Bare Bone #11

Bare Bone

by Kevin L. Donihe (Editor), Cody Goodfellow, Kek-w

With a surgeon's skill, editor Kevin L. Donihe stitches a diverse collection of fiction and poetry together to bring Bare Bone to life. Another Dr. Frankenstein, he assembles the pieces of others, birthing one complete monster to send lurching towards the darkness. Stories from past issues have received Honorable Mentions in several editions of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and another was reprinted in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #13. This issue includes pieces from Cody Goodfellow, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gary McMahon, Kurt Newton, Ronald Damien Malfi, Jeffrey Stadt, Cameron Pierce and Paul Finch among others.

Genres: Bizarro Fiction

142 pages, Paperback

First published May 5, 2009

About the author

Kevin L. Donihe is one of the originators of the Bizarro Fiction literary movement. He is the author of the Wonderland Award-winning novels HOUSE OF HOUSES and SPACE WALRUS, among other books published by seminal Bizarro publisher Eraserhead Press. He was also the editor of the horror anthology series BARE BONE for Raw Dog Screaming Press. His work has appeared in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF LEGAL THRILLERS and John Skipp's PSYCHOS: SERIAL KILLERS, DEPRAVED MADMEN, AND THE CRIMINALLY INSANE. Hailing from the mountains of Tennessee, he now lives in Astoria, OR.

Reviews

[Ravenskya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Included within the pages of Bare Bones #11 are 18 short tales of horror and 10 dark poems. The majority of the stories are around 5 pages long, and the text is tightly packed so there is a lot of story within each of those pages. The stories range from little boys daring each other to taunt a serial killer, to insurance reps killing (and having their way with) their customers. Some of these tales are fantastic, others are fairly weak. With the wide variety of authors from all across both the US and UK, there is probably something here to suit most horror fans. I found there to be more misses than hits, however the hits were well worth the read. Some of my personal favorites were “NM” and “Chupacabra.” If you like gore, many of these tales have it, if you like violent sex, that’s here too. Profanity abounds in some of these tales so be warned if you are a sensitive reader. What this book lacked, was a quiet brooding creepy tale, these are more “In your face” horror.

Examples of some of these tales are – A man forced to eat his dead wife’s heart to keep a piece of her with him, a strange Hee Haw version of Hell, a town gone mad over the death of a princess, and a man making a punching bag of himself. Though most are well written, there are some that are not as strong as others. It is unfortunate that the strong and entertaining stories did not outnumber the weaker or less interesting ones.

Rating – R for gore, violence, sex, rape, profanity.