, it was slow and not scary at all. Jack Wolf stuck true to the way books were written during our character's time period. Major props for the amount of research he did, because it did a good job in the sense of the writing style. But because of that, he put unneeded detail upon unneeded detail and every noun throughout this book was capitalized, making it difficult to read. There were many passages I had to reread because all the unneeded information blocked out what was happening. Also, this book could've honestly been about 100 pages shorter.

If you're not into weird sex stuff, then this book isn't for you. I'm all for anything in a book (as long as it's done tastefully, of course) so this didn't disturb me, but it's just a warning. Tristan Hart gets off on being sadistic. Some of the things he did were pretty fucking strange. There is also pedophilia in this book. Tristan is in his early 20s and falls in love with a 14 year old and she falls in love with him too. To my knowledge, this is actually sticking true to the time period so I didn't think much of it BUT I know some people still get creeped out by this.

I don't really have much else to say. I didn't DNF it because I was hoping it would get creepier as the book went on. Jack Wolf attempted this, but it didn't work well.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What I did know, know for certain, was that I had wanted to cause Pain to Lady B. - I had wanted to heal her, too; but I had wanted to hear her Scream... We were Monsters, both of us; or perhaps fallen Angels"

Set in the mid-eighteenth-century, this is an excellently imagined story that is also executed faultlessly. The typography with its capitalisations, spelling and abbreviations resembles an eighteenth-century text, and perfectly matches the rhythm and tone of the narrative voice.

With nods to Victor Frankenstein, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, this also takes the novels of Fielding as precedents - and Henry Fielding appears as a character in this book - with the appearances of changeling children, and the moral patterning of the narrative.

This is a very intelligent book but it wears its learning lightly: it makes use of Enlightenment philosophy, especially Descartes, of surgical and anatomical treatises, myths and fairytales, and playfully has our hero think in Freudian terms a century before Freud.

So this is dark, sometimes gory, wildly imaginative, fantastical and yet comes to a satisfyingly `moral' ending - Jack Wolf has burst onto the literary scene with this book and I look forward eagerly to what he does next.

[saizine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating read. While it does contain some elements that would, and judging by other reviews, have alienated some readers (sadism, unquestioning vivisection, cruelty and abuse), and the protagonist is rarely sympathetic, regardless the work itself is ambitious and interesting. I did not find the adoption of eighteenth-century syntax and style jarring (although I expected it going in and I work with eighteenth century documents regularly), and once you get used to it, it's no barrier to quick and engaging reading, so don't be put off on that alone! I am particularly interested in the history of medicine and science, so to see that history fictionalized is unusual and, for me, thrilling--Wolf did especially well in integrating the contemporary medical knowledge and many contemporary debates (about medicine as well as religion); I'm also interested in the history of fairy tales, so the weaving of the two here was almost perfect for me as a reader! The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones is a gruesome and imaginative book, evocative of its era, and certainly worth a look if you come across it in the bookshop.

[Courtney Vigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took two tries to get through, and it was extremely difficult to get into. Wolf tries to mimic the writing of the mid 1700s and capitalizes nouns, which makes the reading choppy. Once I finally got used to it, the story was chaos. The parts that were good were really good and really intense. I couldn't put the book down. Then it would come to a screeching halt. I skipped paragraphs and fell asleep. Then it would get really good again, then super boring. Up and down until the very end. I must admit, I skipped the last two pages, only skimming. I wish he had ended it on a high note, but I suppose he felt he had to wrap everything up with a neat little bow.

[Liz Bromley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I wanted to get picky, I'd say this one really deserves 3.75 stars. I enjoyed the pseudo-olde English style of writing and I found the main character intriguing, which always gets at least three stars in my book. Parts were hard to read in the same way that a movie is hard to watch when the main character starts doing something really self-destructive and you want to yell at the screen. But overall the story transcended those awkward moments and I found it to be quite an enjoyable read. It certainly was something different and that always scores points with me.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not what I expected and I found it a bit of a surprise when I first started reading it and found that a contemporary author had written a novel set in the 18th century and using language that evokes that time period. Ir's written as a kind of memoir of Tristan Hart, an incredibly intelligent young man who finds his grip on reality and sanity somewhat loose. It took me a little while to get into but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself trying to work out which bits were 'real' and which were part of Hart's descent into madness.

[Jennww2ns · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the more difficult books I've read. The language, spelling and writing style are straight out of the 18th century. The capital letters were jarring and didn't allow me to fully immerse myself in the book. The plot itself was ok but the stylistic choices were too distracting to allow me to really enjoy reading it.
Also, there were large sections dedicated to philosophical questions like "What is pain?" and "What is the soul?" which were too dry to be enjoyable.

[Brittany (Lady Red) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I DNF’d this. I hate psycho characters because usually it’s lazy writing, but in this case I’m not sure why I disliked this so much
Edit 11/26
I was wrong this was actually really interesting and I recommend it. Only if you have a strong stomach however, there’s some really graphic scenes.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was pretty good. It had some interesting philosophical ideas, so that made me really enjoy it.