Hello Mr Bones:

by Patrick McCabe

An evil puppet master and his flotilla of fiends reacquaint two reformed souls with the demons they thought they had defeated.

Hello Mr Bones forms half of Hello and Goodbye : two dark tales from two deceased narrators - bottled-lightning treats that will make you gasp, gurn, shiver and squirm. Its sister title is Goodbye Mr Rat .

Genres: Fiction

122 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 26, 2013

About the author

Patrick McCabe came to prominence with the publication of his third adult novel, The Butcher Boy, in 1992; the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in Britain and won the Irish Times-Aer Lingus Prize for fiction. McCabe's strength as an author lies in his ability to probe behind the veneer of respectability and conformity to reveal the brutality and the cloying and corrupting stagnation of Irish small-town life, but he is able to find compassion for the subjects of his fiction. His prose has a vitality and an anti-authoritarian bent, using everyday language to deconstruct the ideologies at work in Ireland between the early 1960s and the late 1970s. His books can be read as a plea for a pluralistic Irish culture that can encompass the past without being dominated by it.

McCabe is an Irish writer of mostly dark and violent novels of contemporary, often small-town, Ireland. His novels include The Butcher Boy (1992) and Breakfast on Pluto (1998), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He has also written a children's book (The Adventures of Shay Mouse) and several radio plays broadcast by the RTÉ and the BBC Radio 4. The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto have both been adapted into films by Irish director Neil Jordan.

McCabe lives in Clones, Co. Monaghan with his wife and two daughters.

Pat McCabe is also credited with having invented the "Bog Gothic" genre.

Reviews

[Clare Dallimore · Rating 2 out of 5]

whatever the plot of this was supposed to be, it got completely bogged down by unnecessarily complex language. it was a front for the fact that there was no real story and the entirety of the book was confusing. there were full sentences i had to look up the meaning of because he couldn’t just say what he was talking about in plain english. there was so much bouncing around what actually happened that i couldn’t relay the plot back to you if you paid me. the ending isn’t satisfying either because the point that was hinted towards THE ENTIRE TIME doesn’t even get resolved. there is no closure at the end, just some psycho clown who speaks in riddles and writes a confusing book. i bought it for the cool flip side idea and it was such a sick concept, too bad he squandered the execution. can’t wait to read the second side 😐

[Laura]

Didn’t finish this one

There’s nothing good I can say about this- the prose is dense and confusing and detracts from the plot. Had genuinely no idea what was going on in this book at all.

[Belle Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really my bag. Described as Irish gothic, but Half Sick of Shadows and John the Revelator were both better books of a similar description. McCabe has an irritating voice of sentence fragments that doesn't allow for flow; on top of that, the book is light on anything like plot. It tries to make up for it with lots of atmosphere and the old unreliable narrator trope, but really, it just isn't very good. The book is split with another story, Goodbye Mr Rat, but to be honest, after the disappointment of this, I couldn't be bothered to try with Mr Rat.

[Carol Ferro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bizarre and disjointed: it was difficult to work out which character's viewpoint each chapter was told from, having read the book I'm still none the wiser about what actually happens to the little boy.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my, this reminded me of Stephen King but it was far more cleverly and diabolically crafted. It gave me nightmares, as it was meant to do.