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Bone Jack
Times have been tough for Ash lately, and all he wants is for everything to go back to the way it used to be. Back before drought ruined the land and disease killed off the livestock. Before Ash’s father went off to war and returned carrying psychological scars. Before his best friend, Mark, started acting strangely.
As Ash trains for his town’s annual Stag Chase—a race rooted in violent, ancient lore—he’s certain that if he can win and make his father proud, life will return to normal. But the line between reality and illusion is rapidly blurring, and the past has a way of threatening the present.
When a run in the mountains brings Ash face-to-face with Bone Jack—a figure that guards the boundary between the living world and the dead—everything changes once more. As dark energies take root and the world as he knows it is upended, it’s up to Ash to restore things to their proper order and literally run for his life.
As Ash trains for his town’s annual Stag Chase—a race rooted in violent, ancient lore—he’s certain that if he can win and make his father proud, life will return to normal. But the line between reality and illusion is rapidly blurring, and the past has a way of threatening the present.
When a run in the mountains brings Ash face-to-face with Bone Jack—a figure that guards the boundary between the living world and the dead—everything changes once more. As dark energies take root and the world as he knows it is upended, it’s up to Ash to restore things to their proper order and literally run for his life.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 3, 2014
27 people are currently reading
1091 people want to read
About the author
Sara Crowe
4 books16 followersSara Crowe was born in Cornwall and raised all over England by her restless parents. She taught cinema and photography studies until 2012 when she and her partner bought a van and spent the next 18 months travelling around the British Isles. She currently lives in a tumbledown cottage in Lincolnshire. Bone Jack is her first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 110 reviews
April 9, 2014
I have been a huge fan of British fantasy writer Alan Garner since I was 11. I went to the same school as Garner, and all the locations of his earlier books were extremely familiar to me - which made the books extra special because a sense of place is central to Garner's superb fantasies. I stayed with him until what was, for me, his best book The Owl Service, after which we parted company as Garner's writing headed into a more confused place.
Since reading Garner I have come to enjoy other fantasy writers - notably Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman - whose real world fantasies are far better than pure sword and sorcery because their locations, myth and legend, whether existent or conjured up for the book, intertwine with the lives of ordinary people in a world we know and understand, making the stories much more powerful.
What Sara Crowe has done with Bone Jack is remarkable - she has brought back the intensity of reading Garner. While entirely its own book, and not a pastiche, I felt that same sense of real connection with the landscape, and the dread of the kind of dark fantasy that teenagers understand but adults tend to forget. This is pitched pretty much at the same level as Garner's Elidor - more sophisticated and knowing than his Alderly Edge books, but without the adult connotations of The Owl Service.
It would be an understatement to say I loved it - it was my teen reading recaptured. There isn't an awful lot of 'young adult' fiction I enjoy. I'm generally happy to leave it to its target audience. But Bone Jack hit me fair and square between the eyes.
If I am going to be really picky, I thought Ash's father's problems felt a little engineered to isolate the main character, rather than working as a true part of the plot. I also felt Bone Jack was underused. But those are tiny writers' points that really don't signify much at all.
If you, or a teen you know, likes the kind of fantasy that is tied up with dark legends, blood and the land - but not so dark that the main character can't win through - then you are going to love this book.
Since reading Garner I have come to enjoy other fantasy writers - notably Gene Wolfe and Neil Gaiman - whose real world fantasies are far better than pure sword and sorcery because their locations, myth and legend, whether existent or conjured up for the book, intertwine with the lives of ordinary people in a world we know and understand, making the stories much more powerful.
What Sara Crowe has done with Bone Jack is remarkable - she has brought back the intensity of reading Garner. While entirely its own book, and not a pastiche, I felt that same sense of real connection with the landscape, and the dread of the kind of dark fantasy that teenagers understand but adults tend to forget. This is pitched pretty much at the same level as Garner's Elidor - more sophisticated and knowing than his Alderly Edge books, but without the adult connotations of The Owl Service.
It would be an understatement to say I loved it - it was my teen reading recaptured. There isn't an awful lot of 'young adult' fiction I enjoy. I'm generally happy to leave it to its target audience. But Bone Jack hit me fair and square between the eyes.
If I am going to be really picky, I thought Ash's father's problems felt a little engineered to isolate the main character, rather than working as a true part of the plot. I also felt Bone Jack was underused. But those are tiny writers' points that really don't signify much at all.
If you, or a teen you know, likes the kind of fantasy that is tied up with dark legends, blood and the land - but not so dark that the main character can't win through - then you are going to love this book.
May 5, 2021
I was afraid that this book would lose its magic after a second read, but I was entirely incorrect. Not only did I enjoy this the same amount I did when I read it 4 years ago, but it also still contained the same suspense. This is pretty spectacular considering the fact that I knew the ending already.
CW: Suicide, grief, descriptions of dead animals, descriptions of injuries (bodily harm), PTSD
I think that the book synopsis does a great job of describing what this book is about:
Ash's dad has just returned from war, close to breakdown, far from the war hero Ash was expecting. Ash is going to be the stag boy in the annual Stag Chase. He's been waiting to tell his dad he's following in his footsteps, he'll make him proud. But Dad is stuck in a world of imaginary threats.
When Ash's grieving best friend pushes him away too, his world suddenly seems lonely and threatening. So Ash retreats to the mountains, to his punishing training runs. But in the mountains dark things are stirring - the hound boys of old haunt his running steps and Ash hears the death cry of a stag boy. Ash starts to wonder how much of the sinister pagan stories about the Stag Chase are true, and what it all has to do with his friend's anger and grief.
As death haunts his every step, Ash has to find a way to live again.
Something that is so great about this book is the depth of relationships and grief it has. It explores Ash's relationship with his estranged friend Mark, with his father who has PTSD and is able to show their grief without being swallowed up in it. You can see the pain that caused and is caused by grief and this really shone through the book.
Bone Jack also encoporates folklore into the story and it not only gives the story suspense but it also gives it continued on my blog...
CW: Suicide, grief, descriptions of dead animals, descriptions of injuries (bodily harm), PTSD
I think that the book synopsis does a great job of describing what this book is about:
Ash's dad has just returned from war, close to breakdown, far from the war hero Ash was expecting. Ash is going to be the stag boy in the annual Stag Chase. He's been waiting to tell his dad he's following in his footsteps, he'll make him proud. But Dad is stuck in a world of imaginary threats.
When Ash's grieving best friend pushes him away too, his world suddenly seems lonely and threatening. So Ash retreats to the mountains, to his punishing training runs. But in the mountains dark things are stirring - the hound boys of old haunt his running steps and Ash hears the death cry of a stag boy. Ash starts to wonder how much of the sinister pagan stories about the Stag Chase are true, and what it all has to do with his friend's anger and grief.
As death haunts his every step, Ash has to find a way to live again.
Something that is so great about this book is the depth of relationships and grief it has. It explores Ash's relationship with his estranged friend Mark, with his father who has PTSD and is able to show their grief without being swallowed up in it. You can see the pain that caused and is caused by grief and this really shone through the book.
Bone Jack also encoporates folklore into the story and it not only gives the story suspense but it also gives it continued on my blog...
January 13, 2021
This was interesting in its intersection of mythology and ptsd (of various sorts). It was dark, but less in the folk-horror supernatural way I was expecting and more in the "humans do some dark stuff" sene.
It was more like 3 star read for me in terms of personal enjoyment, but 4 for various elements that I liked. I wasn't interested at first but got more into it in the second half so I am rounding up. Recommended for people who like Green Man type mythos, or if you're looking for something for kids dealing with loved ones' trauma.
Also I was hoping for something more like Steve Berman's "Harvestbuck" so I'm trying not to downrate this for not being the book of my heart's desire.
It was more like 3 star read for me in terms of personal enjoyment, but 4 for various elements that I liked. I wasn't interested at first but got more into it in the second half so I am rounding up. Recommended for people who like Green Man type mythos, or if you're looking for something for kids dealing with loved ones' trauma.
Also I was hoping for something more like Steve Berman's "Harvestbuck" so I'm trying not to downrate this for not being the book of my heart's desire.
March 27, 2016
I loved, loved, loved every second of reading this book, which is why I let reading it drag out so long. I realised from the very first that it would be quick reading - I swallowed down about four chapters on the bus ride back to my house, and I felt slightly cheated because of it. Or maybe like I was cheating the book instead. So, I slowed right down, instead.
Crowe's writing is delicious, and made this already amazing story even richer. There were nuggets of phrasal gold scattered liberally through the book, and every so often I would have to pause to contemplate them.
I was expecting an interesting, somewhat dark story when I first came across this book on goodreads, way back when. One father suffering PTSD, another dead, and a title character called 'Bone Jack'. This delivered above and beyond my expectations, and gave me everything I could possibly have wanted. Not so dark that I felt unable to slog through, but dark enough to thrill and delight. When I finished, I was breathless. I wanted to scream to the world how much I loved it. I may or may not have managed to contain myself...
Crowe's writing is delicious, and made this already amazing story even richer. There were nuggets of phrasal gold scattered liberally through the book, and every so often I would have to pause to contemplate them.
I was expecting an interesting, somewhat dark story when I first came across this book on goodreads, way back when. One father suffering PTSD, another dead, and a title character called 'Bone Jack'. This delivered above and beyond my expectations, and gave me everything I could possibly have wanted. Not so dark that I felt unable to slog through, but dark enough to thrill and delight. When I finished, I was breathless. I wanted to scream to the world how much I loved it. I may or may not have managed to contain myself...
October 14, 2017
Definitely the kind of book that could give me nightmares, or at least keep me up late until I finish. But no, I got about 1/2-way last night and am having trouble picking it up today. It doesn't seem to be poorly written, but for some reason it's not grabbing me.
.....
Done. Hmm. Could be ineffective because it's told so matter-of-factly. Some explanations are repeated too many times, too. And the metaphor is a bit obvious, as are the earnest themes. It's not a bad book, but to me it just seems insufficient. Since I can't think of anyone to whom I'd recommend it, I'm rounding down my 2.5 star rating. Still, the author has potential, and I'd consider more by her.
Oh, and btw, though some aspects of it resemble Lord of the Flies, the themes are not similar. And, unfortunately, the .
.....
Done. Hmm. Could be ineffective because it's told so matter-of-factly. Some explanations are repeated too many times, too. And the metaphor is a bit obvious, as are the earnest themes. It's not a bad book, but to me it just seems insufficient. Since I can't think of anyone to whom I'd recommend it, I'm rounding down my 2.5 star rating. Still, the author has potential, and I'd consider more by her.
Oh, and btw, though some aspects of it resemble Lord of the Flies, the themes are not similar. And, unfortunately, the .
May 12, 2014
Reviewers have described "Bone Jack" as dark, magical, mysterious, haunting and compelling -- all accurate words for this beautifully written YA debut novel by Sara Crowe.
I was hooked from the first page, which revolves around a village's Annual Stag Chase, the history of which stretches back into the days of magic and pagan ritual.
The author knows how to deliver character, plot and setting while always maintaining forward momentum. She has a particular skill for painting a landscape, so the reader can see, touch, smell, and taste it through the senses of the main protagonist, 15-year-old Ash. He's a thoroughly contemporary boy faced with issues such as his dad returning from war suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome; and a falling out with best friend, Mark, which requires patching up before the misunderstanding proves fatal for one or both teenagers.
The landscape comes over as an entity in its own right: one that humans cannot tame beyond a point and one that requires respect, with its natural laws, history and mythology, of which people sometimes need reminding.
Sara Crowe's writing is both literary and accessible. Ash is a convincing hero: sensitive and brave, but still a very real teenager. I think that he should equally appeal to male and female young adult readers, and that they'll find themselves cheering him on to win the Annual Stag Race. They'll also find Bone Jack and the magic that surrounds him most fascinating in a creepy way.
This is also definitely the type of novel that parents sneak a read of, too.
And just to reassure people, the Annual Stag Race does not involve the hunting or killing of animals.
Buy and enjoy. This novel comes highly recommended, and not just by me.
I was hooked from the first page, which revolves around a village's Annual Stag Chase, the history of which stretches back into the days of magic and pagan ritual.
The author knows how to deliver character, plot and setting while always maintaining forward momentum. She has a particular skill for painting a landscape, so the reader can see, touch, smell, and taste it through the senses of the main protagonist, 15-year-old Ash. He's a thoroughly contemporary boy faced with issues such as his dad returning from war suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome; and a falling out with best friend, Mark, which requires patching up before the misunderstanding proves fatal for one or both teenagers.
The landscape comes over as an entity in its own right: one that humans cannot tame beyond a point and one that requires respect, with its natural laws, history and mythology, of which people sometimes need reminding.
Sara Crowe's writing is both literary and accessible. Ash is a convincing hero: sensitive and brave, but still a very real teenager. I think that he should equally appeal to male and female young adult readers, and that they'll find themselves cheering him on to win the Annual Stag Race. They'll also find Bone Jack and the magic that surrounds him most fascinating in a creepy way.
This is also definitely the type of novel that parents sneak a read of, too.
And just to reassure people, the Annual Stag Race does not involve the hunting or killing of animals.
Buy and enjoy. This novel comes highly recommended, and not just by me.
December 28, 2019
If you are located in the US please PLEASE do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook version of this book, because the US publishers trashed this book by downgrading it from YA to Middle Grade.
The book is originally a UK YA book and the audiobook is based on that version and holy smokes is it soooo much better then what the US did to it.
Chunks of the story were completely removed to make it kid friendly.
This story gets dark, 15/16 year old boys threatening to murder each other, suicide, an army dad who suffers from PTSD, so many heavy harsh elements that are severely downplayed or completely removed from the US version.
Each chapter just got increasingly darker and heavier which really helped sell the story for me, I’m so use to US YA books ending is happy love stories that this was a fresh of breath air. It starts heavy and then ends heavy, aside from the supernatural aspects of the story, which were good, the story is real, and tackles real problems and issues that some people face and it doesn’t gloss it over. (unless your reading the US version)
It’s a deep story with real issues and a bit of supernatural fun to bring other elements of the story to life, it’s a heavy ride but worth it.
I just can’t understand why the US publishers felt it was necessary to downgrade it to Middlegrade and just completely hack and trash the story, it lost its whole appeal and deeper storytelling that was involved.
I constantly compared the two as I had both version from
My library, and I’m just really upset the US publishers ruined a really good book.
The book is originally a UK YA book and the audiobook is based on that version and holy smokes is it soooo much better then what the US did to it.
Chunks of the story were completely removed to make it kid friendly.
This story gets dark, 15/16 year old boys threatening to murder each other, suicide, an army dad who suffers from PTSD, so many heavy harsh elements that are severely downplayed or completely removed from the US version.
Each chapter just got increasingly darker and heavier which really helped sell the story for me, I’m so use to US YA books ending is happy love stories that this was a fresh of breath air. It starts heavy and then ends heavy, aside from the supernatural aspects of the story, which were good, the story is real, and tackles real problems and issues that some people face and it doesn’t gloss it over. (unless your reading the US version)
It’s a deep story with real issues and a bit of supernatural fun to bring other elements of the story to life, it’s a heavy ride but worth it.
I just can’t understand why the US publishers felt it was necessary to downgrade it to Middlegrade and just completely hack and trash the story, it lost its whole appeal and deeper storytelling that was involved.
I constantly compared the two as I had both version from
My library, and I’m just really upset the US publishers ruined a really good book.
January 1, 2018
This feels like a classic story from the vintage age of Celtic fantasy (the 1970s) spilling over into the real world, with dark consequences. If you were, or are, a devourer of British stories tied to place and the myths of those places, and the kids who have to deal with the old dark things becoming real, you will love this.
May 12, 2020
4.5🌟
A really well done YA story about resilience, grief and friendship all mixed up with very interesting folkloric tropes that was just my cup of tea. Could not put this book down today as I really needed to know how it all turned out and the resolution was quite emotional. Well written, fast paced and intriguing YA story.
A really well done YA story about resilience, grief and friendship all mixed up with very interesting folkloric tropes that was just my cup of tea. Could not put this book down today as I really needed to know how it all turned out and the resolution was quite emotional. Well written, fast paced and intriguing YA story.
December 9, 2021
Wasn't a bad audiobook by any means but didn't grab my attention or made me overly curious on what was going to happen next. Not sure if it just wasn't my cup of tea or if I consumed it in the wrong format. Some books works better in either book or audiobook format for me
October 11, 2023
If you prefer atmosphere and mystery to thrills, frights and action, The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy did it first, and better.
Now I know most people aren't going to be reading paperbacks from the 70s. I can't even adequately explain why I do - they predate me, and I've only just gotten into them this year. But there's something about them, these books by Penelope Lively, Susan Cooper and others of this era. They evoke an atmosphere, a fully immersive world, with full characters, scents, topography, place names, ancient tradition, the modern mundane... it's satisfying escapism, which captures my imagination and leaves me with a sense that I was there myself.
Sara Crowe has done a good job of this. All of the ingredients are right. The presentation is attractive and in keeping with the modern trends. But something is missing. And I have the feeling that I am going to be in the minority with this view.
Early in this story, there is the eerie Stag Chase / Stag Hunt, a group of boys acting as hounds, trying to catch the 'stag', another boy, also conveniently a loner of a kid, running for his life (metaphorically, or in the literal sense - that's the horror). The hounding boys have taken on a Lord of the Flies-esque mob mentality and primeval blood lust, and the stag runs terrified, as prey...
This is the climax of The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, with ghostly apparitions and a spectral wild hunt muddling reality. And this scene, almost identical, is where Crowe begins her story of British village tradition rooted in ancient druidic or pagan sacrificial rites.
I suspect that for most readers, Bone Jack would be the preferred book. It's only five years old, cell phones exist (though, naturally, they don't have any signal and are utterly useless whenever present in the story), and the action is never far off. Ash Tyler is the protagonist, and Mark Cullen, his ex-best friend, is the antagonist. Ash's father has returned from a desert war (Afghanistan, I guess? A flashback, more background, mention of a base somewhere, would have been welcome but was not forthcoming), a quivering ghost of a man suffering from PTSD and refusing visits from the army counsellors (some doubt in my mind here - surely they wouldn't have cleared a man in THIS condition for release). Mark's father killed himself. This is described in some detail (method of suicide, discovery, etc.) early on. And later, the scene itself is described in detail.
I'm not big on censorship or protecting teens from reality, but there are many studies that show that children younger than 18-19 years focus (obsess) on suicide methodology. This is one of the many reasons that details of suicides are not reported in the news, and if they are, are carefully glossed over. It is not helpful to give emotionally labile youngsters, who lack the ability to engage in anything other than black-and-white-thinking, detailed descriptions of how they can kill themselves. There are many, many studies and scientific investigations to support this. And so I was surprised to read such detail in a book that is rated for "middle grade" readers (I know this is so, because it is rated as such on the AR book finder sites and is therefore acceptable reading fare for the August MG Reading Challenge I'm currently taking part in). Again, I'm no pro-censorship. But I do believe in warning labels. This book has detailed description of suicide and suicide methodology. So there we go. I'll add it to the relevant Listopia list, too.
Another Listopia list this book belongs on is the Green Man list. Bone Jack is apparently associated with Celtic mythologies of The Green Man, Taliesin, Myrddin Wyllt (a Merlin prototype/contributor), and Lailoken - all wild men of the woods who straddle or can cross the boundary of our world (the living) and the otherworld (the spirit world, the world of the death, Annwn, etc.). I liked the excerpts from The Battle of the Trees (Cad Goddeu, The Book of Taliesin - I think for example: Poems from the Book of Taliesin), and I liked how Crowe tried to tie it all together.
I just don't think she quite managed it. And that's to say more about the skills of say Cooper and Lively to do so, rather than less about Crowe (apparently this the author's debut book - not a bad start, I'd say!). There was nothing wrong with the book, although in spite of her efforts, I did feel that the characters were a little flat, though I can't say why. Their circumstances were well-described and could elicit sympathy, but I still felt that I didn't know them personally. I can't tell if it was something as simple as not hearing an anecdote about their personality as a child, or if they had freckles or not (and how they felt about them), or what they received for Christmas last year... Ash's mother bothered me especially. She could so easily have been just that little bit more filled out ahead of Ash's father returning from the military, completely drunk and in shell shock. So when she was being avoidant, her absence would have been better appreciated.
There were a few bits that niggled. Spoilers follow here - I can't be bothered to hide them, so don't read on if you don't want them: Ash gets a crude image of a stag carved into chest by Mark and the hound boys with the tip of a knife, against his will. And then Ash is later hospitalized. No one comments on the knife wounds. Ash's father was also a Stag Boy. There's a photo of him looking subdued rather than triumphant when he 'won'. We find out later why that is (that his life was saved by Mark's father), but did he also have a stag carved into his chest by a frenzied mob of boys? Or was that just Mark's doing? And the bird attack to the face - that happened to Ash's father, too. We get an explanation, from Bone Jack, about the ghosts of the hunt and how they are present annually, to greater or lesser extent. So then Mark (we presume) put the crow's feather in the house to terrifying Ash's father - and Ash's father knew he had to throw it from Stag's Leap. Or was he considering jumping, because that was also briefly mentioned? I *think* it was all supposed to tie together, but the author had so many threads flapping around the breeze, I rather lost track of which were woven into where. I think any clever crafting here might have been lost on me. Instead of feeling satisfied that aspects were being resolved/explained, I was struggling to keep the narrative as a whole in my mind's eye. Also - there was no map. LOTS of places, ridge, markers, peaks, roads, villages described, but I found they were hard to reconcile (and I'm gifted with directions, generally). Here's a case where a sketch of the region (a la The Weirdstone of Brisingamen or even The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings) would have really helped, especially with the running routes.
The were so many times where Ash could have just told someone about Mark's increasingly credible death threats against him, and didn't. And most of the time it was, I think, because of a sense of guilt or debt to his former friend. Okay. But the kid was homeless, and so was his kid sister. And he didn't tell anyone, even when Mark was reduced to eating roadkill, and his little sister sleeping in the abandoned farm where their father had hanged himself. He didn't want to worry his mom, because she had enough to worry about with his dad. He didn't want their nosy neighbour to suspect Mark and Callie were feral out of some sense of duty to the Cullen kids (why?! Ash seemed worried about their welfare, too - wouldn't he want to see them safe? ESPECIALLY after the incident with the wolf?). He knew that Mark had flipped. He knew that Mark had found his father's body (and worse, which we learn later), and had gone mad afterwards. There was mention of Harriet, the 'booming middle aged woman' who was his mom's best friend - couldn't he have gone to her and seen if she could help get a 13 year old feral boy and his youngest sister somewhere safe to stay? Callie didn't want to be taken into care of the state - well tough $#!% when your brother's gone loco and is wearing untanned and fetid, rotting deer hides and heads! Ash kept gagging over the rotten flesh and maggots - did this kid never worry about food poisoning? Access to clean water?!
Anyway, I could rant for awhile, because it did feel a bit loose in parts (kids living feral, but they'll die of exposure in a few hours injured on a ledge.. possibly true, but then again, where did Mark normally sleep?). And was a blood sacrifice required after all? Or not? How did the wildfire start? Will there be another Stag Race next year - did the organizers get in shit for endangering the lives of 20 or 30 teenage boys? What of the news crew - were they keen to get an interview with Ash after he was released from the hospital?
I don't know.
I think that Sara Crowe read The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, thought, "Oh man - I could redo this one and expand upon it!", and then added all the chills and thrills that were missing, and the gruesome horror, and the darkness (suicide, war trauma, etc.), and really make a masterpiece of it.
But the thing about Lively's book was that it was simple. Light. And the mystery remained and left me wondering. With Susan Cooper's stuff, she gets right in there and weaves it all together, building a fantasy world rich in meaning and symbolism. And Crowe was sort of neither here nor there. I think she took too much on here for it to resolve in a satisfying way. I didn't really get a good sense of Thornditch. I didn't know what species of 'thorn trees' they were meant to be. And there was also forest? And suddenly a new ridge that was previously unmentioned, with a standing stone. Callie and Ash had gone to the library, and the librarian said that "folklore" was his expertise - why the hell didn't they go back? Learn more about the Stag Hunt, and the standing stone?! (I don't think the author had anything more to say, and more the pity). It was set in "Northern England", but on moorland, and... I don't know, it just didn't seem real in the end. And it could of. It just made me want to reread Astercote as well, and really feel as if I was present in the village.
All in all, a creepy read of the folk horror variety. But very dark (again SUICIDE METHODOLOGY and DESCRIPTION) for a middle grade audience (like Lord of the Flies). The Horn Dances and Stag Chase / Stag Hunts are a favourite topic of mine, and I enjoy reading more fiction based upon them. This isn't the best of those, but it's not bad.
EDIT 11.10.23 - I finally read Stag Boy (free to read from OpenLibrary), and it just knocks this one's socks off. Slightly older group, definitely sexual-awakening, "control the beast, or let the beast control you" theme. But if you liked Bone Jack, you might love Stag Boy. It also dates to ca. the 70s, like The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy (which has a female protagonist). If you're really into creepy pagan horn dances in juvenile lit, do not miss The Visitor: A Story of Suspense (originally published as Billy Buck) - you'll have to buy it secondhand, but I think it's well worth the investment, if this sort of thing is your bag. ;)
Now I know most people aren't going to be reading paperbacks from the 70s. I can't even adequately explain why I do - they predate me, and I've only just gotten into them this year. But there's something about them, these books by Penelope Lively, Susan Cooper and others of this era. They evoke an atmosphere, a fully immersive world, with full characters, scents, topography, place names, ancient tradition, the modern mundane... it's satisfying escapism, which captures my imagination and leaves me with a sense that I was there myself.
Sara Crowe has done a good job of this. All of the ingredients are right. The presentation is attractive and in keeping with the modern trends. But something is missing. And I have the feeling that I am going to be in the minority with this view.
Early in this story, there is the eerie Stag Chase / Stag Hunt, a group of boys acting as hounds, trying to catch the 'stag', another boy, also conveniently a loner of a kid, running for his life (metaphorically, or in the literal sense - that's the horror). The hounding boys have taken on a Lord of the Flies-esque mob mentality and primeval blood lust, and the stag runs terrified, as prey...
This is the climax of The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, with ghostly apparitions and a spectral wild hunt muddling reality. And this scene, almost identical, is where Crowe begins her story of British village tradition rooted in ancient druidic or pagan sacrificial rites.
I suspect that for most readers, Bone Jack would be the preferred book. It's only five years old, cell phones exist (though, naturally, they don't have any signal and are utterly useless whenever present in the story), and the action is never far off. Ash Tyler is the protagonist, and Mark Cullen, his ex-best friend, is the antagonist. Ash's father has returned from a desert war (Afghanistan, I guess? A flashback, more background, mention of a base somewhere, would have been welcome but was not forthcoming), a quivering ghost of a man suffering from PTSD and refusing visits from the army counsellors (some doubt in my mind here - surely they wouldn't have cleared a man in THIS condition for release). Mark's father killed himself. This is described in some detail (method of suicide, discovery, etc.) early on. And later, the scene itself is described in detail.
I'm not big on censorship or protecting teens from reality, but there are many studies that show that children younger than 18-19 years focus (obsess) on suicide methodology. This is one of the many reasons that details of suicides are not reported in the news, and if they are, are carefully glossed over. It is not helpful to give emotionally labile youngsters, who lack the ability to engage in anything other than black-and-white-thinking, detailed descriptions of how they can kill themselves. There are many, many studies and scientific investigations to support this. And so I was surprised to read such detail in a book that is rated for "middle grade" readers (I know this is so, because it is rated as such on the AR book finder sites and is therefore acceptable reading fare for the August MG Reading Challenge I'm currently taking part in). Again, I'm no pro-censorship. But I do believe in warning labels. This book has detailed description of suicide and suicide methodology. So there we go. I'll add it to the relevant Listopia list, too.
Another Listopia list this book belongs on is the Green Man list. Bone Jack is apparently associated with Celtic mythologies of The Green Man, Taliesin, Myrddin Wyllt (a Merlin prototype/contributor), and Lailoken - all wild men of the woods who straddle or can cross the boundary of our world (the living) and the otherworld (the spirit world, the world of the death, Annwn, etc.). I liked the excerpts from The Battle of the Trees (Cad Goddeu, The Book of Taliesin - I think for example: Poems from the Book of Taliesin), and I liked how Crowe tried to tie it all together.
I just don't think she quite managed it. And that's to say more about the skills of say Cooper and Lively to do so, rather than less about Crowe (apparently this the author's debut book - not a bad start, I'd say!). There was nothing wrong with the book, although in spite of her efforts, I did feel that the characters were a little flat, though I can't say why. Their circumstances were well-described and could elicit sympathy, but I still felt that I didn't know them personally. I can't tell if it was something as simple as not hearing an anecdote about their personality as a child, or if they had freckles or not (and how they felt about them), or what they received for Christmas last year... Ash's mother bothered me especially. She could so easily have been just that little bit more filled out ahead of Ash's father returning from the military, completely drunk and in shell shock. So when she was being avoidant, her absence would have been better appreciated.
There were a few bits that niggled. Spoilers follow here - I can't be bothered to hide them, so don't read on if you don't want them: Ash gets a crude image of a stag carved into chest by Mark and the hound boys with the tip of a knife, against his will. And then Ash is later hospitalized. No one comments on the knife wounds. Ash's father was also a Stag Boy. There's a photo of him looking subdued rather than triumphant when he 'won'. We find out later why that is (that his life was saved by Mark's father), but did he also have a stag carved into his chest by a frenzied mob of boys? Or was that just Mark's doing? And the bird attack to the face - that happened to Ash's father, too. We get an explanation, from Bone Jack, about the ghosts of the hunt and how they are present annually, to greater or lesser extent. So then Mark (we presume) put the crow's feather in the house to terrifying Ash's father - and Ash's father knew he had to throw it from Stag's Leap. Or was he considering jumping, because that was also briefly mentioned? I *think* it was all supposed to tie together, but the author had so many threads flapping around the breeze, I rather lost track of which were woven into where. I think any clever crafting here might have been lost on me. Instead of feeling satisfied that aspects were being resolved/explained, I was struggling to keep the narrative as a whole in my mind's eye. Also - there was no map. LOTS of places, ridge, markers, peaks, roads, villages described, but I found they were hard to reconcile (and I'm gifted with directions, generally). Here's a case where a sketch of the region (a la The Weirdstone of Brisingamen or even The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings) would have really helped, especially with the running routes.
The were so many times where Ash could have just told someone about Mark's increasingly credible death threats against him, and didn't. And most of the time it was, I think, because of a sense of guilt or debt to his former friend. Okay. But the kid was homeless, and so was his kid sister. And he didn't tell anyone, even when Mark was reduced to eating roadkill, and his little sister sleeping in the abandoned farm where their father had hanged himself. He didn't want to worry his mom, because she had enough to worry about with his dad. He didn't want their nosy neighbour to suspect Mark and Callie were feral out of some sense of duty to the Cullen kids (why?! Ash seemed worried about their welfare, too - wouldn't he want to see them safe? ESPECIALLY after the incident with the wolf?). He knew that Mark had flipped. He knew that Mark had found his father's body (and worse, which we learn later), and had gone mad afterwards. There was mention of Harriet, the 'booming middle aged woman' who was his mom's best friend - couldn't he have gone to her and seen if she could help get a 13 year old feral boy and his youngest sister somewhere safe to stay? Callie didn't want to be taken into care of the state - well tough $#!% when your brother's gone loco and is wearing untanned and fetid, rotting deer hides and heads! Ash kept gagging over the rotten flesh and maggots - did this kid never worry about food poisoning? Access to clean water?!
Anyway, I could rant for awhile, because it did feel a bit loose in parts (kids living feral, but they'll die of exposure in a few hours injured on a ledge.. possibly true, but then again, where did Mark normally sleep?). And was a blood sacrifice required after all? Or not? How did the wildfire start? Will there be another Stag Race next year - did the organizers get in shit for endangering the lives of 20 or 30 teenage boys? What of the news crew - were they keen to get an interview with Ash after he was released from the hospital?
I don't know.
I think that Sara Crowe read The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, thought, "Oh man - I could redo this one and expand upon it!", and then added all the chills and thrills that were missing, and the gruesome horror, and the darkness (suicide, war trauma, etc.), and really make a masterpiece of it.
But the thing about Lively's book was that it was simple. Light. And the mystery remained and left me wondering. With Susan Cooper's stuff, she gets right in there and weaves it all together, building a fantasy world rich in meaning and symbolism. And Crowe was sort of neither here nor there. I think she took too much on here for it to resolve in a satisfying way. I didn't really get a good sense of Thornditch. I didn't know what species of 'thorn trees' they were meant to be. And there was also forest? And suddenly a new ridge that was previously unmentioned, with a standing stone. Callie and Ash had gone to the library, and the librarian said that "folklore" was his expertise - why the hell didn't they go back? Learn more about the Stag Hunt, and the standing stone?! (I don't think the author had anything more to say, and more the pity). It was set in "Northern England", but on moorland, and... I don't know, it just didn't seem real in the end. And it could of. It just made me want to reread Astercote as well, and really feel as if I was present in the village.
All in all, a creepy read of the folk horror variety. But very dark (again SUICIDE METHODOLOGY and DESCRIPTION) for a middle grade audience (like Lord of the Flies). The Horn Dances and Stag Chase / Stag Hunts are a favourite topic of mine, and I enjoy reading more fiction based upon them. This isn't the best of those, but it's not bad.
EDIT 11.10.23 - I finally read Stag Boy (free to read from OpenLibrary), and it just knocks this one's socks off. Slightly older group, definitely sexual-awakening, "control the beast, or let the beast control you" theme. But if you liked Bone Jack, you might love Stag Boy. It also dates to ca. the 70s, like The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy (which has a female protagonist). If you're really into creepy pagan horn dances in juvenile lit, do not miss The Visitor: A Story of Suspense (originally published as Billy Buck) - you'll have to buy it secondhand, but I think it's well worth the investment, if this sort of thing is your bag. ;)
April 18, 2014
Excellently written, a beautifully atmospheric combination of folklore and contemporary life. Like all the best new books, this feels both classic and very fresh. I think this will go far.
July 8, 2021
"Dark, magical, and mysterious, Bone Jack captured me and carried me away."
Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of When you reach me
That was all the blurb I needed to read this book. Immediately the book gives you lord of the flies vibes with a paranormal element.
We get introduced to Ash and Mark, friends who take very different paths and that will change their lives forever.
Ash will race in the ancient and mysterious race called The Stag Chase, where the stag boy (Ash) races in order to make his father proud. We soon find out Mark has very different plans for Ash. The novel deals with heavy topics like the power of friendship, suicide, PTSD, human sacrifice and graphic animal depictions.
But the author deals with them with great sensibility and maturity. We soon find out the power of friendship and the bravery the characters face in adversity.
Full of folklore, myth and magic Bone Jack will haunt your dreams in the best possible way.
P.S Read with the lights on!!!!
Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of When you reach me
That was all the blurb I needed to read this book. Immediately the book gives you lord of the flies vibes with a paranormal element.
We get introduced to Ash and Mark, friends who take very different paths and that will change their lives forever.
Ash will race in the ancient and mysterious race called The Stag Chase, where the stag boy (Ash) races in order to make his father proud. We soon find out Mark has very different plans for Ash. The novel deals with heavy topics like the power of friendship, suicide, PTSD, human sacrifice and graphic animal depictions.
But the author deals with them with great sensibility and maturity. We soon find out the power of friendship and the bravery the characters face in adversity.
Full of folklore, myth and magic Bone Jack will haunt your dreams in the best possible way.
P.S Read with the lights on!!!!
August 27, 2025
Haunting. Chilling. Page turning!
Absolutely glued to this audiobook during my commutes. Everything faded away around me as I took in the story.
What a wild ride! Some deep hidden meanings behind everything that unfold throughout the story. It kept me interested the entire time without any filler.
5/5
Absolutely glued to this audiobook during my commutes. Everything faded away around me as I took in the story.
What a wild ride! Some deep hidden meanings behind everything that unfold throughout the story. It kept me interested the entire time without any filler.
5/5
September 8, 2017
Gostei da mitologia presente na história, contudo penso que a grande corrida, ponto central no livro, poderia ter sido melhor explorada e o próprio Bone Jack, que dá o nome ao livro, deveria ter tido mais protagonismo.
November 14, 2017
This is amazing! Like a combination of Alan Garner and Phil Rickman at their best, with a final half page that is pure joy.
January 20, 2018
A lovely portrayal of old magic and folklore interacting with grief in the present day. Highly recommend!
Read
July 28, 2020I'm not crying I'm not crying I'm not crying
(I'll post a proper review very soon!)
(I'll post a proper review very soon!)
September 25, 2017
I am not sure how to feel about this book because parts of it scared me (remember, I am a baby) and I didn't want to read at night, and parts were exciting and scary at the same time. I would call this book magical realism, where the lines between this world and another world are crossed. The writing is beautiful. Set somewhere in England, there is an annual race called the Stag Race where the fastest boy runs as a stag and the other boys or hounds try to hunt him down. It is meant as a fun race but it has a sinister feel to it as magic or ghosts seem to seep up through the earth. Ash is the stag and wants to make his dad proud. His dad is suffering from PTSD. His former best friend has lost his dad to suicide and maybe lost his mind a little as he tries to make things right but only succeeds in making things wrong. Their paths collide on the day of the stag race. There are some icky parts in it, more scary than gross and the suicide of Mark's father might trigger some kids who have dealt with suicide. I would recommend it for 7th grade and up, for those who like mysterious, suspenseful kind of weird books.
July 27, 2021
This was so good and so sad! I loved it!
August 19, 2021
The premise of this novel is so cool: weird local ceremony with ancient origins and paranormal happenings. In high school, I would've enjoyed this book way more. It's hard to articulate exactly why I don't care for it much now. Probably because the main character is some dumb kid. Like, whiny and dumb. Other characters have more depth, but it's not really developed.
Ash's soldier father has PTSD, a real illness. It was kinda weird for me, though, because the whole time I was expecting a twist with that. Like, it's not really PTSD, it's haunting from the folklore spirits or something, (and the vague and strange way the author talked about Ash's father lent itself to such a suspicion.) But it's not. It's just legitimate mental illness created by "normal" war circumstances. And that's great, it's important to portray mental illness, but it was a weird juxtaposition.
The ending of this book lagged for me. After the climax, there was too much falling action before the resolution, and I'd lost interest. I kept thinking, "there's so much book left, what else happens?" Nothing else happens. It's just really long for mystery reasons.
tl;dr This has a cool premise and is probably great for YA readers. However, it falls flat for me.
Ash's soldier father has PTSD, a real illness. It was kinda weird for me, though, because the whole time I was expecting a twist with that. Like, it's not really PTSD, it's haunting from the folklore spirits or something, (and the vague and strange way the author talked about Ash's father lent itself to such a suspicion.) But it's not. It's just legitimate mental illness created by "normal" war circumstances. And that's great, it's important to portray mental illness, but it was a weird juxtaposition.
The ending of this book lagged for me. After the climax, there was too much falling action before the resolution, and I'd lost interest. I kept thinking, "there's so much book left, what else happens?" Nothing else happens. It's just really long for mystery reasons.
tl;dr This has a cool premise and is probably great for YA readers. However, it falls flat for me.
May 30, 2018
DNF
With it's setting, plot, and mythical elements Bone Jack should have been right up my ally but I made it 96 pages before finally accepting that the majority of this story wasn't working for me and I simply did not care about the fate of any of the characters.
Crowe spent more time telling than showing, and often times in the blandest way possible. Most of the characters actions rung false or robotic for me. The way both Ash and his mother react to his father's struggle with PTSD started to irk me pretty fast. I also grew tired of not knowing Ash's parent's names, seeing them always referred to as Mom and Dad stifled them as actual characters for me. Then there was having to listen to 13 year old character's refer to their childhoods as if they are long behind them. That's not to say real 13 year old's don't have adulthood thrown on them but from my perspective both Ash and Mark only had to deal with the "responsibilities" they took on themselves.
The main reason I'm giving this two stars over one is in large part to the one real glimpse of Bone Jack I got. Had he featured more prominently I would have had an easier time continuing on.
With it's setting, plot, and mythical elements Bone Jack should have been right up my ally but I made it 96 pages before finally accepting that the majority of this story wasn't working for me and I simply did not care about the fate of any of the characters.
Crowe spent more time telling than showing, and often times in the blandest way possible. Most of the characters actions rung false or robotic for me. The way both Ash and his mother react to his father's struggle with PTSD started to irk me pretty fast. I also grew tired of not knowing Ash's parent's names, seeing them always referred to as Mom and Dad stifled them as actual characters for me. Then there was having to listen to 13 year old character's refer to their childhoods as if they are long behind them. That's not to say real 13 year old's don't have adulthood thrown on them but from my perspective both Ash and Mark only had to deal with the "responsibilities" they took on themselves.
The main reason I'm giving this two stars over one is in large part to the one real glimpse of Bone Jack I got. Had he featured more prominently I would have had an easier time continuing on.
July 20, 2017
Dark, mythical, mysterious, and fantastical, this is a story that also touches upon grief, madness, and post-traumatic stress from war. A fast, unearthly read that spirals out of control as more truths are revealed. Like Ash, we readers are naive to what is really happening until we are forced to confront the truth. The book vacillates between reality and surrealism, and I found myself resenting the innuendos at times, but I was also compelled to keep reading. This is definitely not a book for everyone, and I think that is because it's not quite one thing or another; therefore, the book has an identity crisis that frustrated me. I felt sad for Ash's former best friend, and the scenes with Ash's dad evoked melancholy (but certainly showed the effects of PTSD).
I don't agree with the age group recommended for this book. I think teens will connect to the story more than middle schoolers.
I don't agree with the age group recommended for this book. I think teens will connect to the story more than middle schoolers.
November 30, 2017
I was given a free ARC of this title by Penguin.
Bone Jack is about grief, loss, the spectre of death, and the way friendship ebbs and flows, especially during the tween and teen years. It has all the makings of a book I love, especially with its mix of folklore, legend, magic, and ghosts. On paper (bad pun!) this had all the things I love in one package. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the authors prose or maybe (gasp!) I didn't enjoy the young male teen protagonist. He seemed not connected to his emotions. Things happened in the book that I was like "oh" pages and pages before he realized what was going on.
This book may appeal to teen boys who have struggled with suicide, competition, loss of a friend, class and economic struggle, or and alcoholic parent. The supernatural elements are engaging, there just weren't enough for my taste.
contains: suicide, alcoholism, supernatural elements, folklore, working class people, orphans
Bone Jack is about grief, loss, the spectre of death, and the way friendship ebbs and flows, especially during the tween and teen years. It has all the makings of a book I love, especially with its mix of folklore, legend, magic, and ghosts. On paper (bad pun!) this had all the things I love in one package. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the authors prose or maybe (gasp!) I didn't enjoy the young male teen protagonist. He seemed not connected to his emotions. Things happened in the book that I was like "oh" pages and pages before he realized what was going on.
This book may appeal to teen boys who have struggled with suicide, competition, loss of a friend, class and economic struggle, or and alcoholic parent. The supernatural elements are engaging, there just weren't enough for my taste.
contains: suicide, alcoholism, supernatural elements, folklore, working class people, orphans
July 3, 2020
What a fantastic read. The few plot points I felt mildly uncertain about were quickly and easily overshadowed by a heartwarming tale of strength
and perseverance, of overcoming loneliness, and our fundamental need for family. The content gets very heavy, but there is a powerful message here about building resilience, and about the loss of childhood innocence, which happens in increments, through our relationships with others and our environment. Lastly, this book offers revelations into the impacts of grief, and how we will all experience it in some form, typically before adulthood.
I felt this young protagonist really knew who he was, and Bone Jack was an interesting character I would have loved to have seen woven more deeply into the plot. For being so few pages, this story is packed with action and meaningfulness. I read it in a day, and enjoyed every minute.
and perseverance, of overcoming loneliness, and our fundamental need for family. The content gets very heavy, but there is a powerful message here about building resilience, and about the loss of childhood innocence, which happens in increments, through our relationships with others and our environment. Lastly, this book offers revelations into the impacts of grief, and how we will all experience it in some form, typically before adulthood.
I felt this young protagonist really knew who he was, and Bone Jack was an interesting character I would have loved to have seen woven more deeply into the plot. For being so few pages, this story is packed with action and meaningfulness. I read it in a day, and enjoyed every minute.
October 20, 2020
Ash has been declared winner and will be this year's Stag Boy. The Stag Chase is a race steeped in tradition...an annual race where one boy is the "sacrificial" stag and all the other boys are the hounds...hunting for "blood".
While this may be just a race in modern times...ancient races were much darker and at the end there was no winner...just the promise of blood spilled.
When strange visions and events begin happening around Ash and this year's race, Ash begins to wonder if there is more to the legends than he was led to believe.
What a wonderful, haunting story. The writing flows well and had me flying through the pages. I love dark folklore and really enjoyed the mix of modern with the old. This made for a fun ghost story and a great Spooktober read. Would definitely recommend this one.
While this may be just a race in modern times...ancient races were much darker and at the end there was no winner...just the promise of blood spilled.
When strange visions and events begin happening around Ash and this year's race, Ash begins to wonder if there is more to the legends than he was led to believe.
What a wonderful, haunting story. The writing flows well and had me flying through the pages. I love dark folklore and really enjoyed the mix of modern with the old. This made for a fun ghost story and a great Spooktober read. Would definitely recommend this one.
June 7, 2018
This is a British dark fantasy that not all kids will "get" but the ones who do will love it. A town rallys around a medieval tradition of a Stag Chase where the local town boys (hounds) chase one of their own (stag boy) in a cross country race. Ash is the stag this year much like his father was when he was a boy. Ash's father is now home from war with PTSD and winning the race may be his dad's cure. Meanwhile, ex-best friend Mark is battling his own issues of watching is father hang himself and now is living in the forest plotting to sacrifice the stag to restore order to the land and his life. There are many traumatic issues in this book so it will need a second read because of Mark's behavior.
June 16, 2017
Took me a long time to realize this was in Britain. I was confused as to why Native American ghosts would bother a modern teen. I loved the darkness and Bone Jack, himself. The writing is smooth and did not distract from the story. I still don't feel the land got its gift of blood, though, so why did the ghosts leave? Just a fire and a storm? And, why was the mom so calm about the dad's mental problems? Any how, I will definitely read more from this author. Questions unanswered give you something to gnaw on if the story is still good. This story is good.
January 21, 2018
Fifteen-year-old Ash Tyler likes to run. He's so good that he's been selected to be the stag in his town's annual Stag Chase, where the stag has to outrun a pack of human hounds across the mountainous wilderness surrounding the town. But the stag chase has very ancient roots connected more with blood and sacrifice than tourism and entertainment. In a land ravaged by drought, disease and recession that have driven Ash's soldier father to madness and his best friend Mark's father to suicide, the countryside wants something back. Something bloody.
February 7, 2022
This book was a quick read, though ofc it's below my reading level. I felt there was a lot of lost potential to the story, but what made it onto the page was interesting enough. It was enjoyable to read and reminded me a lot of short kids' horror novels I read when I was younger, but with slightly more mature themes. There was the whole "go to the library and search through archives" scene and everything.
I put it down thinking hard about . Overall a fun read.
I put it down thinking hard about . Overall a fun read.
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