The Bone Key
by Sarah Monette 
The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth (Collections and Selections — 1 (1-10))
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The dead and the monstrous will not leave Kyle Murchison Booth alone, for an unwilling foray into necromancy has made him sensitive to—and attractive to —the creatures who roam the darkness of his once-safe world. Ghosts, ghouls, incubi: all have one thing in common. They know Booth for one of their own. These ten stories draw Booth from the safety of his work as a museum archivist into the darkness both of the supernatural and of the human pysche, where he will find answers to mysteries show more unsolved for decades and learn truths about himself he would rather never have known . . .. show less
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I bought this book immediately after finishing Monette's A Theory of Haunting, which I adored. That book, as well as this collection of short stories, is the exact perfect kind of horror for me: psychological and creepy and generally not at all gory. This harks back to classic horror where most of the scary stuff isn't written explicitly, but instead happens in your head based on what the page implies.
Though I liked them all, my favorite stories in this collection of ten pieces include "The Wall of Clouds" and "The Venebretti Necklace" (that second story, according to the story notes at the end, picks up where Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" ends—I loved the hints to Poe's story as I was reading, and it was nice to get confirmation show more that the similarities were intentional).
While the stories collected here are only loosely connected, they all have a similar feel and share a main character, the eponymous Kyle Murchison Booth. The setting of the museum where Booth works is also repeated often, with a handful of side characters showing up in multiple stories. I really like Booth as a character; he feels well fleshed-out and developed, even though little of his history is told in any one story. I've read several other Booth stories before, but the only one of these that I think I've read before is "The Green Glass Paperweight".
This collection starts out with a story featuring necromancy, which both sets the tone for the collection as well as explains why Booth becomes a magnet for the paranormal in future stories. Not all of the stories feature necromancy, though. Others have ghosts at their center, or ghouls, or a family curse. The tone, though, is all the same. You get the impression that there is a world of paranormal creatures and events just outside the scope of most people's perception, and Booth is one of the (un)lucky ones who is able to see that world.
There's a lot to enjoy here, especially for readers like me who want to read horror without being grossed out or terrified out of their minds. There are a couple of stories—most especially "Drowning Palmer"—that I would suggest timid readers read during the day, but for the most part these work well whenever you choose to read them. As near as I can tell, Monette's most recent Kyle Murchison Booth story was A Theory of Haunting in 2023, but I sincerely hope that's not planned to be the final one, because I love these pieces and will read as many of them as she publishes. show less
Though I liked them all, my favorite stories in this collection of ten pieces include "The Wall of Clouds" and "The Venebretti Necklace" (that second story, according to the story notes at the end, picks up where Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" ends—I loved the hints to Poe's story as I was reading, and it was nice to get confirmation show more that the similarities were intentional).
While the stories collected here are only loosely connected, they all have a similar feel and share a main character, the eponymous Kyle Murchison Booth. The setting of the museum where Booth works is also repeated often, with a handful of side characters showing up in multiple stories. I really like Booth as a character; he feels well fleshed-out and developed, even though little of his history is told in any one story. I've read several other Booth stories before, but the only one of these that I think I've read before is "The Green Glass Paperweight".
This collection starts out with a story featuring necromancy, which both sets the tone for the collection as well as explains why Booth becomes a magnet for the paranormal in future stories. Not all of the stories feature necromancy, though. Others have ghosts at their center, or ghouls, or a family curse. The tone, though, is all the same. You get the impression that there is a world of paranormal creatures and events just outside the scope of most people's perception, and Booth is one of the (un)lucky ones who is able to see that world.
There's a lot to enjoy here, especially for readers like me who want to read horror without being grossed out or terrified out of their minds. There are a couple of stories—most especially "Drowning Palmer"—that I would suggest timid readers read during the day, but for the most part these work well whenever you choose to read them. As near as I can tell, Monette's most recent Kyle Murchison Booth story was A Theory of Haunting in 2023, but I sincerely hope that's not planned to be the final one, because I love these pieces and will read as many of them as she publishes. show less
The Bone Key is a collection of horror stories surrounding shy, awkward museum archivist, Kyle Murchison Booth. Told in the vein of H.P Lovecraft and M.P James, Monette’s stories follow Booth through various incidents in his life and his unwanted but unavoidable affinity for the eerie and unnatural.
I have to admit that I’m not too familiar with Lovecraftian horror, but this was a wonderful primer. In her introduction Monette explains that her goal was to “take apart” the stories of Lovecraft and James and add a “fifth gear” of psychological and psychosexual development. I can happily say that she succeeded. As much as The Bone Key is a work of horror and horror plots, it rests on the draw of its main character. Booth is an show more unusual protagonist in that he’s so very antisocial. He has no real friends and his brushes with romance are problematic at best, and there’s no magic wand to make it all better. In her introduction Monette calls him the most autobiographical of her characters and Booth’s social fumbles are painfully familiar to me as well. Booth does not seek out the supernatural but it comes to him anyway.
There are ten stories in The Bone Key and each read as delicately crafted explorations of disturbance. Like Booth most of them are quiet and understated. The horror here is subtle, a slowly unsettling quality that sneaks up on you and catches you unaware. My favourite stories are “The Venebretti Necklace” with its uneasy atmosphere in the museum’s basement stacks, the titular “The Bone Key” with its bizarre family curse, and “Wait for Me” because mirrors are one of my biggest fears and the story plays on it chillingly. show less
I have to admit that I’m not too familiar with Lovecraftian horror, but this was a wonderful primer. In her introduction Monette explains that her goal was to “take apart” the stories of Lovecraft and James and add a “fifth gear” of psychological and psychosexual development. I can happily say that she succeeded. As much as The Bone Key is a work of horror and horror plots, it rests on the draw of its main character. Booth is an show more unusual protagonist in that he’s so very antisocial. He has no real friends and his brushes with romance are problematic at best, and there’s no magic wand to make it all better. In her introduction Monette calls him the most autobiographical of her characters and Booth’s social fumbles are painfully familiar to me as well. Booth does not seek out the supernatural but it comes to him anyway.
There are ten stories in The Bone Key and each read as delicately crafted explorations of disturbance. Like Booth most of them are quiet and understated. The horror here is subtle, a slowly unsettling quality that sneaks up on you and catches you unaware. My favourite stories are “The Venebretti Necklace” with its uneasy atmosphere in the museum’s basement stacks, the titular “The Bone Key” with its bizarre family curse, and “Wait for Me” because mirrors are one of my biggest fears and the story plays on it chillingly. show less
A collection of spooky stories, connected by the presence of a stuttering bibliophile main character. The very scariest were "Bringing Helena Back" (just from the title you know the terror that awaits, but Monette freshens the revenant story by using a POV outside the revenant and the lover that won't let her go), "The Venebretti Necklace" (because ghosts haunting basement libraries with uncertain lights and a dangerous metal staircase hits far too close to home), and most terrifying of all, "Wait For Me." (Dead little girls are scary. Mirrors that show things that aren't there are scary. Faces without eyes are scary. Combine all of those into a single, generation-long haunting? I will pee my pants.) Others delve deeper into Booth's show more character and history, like "The Bone Key" and "The Green Glass Paperweight." I quite liked Booth, who is almost incapacitated by social situations but brave and absolute in the face of necromancy and ghoul pensioners. And I loved the dream logic by which the horrors often operated; it worked for me in a way few ghost stories manage to. A very solid collection.
(I should mention that I do not read the horror genre, as a rule, and so to veterans of that area these stories may seem less fresh and scary. To a fantasy fan like myself, they were on the verge of being too scary to enjoy.) show less
(I should mention that I do not read the horror genre, as a rule, and so to veterans of that area these stories may seem less fresh and scary. To a fantasy fan like myself, they were on the verge of being too scary to enjoy.) show less
A collection of ten interconnected short stories featuring a socially awkward archivist who finds himself unwillingly involved in a wide variety of supernatural mysteries.
Elegant writing, deft characterization and some truly creepy goings-on conspired to draw me straight into this wonderful collection. The stories belong to an older, more psychologically-based horror tradition than the one most prevalent today. There's little in the way of gore, and Monette doesn't play anything for shock value. Instead, she carefully builds up the tension, inviting us to place ourselves in Booth's shoes as he does his best to avoid the spirits that plague him. It's beautifully done; one particular scene, in which Booth and a colleague flee an unknown show more menace, has really stuck with me. I've been there. I've done that. And Monette has captured the experience perfectly.
In many cases, she also avoids telling us exactly what's gone down. I do think this added to the collection's overall feel, and it certainly operated under the old maxim that nothing the author can tell us is as horrifying as what we can imagine ourselves, but I did sometimes find it frustrating. I'm the kind of reader who likes to see her suspicions confirmed or denied. I have, however, read scads of classic horror in the months since I read The Bone Key; I think I've developed a keener appreciation for this approach. I'll be interested in seeing how this greater familiarity influences my opinion the next time around.
Overall, I enjoyed the collection very much. I was sorry to see it end, and wished it had been at least twice as long. I most definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in classic horror. show less
Elegant writing, deft characterization and some truly creepy goings-on conspired to draw me straight into this wonderful collection. The stories belong to an older, more psychologically-based horror tradition than the one most prevalent today. There's little in the way of gore, and Monette doesn't play anything for shock value. Instead, she carefully builds up the tension, inviting us to place ourselves in Booth's shoes as he does his best to avoid the spirits that plague him. It's beautifully done; one particular scene, in which Booth and a colleague flee an unknown show more menace, has really stuck with me. I've been there. I've done that. And Monette has captured the experience perfectly.
In many cases, she also avoids telling us exactly what's gone down. I do think this added to the collection's overall feel, and it certainly operated under the old maxim that nothing the author can tell us is as horrifying as what we can imagine ourselves, but I did sometimes find it frustrating. I'm the kind of reader who likes to see her suspicions confirmed or denied. I have, however, read scads of classic horror in the months since I read The Bone Key; I think I've developed a keener appreciation for this approach. I'll be interested in seeing how this greater familiarity influences my opinion the next time around.
Overall, I enjoyed the collection very much. I was sorry to see it end, and wished it had been at least twice as long. I most definitely recommend it to anyone with an interest in classic horror. show less
At its best, The Bone Key is a really great Victorian ghost story pastiche. But like many anthologies, it has trouble sustaining the level through its many stories. Nonetheless, it was short and always enjoyable.
Kyle Murchison Booth is a querulous museum worker with a cursed history and an affinity for the otherworldly. His (mis)adventures see him brushing up against everything from lovecraftian terrors to the more pedestrian spirits that haunt our world. Monette is mostly riffing on Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder and M.R James, with a more American bent and a few other nods here and there.
The excellent foreword to the collection outlines what she perceived as some of the shortcomings of the Victorian ghost story - with which she show more is clearly and thoroughly acquainted. Namely, an unwillingness to confront the often sexual subtexts running through the work, and the shades of racism and various other isms underpinning the genre. Booth's stories were her attempt at both homage and corrective - and in my opinion they largely work on both scores.
The best stories combine a sense of subtlety (so pronounced in Victorian ghost stories, and lacking from much contemporary horror) with a richer palette of terror and the otherworldly. There's nothing scary here, per se, but there is a nice sense of both spookiness, and kookiness - Monette is well aware of the more silly facets of the genre, and regards them with affection.
All of this, including the weaker stories, is held together by the character of Booth himself. Delightfully awkward and prissy, despairing yet also canny and courageous when he needs to be, he is a wonderful construction that really has depth and attraction for a reader - superior, almost an exaggeration of every bland protagonist the genre is built upon.
I enjoyed this anthology, it's slight but very fun. However, I am steeped in Victorian ghost stories like a shipwreck in the briny deep, so I'm completely unable to say whether someone without that background would enjoy it at as much. show less
Kyle Murchison Booth is a querulous museum worker with a cursed history and an affinity for the otherworldly. His (mis)adventures see him brushing up against everything from lovecraftian terrors to the more pedestrian spirits that haunt our world. Monette is mostly riffing on Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder and M.R James, with a more American bent and a few other nods here and there.
The excellent foreword to the collection outlines what she perceived as some of the shortcomings of the Victorian ghost story - with which she show more is clearly and thoroughly acquainted. Namely, an unwillingness to confront the often sexual subtexts running through the work, and the shades of racism and various other isms underpinning the genre. Booth's stories were her attempt at both homage and corrective - and in my opinion they largely work on both scores.
The best stories combine a sense of subtlety (so pronounced in Victorian ghost stories, and lacking from much contemporary horror) with a richer palette of terror and the otherworldly. There's nothing scary here, per se, but there is a nice sense of both spookiness, and kookiness - Monette is well aware of the more silly facets of the genre, and regards them with affection.
All of this, including the weaker stories, is held together by the character of Booth himself. Delightfully awkward and prissy, despairing yet also canny and courageous when he needs to be, he is a wonderful construction that really has depth and attraction for a reader - superior, almost an exaggeration of every bland protagonist the genre is built upon.
I enjoyed this anthology, it's slight but very fun. However, I am steeped in Victorian ghost stories like a shipwreck in the briny deep, so I'm completely unable to say whether someone without that background would enjoy it at as much. show less
You couldn't possibly think of a more unlikely hero than Booth. Yet the stammering and introverted museum curator is the perfect protagonist in these ten short stories. The stories tie into one another perfectly, and let you watch the growth and development of the main character. The smooth prose of the author are contrasted by Booth's poor attempts at speech. Monette creates a surreal world whose supernatural presence in the book is real enough to make your heart beat a bit faster the next time you find yourself alone in a dark room.
This is a slim volume of interconnected tales feature Kyle Murchison Booth, an introverted and reclusive museum archivist with an uncomfortable affinity with the dead. The style is vaguely Lovecraftian: quietly dark stories following Booth's encounters with horrors-unseen, hauntings, and other chilling, supernatural nastiness. Booth's character and voice may not work for everyone - he is a man far more comfortable with paper than people - but it is consistent and the stories creepily successful. I love short fiction and this collection was a rare treat that I thoroughly enjoyed.
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Author Information
65+ Works 12,715 Members
Sarah Monette is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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Awards
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2007
- People/Characters
- Kyle Murchison Booth; Claudia Coburn
- Important places
- Samuel Mather Parrington Museum
- Dedication
- this book is dedicated to
M. R. James
(1862-1936)
and
... (show all)rel="nofollow" target="_new">H. P. Lovecraft
(1890-1937) - First words
- This book is a series of interconnected short stories, written between 2000 and 2006. (Introduction)
I was contemplating the fragments of an unidentified animal's skull, late on a wet, windy Friday in March, when a voice said, "Booth? Is that you?" (First Story) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And when I looked out the window again, the revenant was gone
- Blurbers
- Harris, Charlaine
- Disambiguation notice
- Contents: Bringing Helena Back -- The Venebretti Necklace -- The Bone Key -- Wait for Me -- Drowning Palmer -- The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox -- Elegy for a Demon Lover -- The Wall of Clouds -- The Green Glass Paperweight... (show all) -- Listening to Bone
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- Reviews
- 28
- Rating
- (4.15)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
