Bonechiller, by Graham McNamee
Author: Graham McNamee
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (Random House)
Pages: 294
Don't look for it on the map. The place is so small it doesn't even get a dot. Once a year they get a new WELCOME TO sign put up, but it doesn't last a week before it's so full of buckshot holes you can't even tell the name of the place, and you sure don't seem welcome.
Nowhere--officially known as Harvest Cove. Tucked away in the Big Empty that makes up most of Canada . . . .
If you're looking for somewhere to hide, this is it.
Harvest Cove is a tiny, out-of-the-way community trying hard to be a summer cottage location, with not much success, and in the winter the population dwindles. Perfect for Danny and his dad, who are drifting from place to place on the run from the past. His dad takes a temp job as the winter caretaker of the marina, and Danny goes to school with army brats from Base Borden. Pike, loyal but psycho and obsessed with explosives; his anxiety-ridden brother Howie; and Ash, a fierce, half-Ojibwa boxer that he has a mad crush on form his core group. It's a cold, bleak winter, the like of which the area hasn't seen in a while. Late one night on his way home, Danny is attacked by a huge white beast that blends into the ice and snow until it is nearly invisible. Still, he manages to see enough to terrify him, and the speed of its attack makes it nearly impossible for him to escape. But escape he does, after the beast stings him on the hand with its sharp tongue, and that's when the nightmare really begins. Because that's when Danny realizes he didn't get away after all. It's still hunting him night after night, toying with him, and soon his friends are in danger too.
This had a good, monster movie feeling to it and is one of those books in which the title works on several levels. Bonechiller refers to the freezing weather as well as the monster and what it does to its prey, and it also is a word used to convey fear. There's a frankness to the narrative, an immediacy, like Danny is telling the story directly to you, narrating events as they happen. Short, fragmented sentences and use of the present tense help that effect. There aren't a ton of books written in present tense, and it's interesting to see what a different reading experience that is. It's very cinematic, and it works well to convey Danny's panicky frantic scrambling during the beast attacks, less well when Danny is complaining about doing his homework. (There's a little too much of that slice-of-life stuff here.) The descriptions of this tiny town during a freezing winter is excellent -- much of the action happens at night out in the below-freezing wasteland of ice and snow, and the sense of isolation, of there being nowhere to run and no-one to help, is terrifying.
Unfortunately, the past that Danny and his dad are running from is not worth the build-up it gets; McNamee leads you to believe it's a deep, terrible secret (here I was thinking on the run from the mob or his dad being an ex-criminal or something), but they are really just running from his mom's death from a brain tumor. It's sad, yes, but it doesn't merit the dark, suspenseful hints and the reveal as such is underwhelming. McNamee does a good job conveying Danny's loneliness and lingering grief over his mother, however.
The descriptions of the monster are cool, very vivid and scary and menacing. But with a half-hearted Wendigo-ish mythology that was never really put to use, the monster wasn't nearly as effective as it could have been. There were some cool variations and extrapolations on Wendigo lore, and it's not like I expected the characters to snap their fingers and go "A-ha! Wendigo! We know this for sure because it is exactly like the Wikipedia entry!" but I was annoyed by how vague the author left it. It's clear he did his research. Did he have to leave it all out? He basically has his kids shrug their shoulders after doing some historical and scientific research and hearing one Wendigo story from Ash's father, and he doesn't really tie it together. Someone else may like the vagueness but I felt it was kind of a cop-out.
Cover comments: This cover is awesome! It perfectly captures the setting and mood of the book: the huge expanse of snow, the little dark figure highlighted under the lonely street light running pell-mell down a narrow, sloping line, the creepy eyes, and the way the monster's mouth falls where the snow is, so that it actually looks like the snow itself being blown after him, chasing him. I don't have as much to say about the typefaces, since I don't know much about that part of design, but it works for me. The title is suffieciently large and different enough from the background to catch my eye (even though it is also white).
Obviously, I am still catching up on January 2009 books, and I think I am going to do one longer books post to cover the ones I read for Booklist, mostly because after I write my review for them, I have less of a desire to write about them again here (unless the book in question is awesome, in which case I will highlight it). Aside from my review books, I still have Lifeblood (Darkside, Book Two) by Tom Becker and Wrath of the Bloodeye (The Last Apprentice, Book Five) to cover.