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These Bones
In a neighborhood known as the Bramble Patch, the Lyons family endures despite poverty, racism, and the ghoulish appetites of an underworld kingpin called the Barghest. As the years pass and the neighborhood falls into decay, along with the town that surrounds it, what’s left of the Bramble Patch will learn the saying is These bones are gonna rise again.
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 14, 2021
About the author
Kayla Chenault
1 book13 followersKayla Chenault is a practitioner of Black Girl Magic and holds a Master's in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University. When she is not writing, Kayla is found at the museums where she works or telling everybody about the history of popular music and social dance. She is a former line editor and contributing writer for Cecile's Writers. Her previous work can be found in The Blue Pages Journal and Honey and Lime literary magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 16, 2021
Literary folk horror. A beautiful piece of writing. The author is a rural historian and her expertise comes through: the characters are rich and full and unforgettable.
September 21, 2021
Well, this was interesting. Too complicated of a read to simply define as good or otherwise and a pretty striking amount of content crammed into such a slender volume. Like many books these days this one is about race, specifically black experience in the 1920s and 30s in one neighborhood of Bramble Patch.
It’s so busy and attempts to span so much, that it requires its own personae dramatis. And still, it’s difficult to follow at times all of the numerous characters and all of the terrible things that befall them. There’s the ever prevalent evil of general racism, but also on a smaller scale evil personified as a local pimp of vicious appetites.
Because the novel goes for the complete and almost documentary approach, it also features interviews, articles, etc. pertaining to Bramble Patch denizens and their descendants and, because the author obviously has very high literary aspirations, the narrative tends to have a dreamy, well nightmarish, really, poetic tone to it, combined with gothic atmosphere…well, it’s a lot.
Kudos to the author for (mostly) making this wildly ambitious project work, but for how bleak and tragic this book is and for how notably busy it is in shuffling its characters and events, it isn’t an easy book to read, like or recommend. It’s interesting, indeed, and a quick read, the latter has me rounding up the reading experience. If it were all the same but loner, it would certainly get tiresome. But as is, it's lean, mostly bones. Apparently of the kind that are wont to rise.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
It’s so busy and attempts to span so much, that it requires its own personae dramatis. And still, it’s difficult to follow at times all of the numerous characters and all of the terrible things that befall them. There’s the ever prevalent evil of general racism, but also on a smaller scale evil personified as a local pimp of vicious appetites.
Because the novel goes for the complete and almost documentary approach, it also features interviews, articles, etc. pertaining to Bramble Patch denizens and their descendants and, because the author obviously has very high literary aspirations, the narrative tends to have a dreamy, well nightmarish, really, poetic tone to it, combined with gothic atmosphere…well, it’s a lot.
Kudos to the author for (mostly) making this wildly ambitious project work, but for how bleak and tragic this book is and for how notably busy it is in shuffling its characters and events, it isn’t an easy book to read, like or recommend. It’s interesting, indeed, and a quick read, the latter has me rounding up the reading experience. If it were all the same but loner, it would certainly get tiresome. But as is, it's lean, mostly bones. Apparently of the kind that are wont to rise.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
April 11, 2023
A strange and weird story told through genre-bending vignettes (interviews, retrospective book chapters, sermons, etc.). The novella is historical speculative fiction. It was hard for me to keep up with all the many characters. I am definitely going to have to re-read it, hopefully, I'll understand it a little better. I could keep up with the plotline but the experimental parts of it were challenging to me. The events in the book reminded me of the massacres that occurred in Rosewood and Tulsa. So much to unpack in this book.
September 11, 2026
In this bleak, literary novella, Chenault displays some of the most melodic, poetically rhythmic prose I’ve ever read. I was intoxicatingly pulled into Bramble Patch, a fictional Black Midwestern neighborhood haunted by its own past and present—poverty, segregation, violence, interconnected family histories, and the complicated sense of community that binds it all together. In fewer than 200 pages, Chenault packs in an astonishing amount of story, history, and emotion.
The structure is just as ambitious. Told through vignettes, interviews, sermons, news reports, archival material, academic writings, and shifting narrators, it gradually assembles the history of Bramble Patch from the voices of the people who live in and around it and those who remember what came before. Chenault introduces dozens of distinct voices, each revealing another facet of the community to weave an oral history tapestry of how its people experienced and remembered it. The ensemble structure is something I simultaneously admired and despised. I generally prefer a more traditional narrative structure, so it took me quite a while to adjust to the somewhat fragmented format. By the end, though, my appreciation for what Chenault was doing had grown considerably larger than my less than ideal reading experience of it.
The blend of history, magical realism, and horror, and Black American folklore was perfect. The name choice for the Barghest—a monstrous black dog from northern English folklore, with glowing eyes, enormous teeth, and sharp claws—is especially compelling in context alongside the tradition of the hellhounds associated with the Devil at the Crossroads in Black American blues lore; the Barghest occupies a space between literal supernatural monster and embodiment of racism, exploitation, segregation, inherited trauma, and the erasure of Black communities. I only wish there had been more of the Barghest—and more folklore throughout the novel. I loved the reference to Br’er Rabbit and the ways folklore and history bleed into one another, and I would happily have spent more time in those aspects of the story. I loved the reference to Br’er Rabbit and the ways folklore and history bleed into one another, and I would've happily spent more time in those aspects of the story.
These Bones is a series of unfortunate lives and events, all forebodingly hurtling toward one another, with a catastrophic collision waiting at the end of it. It’s a strange, ambitious, haunting little novella, and I can only hope to see more from Chenault in the future.
I recommend These Bones to readers who enjoyed Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, and House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase.
The structure is just as ambitious. Told through vignettes, interviews, sermons, news reports, archival material, academic writings, and shifting narrators, it gradually assembles the history of Bramble Patch from the voices of the people who live in and around it and those who remember what came before. Chenault introduces dozens of distinct voices, each revealing another facet of the community to weave an oral history tapestry of how its people experienced and remembered it. The ensemble structure is something I simultaneously admired and despised. I generally prefer a more traditional narrative structure, so it took me quite a while to adjust to the somewhat fragmented format. By the end, though, my appreciation for what Chenault was doing had grown considerably larger than my less than ideal reading experience of it.
The blend of history, magical realism, and horror, and Black American folklore was perfect. The name choice for the Barghest—a monstrous black dog from northern English folklore, with glowing eyes, enormous teeth, and sharp claws—is especially compelling in context alongside the tradition of the hellhounds associated with the Devil at the Crossroads in Black American blues lore; the Barghest occupies a space between literal supernatural monster and embodiment of racism, exploitation, segregation, inherited trauma, and the erasure of Black communities. I only wish there had been more of the Barghest—and more folklore throughout the novel. I loved the reference to Br’er Rabbit and the ways folklore and history bleed into one another, and I would happily have spent more time in those aspects of the story. I loved the reference to Br’er Rabbit and the ways folklore and history bleed into one another, and I would've happily spent more time in those aspects of the story.
These Bones is a series of unfortunate lives and events, all forebodingly hurtling toward one another, with a catastrophic collision waiting at the end of it. It’s a strange, ambitious, haunting little novella, and I can only hope to see more from Chenault in the future.
I recommend These Bones to readers who enjoyed Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, and House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase.
September 15, 2021
These Bones by Kayla Chenault takes place in the Bramble Patch, a neighbourhood in the fictitious town of Napoleonville and tells the tale of the Lyon family who face racism, poverty, the grisly appetites of a pimp known as the Barghast, as well as the unpredictability of nature. It is told in a non-linear pattern by interconnected vignettes sometimes in first voice, sometimes third, even in the form of a sermon. It is a short but powerful gothic horror tale infused with violence and magical realism with many characters and I admit I occasionally lost track of them as they move in and out of the story. Despite that, I found myself completely immersed in the story and recommend it highly.
Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Lanternfish Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Thanks to Edelweiss+ and Lanternfish Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
January 1, 2022
I have never in my life read anything like this before. This was something else. Part social commentary, part gothic horror with supernatural elements. I’m not even sure I liked it, but it was well written and beautifully done.
February 15, 2022
Told by multiple narrators looking back, this is the story of the black neighbourhood of a city in 1909 and the racism, oppression and inequality its residents suffer. In the style of Percival Everett, Chenault uses horror as a medium to get across gross injustice, but here it works less well, the historical accounts interspersed by archive, press releases and forensic records. This is a community so traumatised that years on, it is lost. Central to its demise is the Barghest, in folklore a huge dog with terrifying claws and teeth (originally from Northumberland), but here a pimp, a villain, his presence evident when any evil in the town occurs. Similar to the device used by Everett in The Trees, he personifies the racist violence and injustice in US history.
December 16, 2021
Poetic and beautiful in every line describing the fantastic yet familiar world of the Bramble Patch. Chenault finds new and artistic ways to make you think about race and history in an experimental, gothic blend of post-modern archival writing and lyrical prose. Parts are charming, parts are devastating, but all of it honest.
October 5, 2023
An epic in a novella. These Bones focuses on the Black Lyons family, but features a cast of over twenty, set in the Midwestern Bramble Patch through the early years of the 20th C. Bramble Patch is haunted by the ghastly Barghest, the looming presence of the white town beyond the Bramble Patch and nature itself. Interspersed with scenes throughout the years are faux news articles, literature, interviews that contrast with the horror and joy of the main story, a distance only time can bring. Compelling gothic horror and rural fantasy.
Read
June 13, 2026spellbinding, atmospheric, darkly surreal writing, definitely in the gothic legacy of morrison like the author states, and similarly a more challenging read for 160 pages, with a lot of fragmented threads, a huge cast of characters, and epistolary elements, spanning several decades of a Black community in the 20th century. would definitely reward a repeat or very careful reading, but I do also like my fiction with slightly more anchored characters
January 23, 2022
Very hard to read. Disjointed, lots of symbolism. Took a break from it,
then came back to it and forced myself to finish. No conclusion or satisfaction
then came back to it and forced myself to finish. No conclusion or satisfaction
July 17, 2025
An engrossing gothic novella employing fascinating formal experimentation.
October 24, 2021
I was lucky enough to catch this debut author’s virtual book launch and was very intrigued to read this magical realism/gothic horror novella. The 150 pages pack a gut punch, so prepare yourself to see how oppression, justice, redemption and hope are explored in grisly detail, fantastical and real.
It’s no surprise the author is a historian and storyteller. The world building in the Bramble Patch is so Midwest and so ugly. We northerners often deflect our sordid past of racism, and These Bones provides a generational thread of trauma, hypocrisy and collective community whitewashing in a fictional town in Indiana. These Bones made me consider how brutality showed up in my southeast Michigan town’s history. We don’t tell these stories, do we?
I consider myself an avid reader, and even a bit trained in literature, and damn, this book kicked my ass. Other reviewers mentioned it was a challenging read, too. Be prepared to have to thread the stories together glimpsing perspectives, memories, rumors, betrayals, fear-mongering, and gaslighting. I found it very helpful to refer to the family lineages provided at the front of the book to organize and track the progress of this story. I also liked the literary inclusions of the Barghest, tar baby, Ovid, Shakespeare, and even bible stories. The author’s captivating collage writing style used letters, sermons, interviews, historical records, magazine articles, and more to show how the characters persevered, transformed, or controlled.
Layla F. Saad (author of Me and White Supremacy and host of Good Ancestor podcast) writes "My life is driven by one burning question: How can I become a good ancestor? How can I create a legacy of healing and liberation for those who are here in this lifetime and those who will come after I’m gone?".
Kayla Chenault has done just that with the characters in this story, and she is leaving a legacy with her first book in publication. BRAVA!
If you’ve read Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, Lauren Francis-Sharma, or Jesmyn Ward, you are going to get why this book is important.
Recording of September 15 Book Launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l6M7...
It’s no surprise the author is a historian and storyteller. The world building in the Bramble Patch is so Midwest and so ugly. We northerners often deflect our sordid past of racism, and These Bones provides a generational thread of trauma, hypocrisy and collective community whitewashing in a fictional town in Indiana. These Bones made me consider how brutality showed up in my southeast Michigan town’s history. We don’t tell these stories, do we?
I consider myself an avid reader, and even a bit trained in literature, and damn, this book kicked my ass. Other reviewers mentioned it was a challenging read, too. Be prepared to have to thread the stories together glimpsing perspectives, memories, rumors, betrayals, fear-mongering, and gaslighting. I found it very helpful to refer to the family lineages provided at the front of the book to organize and track the progress of this story. I also liked the literary inclusions of the Barghest, tar baby, Ovid, Shakespeare, and even bible stories. The author’s captivating collage writing style used letters, sermons, interviews, historical records, magazine articles, and more to show how the characters persevered, transformed, or controlled.
Layla F. Saad (author of Me and White Supremacy and host of Good Ancestor podcast) writes "My life is driven by one burning question: How can I become a good ancestor? How can I create a legacy of healing and liberation for those who are here in this lifetime and those who will come after I’m gone?".
Kayla Chenault has done just that with the characters in this story, and she is leaving a legacy with her first book in publication. BRAVA!
If you’ve read Octavia Butler, Colson Whitehead, Lauren Francis-Sharma, or Jesmyn Ward, you are going to get why this book is important.
Recording of September 15 Book Launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l6M7...
September 21, 2021
I find myself in the curious position where I think this is a well written book with fascinating ideas, but I didn't like it and struggled to finish it. The four star rating is something of a compromise and different readers would probably give it wildly varying ratings. I think it's definitely worth reading. It's only a short book so even if, like me you struggled a bit, it won't take that much of your valuable reading time.
The book is described as Gothic in the reviews, but I would have said it is more magical realist. Depending on how you interpret the book we have either a character who made a deal with the devil and another character who can see the future, or just a charismatic and violent man and a troubled teenager. The book is deliberately ambiguous about this, and I enjoyed this aspect of it.
The book is written as a series of disconnected vignettes. They are in roughly chronological order and take us up to the demolition of the ghetto called the Bramble Patch, but there is no flow between them and they don't really tell a story. Instead we just have a series of atmospheric pieces, short stories really, that set the overall mood of the book. They are wonderfully written, but some point in the middle of the book I found they started to feel a bit samey and this is where I ran into problems with it. I had to put the book down for a bit and return to it a couple of days later. The ending is also a bit anticlimactic, though I suppose this is inevitable as all the colour and vibrancy of the ghetto dissolves into the blandness of the real world.
Overall this is what I'd describe as a "difficult" book. It has no story and the characters are randomly scattered around so we don't have a main protagonist to follow and empathise with. I can't unconditionally recommend it, but I'd say it was worth a try if your reading schedule permits.
The book is described as Gothic in the reviews, but I would have said it is more magical realist. Depending on how you interpret the book we have either a character who made a deal with the devil and another character who can see the future, or just a charismatic and violent man and a troubled teenager. The book is deliberately ambiguous about this, and I enjoyed this aspect of it.
The book is written as a series of disconnected vignettes. They are in roughly chronological order and take us up to the demolition of the ghetto called the Bramble Patch, but there is no flow between them and they don't really tell a story. Instead we just have a series of atmospheric pieces, short stories really, that set the overall mood of the book. They are wonderfully written, but some point in the middle of the book I found they started to feel a bit samey and this is where I ran into problems with it. I had to put the book down for a bit and return to it a couple of days later. The ending is also a bit anticlimactic, though I suppose this is inevitable as all the colour and vibrancy of the ghetto dissolves into the blandness of the real world.
Overall this is what I'd describe as a "difficult" book. It has no story and the characters are randomly scattered around so we don't have a main protagonist to follow and empathise with. I can't unconditionally recommend it, but I'd say it was worth a try if your reading schedule permits.
February 21, 2022
Welcome to Bramble Patch, the gritty underbelly of Napoleonville. “These Bones” offers rich details to ensnare the senses of this macabre wonderland. A psychic “witch” child - or perhaps prophetic Crone Mother - will be your guide amongst the ghosts and bones from the lives of the Bramble Patch.
This is an excellent read. It's a gothic horror set in the early to mid 1900's. It takes a multi-faceted look at the life of Bramble Patch with the day-to-day, social, and spiritual details of the people living and dying there. It has the quality of a historical society or genealogical study, in a way that reminds me of those Victorian-style fantasy books, collecting bits from here and there to lead the reader on a journey. It’s cast of characters are all too real with nuanced vernacular, social lives, and worries. The detailed setting makes it all too easy to accept or miss the surreal horrors existing in the day-to-day, from the cannibalistic pimp to the prejudices of a time that should be long past.
Bramble Patch is a world that is familiar and yet bewildering. It calls to mind that every tall tale has a grain of truth and “These Bones” speaks to the ghosts and bones of American society.
This is an excellent read. It's a gothic horror set in the early to mid 1900's. It takes a multi-faceted look at the life of Bramble Patch with the day-to-day, social, and spiritual details of the people living and dying there. It has the quality of a historical society or genealogical study, in a way that reminds me of those Victorian-style fantasy books, collecting bits from here and there to lead the reader on a journey. It’s cast of characters are all too real with nuanced vernacular, social lives, and worries. The detailed setting makes it all too easy to accept or miss the surreal horrors existing in the day-to-day, from the cannibalistic pimp to the prejudices of a time that should be long past.
Bramble Patch is a world that is familiar and yet bewildering. It calls to mind that every tall tale has a grain of truth and “These Bones” speaks to the ghosts and bones of American society.
November 15, 2023
These Bones is incandescent. A light in the very dark place it renders. The magic is blink-and-miss, so grounded in the realism by painterly prose that story and poetry, literal and figurative meld together in the most powerful way. The nonlinear found document construction empowers themes of generational trauma that other media can only nominally explore when rooted in a single place in time. And as optimistic as the story is moving forward from the disintegration of the Bramble Patch in the closing anecdotes, that generational trauma beats at the heart of this book. The central events unfold with an alarming and electrifying grip that made me feel more strongly than most of the rest of the fiction I read this year. Taken altogether, These Bones presents the embattled town at its core as a brilliant, heartfelt, and heart-rending tapestry that gives urgency to the monsters of the American past. The spectral fiction gives voice to painful non-fictions in a way that makes me wish deeply that this volume finds its way deeper into the mainstream. Pick it up and give it your time. It deserves it.
February 24, 2022
Kayla Chenault can write - period.
Lots of characters and the book spans decades, with multiple generations of the same families included so it can be a chore to keep up with. Its well worth it to pay attention and Kayla's writing expertise makes that a joy, even if the content is raw and intense.
The history and people who made up the Bramble Patch give life to it, and I found myself not putting the book down. I had to know what became of everything and everyone in the end. I know this will take a reread or two due to the density of the story, but I'm looking forward to it. Final note - the last few pages were worth the read and I think I'm going to be hooked on novellas for a while. Hopefully authors like Kayla continue to put forth good (great) reads like this that help make up the fabric of our history.
Lots of characters and the book spans decades, with multiple generations of the same families included so it can be a chore to keep up with. Its well worth it to pay attention and Kayla's writing expertise makes that a joy, even if the content is raw and intense.
The history and people who made up the Bramble Patch give life to it, and I found myself not putting the book down. I had to know what became of everything and everyone in the end. I know this will take a reread or two due to the density of the story, but I'm looking forward to it. Final note - the last few pages were worth the read and I think I'm going to be hooked on novellas for a while. Hopefully authors like Kayla continue to put forth good (great) reads like this that help make up the fabric of our history.
March 22, 2023
This short novel is billed as a Gothic. It involves a Black community living next to a white town in the early 20th century. I'm not sure I'd call it Gothic, there are elements of body horror and racial terror that make me describe it as horror, but the elevated language (there are some wonderful metaphors) probably led the publisher to describe it as Gothic.
The largest issue I have with it is that the story is too big for the package. There are 36 named characters (itemized in a list up front) for 157 pages of text. This is way too many people for a reader to track without paging back and forth. Even the smallest amount of time away from the book will result in the reader having to refresh their memory when they pick it up again. Reading it straight through is a better option, but not everyone wants to (or has the uninterrupted time to) absorb 157 pages at one sitting.
The largest issue I have with it is that the story is too big for the package. There are 36 named characters (itemized in a list up front) for 157 pages of text. This is way too many people for a reader to track without paging back and forth. Even the smallest amount of time away from the book will result in the reader having to refresh their memory when they pick it up again. Reading it straight through is a better option, but not everyone wants to (or has the uninterrupted time to) absorb 157 pages at one sitting.
October 12, 2021
This is a short but intense Gothic Horror style novel about families within the neighborhood called the Bramble Patch. The novel paints a harsh reality for the Lyons family and others as they are stuck in a place of systematic racism and inequalities. Most of all everyone lives in fear of the Barghest who deals in the underworld and has a ghoulish appetite, always feeding on his next victim. The novel follows life in the Bramble Patch and readers see the characters navigate through the neighborhood’s sharp decline.
Read the full book review on the blog: https://www.lifeofafemalebibliophile....
Read the full book review on the blog: https://www.lifeofafemalebibliophile....
November 14, 2023
Easily the most literary fiction I read all year. The prose was beautiful. I appreciated the chance to read some fiction that required me to open the dictionary again, and I mean that as a high compliment. In an over-saturated media landscape where "did it make me feel anything?" has become the new metric by which I measure a thing's success, by which I sus out the content from the creation, I was truly moved reading this.
May 7, 2025
This lyrical, historical horror novella is a study in holding contradictions together and I adored it. It was real and totally dreamlike, it was hard to follow and very clear. The language could go from beautiful to disgusting sometimes from word to word. The writing and themes are super well crafted!
Honestly my only con is it needs a cover that better suits its depth and richness.
Honestly my only con is it needs a cover that better suits its depth and richness.
Did Not Finish
October 8, 2021With how short it is I expect to be hooked pretty early on and this didn't do it for me. I felt like there was a lot of bouncing around and didn't feel there was very good connections being made. Possible I was also lacking some information as well as some edits/inclusions because of having an ARC.
December 11, 2021
Loose around the edges like a nightmare you can't quite shake the next day.
The epistolary elements: interviews, recordings, photos are the pieces that anchor this story in reality.
It's sharp and beautiful and brutal.
The epistolary elements: interviews, recordings, photos are the pieces that anchor this story in reality.
It's sharp and beautiful and brutal.
February 11, 2022
I'm not a fan of gothic literature so not sure why I picked this book. Found it very dark and depressing with similar vibes to Nantucket in Moby Dick. If Gothic American literature appeals to you maybe you may find this more appealing.
July 24, 2022
Like many other reviewers, I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. It's definitely not like much I've ever read before, and at times it was pretty hard to follow. But it was well-written and I look forward to reading more of her work.
March 7, 2022
Review pending.
January 5, 2023
A little difficult to dig into at first, but quickly picked up mid-text. No spoilers to share, but the ending is one of the most beautiful send-offs I have read in a very long time.
October 26, 2023
The premise is great but it switches so much through different perspectives without a world of how much time has passed that it’s hard to keep track
July 2, 2024
Woah
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