Bag of Bones

Bag of Bones begins with a writer whose wife has died. Four years later, he is at an isolated lake house, struggling with severe writer’s block and delusions. I can see the appeal of a quiet place to work. I can also see why this particular quiet place might make me leave every light on.

The fear in that set-up is intimate: grief, isolation and the awful question of whether you can trust your own mind. I would put it at a three out of five for scares. The premise gives you room to feel uneasy without my having to promise a shock on every page. Sometimes a room is quite capable of being unpleasant while doing absolutely nothing.

This is one for a dark, undisturbed reading night if you like horror that sits with uncertainty. Perhaps keep a strong coffee nearby, although I make no promises about its usefulness. The novel won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy and Locus awards in their respective novel and dark fantasy or horror categories. Awards aside, the question that draws me in is simple: when someone is alone and frightened, how do they decide what to believe?