The Bone Parade

i came across this book in a used bookstore, and didn't expect much. i chose it because i read the prologue, which hinted at a tale about dark arts, human monsters, and the underbelly of accepted society. i expected something derivative, but the book was cheap so i went for it.

books by authors with whom you're not familiar are doubly delightful when they not only turn out to be good, but fantastic. this book indeed deals with dark arts and human monsters, and features a serial killer whose modus operandi and concomitant philosophy are horrifyingly original. his methods of madness are, arguably the most disturbing of any fictional serial killer. additionally, the book is well-written, and involves a sub-story involving a relationship show more between the killer and one of his victims -- bringing the disturbo factor to an even more fevered pitch.

i'm loathe to talk too much about the plot, as i'm very sensitive to spoilers. but, if you like well-written horror books involving super-sadistic killers, the psychology between victim and killer, believable characters you can sympathize with or despise, and a taut, suspenseful yarn, give this a try.

this work gets a solid and unusual 5 stars from me. i'm jonesing for more Nykanen. show less

The thing that struck me the most about Stassler was despite his monstrously huge ego, he really created nothing. Sure he thought he was “carving” their flesh when he made them lose weight and then strength train to bring out the muscle tone he so desired, but he wasn’t really doing anything except taking casts of their bodies. The fact that most critics and art lovers applauded the resulting statues only fed his conviction that he was the only true artist left. The one area that did produce negative criticism were his faces. Because he couldn’t display the actual faces of the people he killed, he sculpted originals and they weren’t as good as the rest of the work, and they said he just couldn’t “do” faces. The one thing show more he created from his own mind and hands was the one thing that wasn’t up to par. Fitting.

The plot was a little derivative though. It reminded me of Waxwork with Vincent Price. In that he used real women to mold his statues, this one just expanded it to whole families and bronze. Also, he had no Igor in the form of Charles Bronson to assist him. And he wasn’t scarred, instead Stassler thought of himself as the physical ideal. show less

This book started out great. A seriously evil villain with a unique M.O. It got bogged down a bit in the middle, and then the ending picked up and was very exciting.

The point of view skips around quite a bit in this book. We get Strasser (the villain/sculptor), Lauren (the art professor) and Kerry (art student/victim). Strasser likes to kidnap families, torture them for months, and finally kill them and immortalize them in bronze. The public think he is a gifted sculpture, but he is really a serial killer. We get inside his mind, which is full of chatter about how superior he is, and how his victims are lucky he chose them. We see Strasser abduct family #9. We never learn their real names, only the nicknames he gives them.

Family #9 is show more very dysfunctional. The mother truly hates the daughter, nicknamed Diamond Girl. We never learn exactly why she is hated so much, but it may be because she is a sociopath like Strasser. Diamond Girl tries to play mind games with Strasser, while he tries to manipulate her. It makes for an interesting dynamic. Diamond Girl is easily the most interesting person in the book.

The middle section, with Lauren searching for Kerry got a little tedious for me. Not much happens, just a lot of soul searching on Lauren's part. When she finally goes to confront Strasser, that is when the action picks up again.

This book was an interesting read. It was entertaining. A solid read, but not a great one. show less

Ashley Stassler is a world-famous sculptor who abducts and kills entire families (cue the Red Dragon) in order to make the ultimate "art" from their dying flesh (remember Buffalo Bill?), and his ego is even bigger than his reputation ("I expect I'll not only be forgiven but I'll be more sought after than ever before. There'll be rock bands named Stassler, and my sculpture will sell for several times its original price"). Nykanen's spin on these Thomas Harris tropes gives the killer his own first-person POV and one of his latest victims a particularly disturbing case of Stockholm syndrome ("I clamp my hand over her mouth.... And then-I don't believe it-she slips her tongue against my fingers. What a wench.... I love her"). In a show more lackluster subplot, a junior art professor named Lauren Reed learns that her most promising student has gone missing during an internship at Stassler's Utah ranch. The connection is a hunky reporter named Ry Chambers, who interviews Lauren as well as Stassler. Nykanen loads up his tale with plenty of voyeuristic sadism on Stassler's end, while the predictable trysting between Lauren and Ry is all gushy romance ("her mouth opened as readily as leaves in the desert to an early morning mist"). Fans of Harris and other dark thriller writers may eat this one up, but no amount of good details or spine-tingling descriptions can replace original plotting and characters. show less

This book was disturbing and yet I couldn't put it down. Not for the easily offended or for anyone who is sensitive to nightmares. The ending was unpredictable until the very last minute. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 1/3 of the book.

Premise: a famous artist creates bronze statues by taking molds of people he's kidnapped and tortured as they're dying.

One would think this'd be right up my alley. Only it's not. So not. The writing was technically good. The characters were pretty two-dimensional, especially the women, and most especially Diamond Girl, who is obviously supposed to be some sort of intriguing psychopath in the making or suffer from Stockholm syndrome or something. As for Stassler, the artist, not only is he dispicable--he's a serial killer and they are (though very good authors can make you somehow find something sympathetic in a sick way about them), but there's nothing in the least intriguing about him. He's an arrogant bastard and it's impossible to show more believe that in his arrogance he hasn't actually slipped up.

Even seemingly random events (Lauren finding the Rottweiler Leroy for instance) are very obvious as plot devices as soon as they happen. And of course, the climax of the story is set during a violent thunderstorm. Torture, indeed. show less

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