Hammers on Bone

THIS BOOK

THIS BOOK

I sometimes have trouble articulating what about the Lovecraftian aesthetic I so enjoy because my hatred for H.P. Lovecraft is unmatched. Stephen King gets close sometimes, to broaching cosmic horror in the right way, to making up for the lack of humanism in Lovecraft's universe. But this book gets it so on the mark it's incredible.

Cosmic horror is disgusting. It should be. It's all the sinew and tendons and bones and viscera of life tossed about without regard to meaning. It's all the effluvia that builds matter but without sense to it, without need for sense. And this book gets that so well...the writing is made of polyps and blisters and pus and it's AMAZING. But what this book does is even more than perfecting show more tone: Lovecraft's problem was he had no idea what human beings even were, let alone how to write them accurately or affectingly. Cassandra Khaw, however, does get human beings. She gets the space left open by Lovecraft--between cosmic indifference and the immense, inscrutable, self-flagellating yet pathetically persistent human will and that elevates the genre.

I want more of Khaw's worlds because she is a master at crafting them. I highly recommend this book. show less

I'm a big fan of Cassandra Khaw. I love their writing style; they are so poetic, even when describing horror and horrible things.

John Persons is a private investigator who happens to hunt monsters. As a monster himself, he knows how to deal with other monsters. Or so he thinks. When a young boy comes to him and asks him to kill his stepdad because he's a monster, Persons can't refuse. And he quickly finds out that vanquishing this monster may require that he relinquish control of his own monstrous existence.

This book was genre-busting: part hard-boiled noir crime thriller, part horror, part fantasy. It's a quick, short read, and I actually wish it were longer because I wanted to see more of what Persons does; I wanted to know more about show more the creatures and monsters that he deals with in his life. His existence as a monster hidden within a human exterior makes him a wonderfully complex being, and I wish I could get to know him better. show less

I think I can read this kind of fiction forever. Like, literally 78 million years in the future, as an immortal intellectual bug, I will be reading this fiction.

To me, Lovecraftian horror is tops. Add a very solid Noir to it, a big of crunching bone and eyes everywhere, a case to solve, and I'm in heaven. Or some outer dimensional equivalent made of ice and regret and nostalgia.

Hardbitten PI meets tentacled horrors. Of course, he is one, too. :)

Highly recommended.

This is what you get when you merge Chandler and Lovecraft and add a contemporary edge. PI John Persons is hired by a ten-year old client to kill the child's abusive stepdad, McKinsey. Persons speaks and acts like the protagonist of a hardboiled detective novel and Khan does a get job of evoking the language and style of noir. But Persons is also an ancient monster battling ancient cosmic Lovecraftian entities - the same Ancient Ones who have seemingly taken possession of McKinsey. The result is a recent classic of weird fiction, a genre-bending divertissement rich in atmosphere and blood ... and tentacles.

This is what you get when you merge Chandler and Lovecraft and add a contemporary edge. PI John Persons is hired by a ten-year old client to kill the child's abusive stepdad, McKinsey. Persons speaks and acts like the protagonist of a hardboiled detective novel and Khan does a get job of evoking the language and style of noir. But Persons is also an ancient monster battling ancient cosmic Lovecraftian entities - the same Ancient Ones who have seemingly taken possession of McKinsey. The result is a recent classic of weird fiction, a genre-bending divertissement rich in atmosphere and blood ... and tentacles.

**This book was reviewed for the Manhattan Book Review**

What do you get if you toss hard-boiled detective fiction, and lore of the Great Old Ones into a blender? The answer is Cassandra Khaw’s Lovecraftian noir Hammers on Bone. When John Persons is approached by a kid who wants to hire him to kill his stepfather, the PI is all set to turn him away. But when the kid says his stepdad is a monster and he and his little brother are dad if Persons doesn't help, a little voice inside says Persons should take notice. Digger deeper reveals some nasty truths about McKinsey, and a disease spreading inexorably through London. Can our hard-as-nails PI save these kids before it's too late?

Persons is a quintessential anti-hero, if ever I saw one. show more Far from being altruistic, he's in the game for the money. For, you see, Persons isn't quite like us. He may look human, but there is more monster than man. He doesn't think like a human, though he did a marvelous job of blending. He may be a monster, but there are worse things out there. Far worse.

Woven into this noir novella is a social commentary on domestic abuse and child abuse. It's a lesson that there are plenty of monsters wearing human skin that we need worry about in our own society, as well as a subtle chastisement. There are several times violence is displayed outright, and bystanders ignored it. Other times, Khaw shows just how cowed such abuse makes a person, making the abusee reluctant or unable to ask for help. If you see this kind of abuse around you, don’t turn away and ignore it. Help as much as you can. You may just be responsible for saving a life.

Ok, so, truth time- I had a straight up 'Gaaahhhh’ dancing around freaked out moment. There was some eye popping going on. Eye trauma freaks me the frick out! Perhaps a little too visceral with the description there. Missing one of my own eyes has heightened my sense of eye protectiveness.

I'm not usually a big noir fan. I prefer mysteries a lá Sherlock Holmes. I was hooked by the Lovecraftian aspect, for that I do love, and I found myself liking Persons more and more. This story is well-written; a novella trimmed and lean, without sacrificing storyline. This was my first experience with Khaw’s work, and I enjoyed it so much that I snagged a few of her other works. I look forward to the next in the 'Persons Non Grata’ series, even if accounts of eye trauma did freak me out a bit.

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Recommended for those who like sci-fi/fantasy, Lovecraftian lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction show less

Lovecraft-ish crime noir-like starring the Nicolas Cage Spider-Man and no one can convince me otherwise.

I genuinely loved Khaw's prose. There's maybe three different writing styles going on through the book and she nailed each one. Of course, the main one is the crime noir narrator and the old timey lingo had me hearing Nic Cage from "Into the Spider-Verse" the entire time. The story itself is fine, if not very memorable. But Khaw plays with the Lovecraft lore in a really cool subtle way that made me excited for the sequel.