The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth

Kyle Murchison Booth

by Sarah Monette

THE DEAD AND THE MONSTROUS will not leave Kyle Murchison Booth alone. An unwilling foray into necromancy makes him sensitive—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 psyche, where he will find answers to mysteries unsolved for decades and learn truths about himself he would rather never have known.

(Publisher’s description)

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 — Listening to bone

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Mystery, LGBT, Ghosts

253 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2007

About the author

My pseudonym is Katherine Addison. Katherine reviews nonfiction. Sarah reviews fiction. Fair warning: I read very little fiction these days.

I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the secret cities of the Manhattan Project. I studied English and Classics in college, and have gone on to get my M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature. My first four novels were published by Ace Books. I have written two collaborations with Elizabeth Bear for Tor: A Companion to Wolves and The Tempering of Men. My short stories have appeared in lots of different places, including Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons; I've published two collections of short stories, Somewhere Beneath Those Waves and The Bone Key. I collect books, and my husband collects computer parts, so our living space is the constantly contested border between these two imperial ambitions.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admirers of M.R. James will discover much to dote on in this collection of linked short stories revolving around a museum archivist specializing in rare manuscripts, who has the unenviable misfortune of routinely confronting the bizarre and the not-so-natural. Sarah Monette has crafted and polished 10 pieces of gothic horror that harken back to the classic "bump in the night" tales of the 19th Century.

Eschewing gore in favor of atmosphere, Monette creates visions of intelligent, nuanced dread. She won't make you scream aloud from sudden moments of in-your-face terror, but she will conjure icy fingers to squeeze your lungs and steal your breath away. 

Despite getting her inspiration from masters like Lovecraft and James, Monette recognized the shortcomings of such writers when it came to character development...not to mention casual racism, smack-bottom gender inequality, and homophobia. Therefore, in her intro to the collection, Monette states that her intent was to distill the above masters' prodigious ability to manufacture fear, and channel it into stories unstained by distasteful "isms" and  peopled with characters worth caring about. 

She succeeded, and the result is our protagonist, Kyle Munchinson Booth.

Over the course of these stories, we come to know Mr. Booth as a highly intelligent, well educated person who suffers from almost debilitating shyness and a pathological need to solve mysteries. He is tall, lanky, socially awkward, and insecure, despite being extremely capable at his work. He lost his parents at a young age, grew up with the nastiest of guardians, and is gay, an orientation that adds to his isolation given the time in which he lives (i.e., early 20th century).

Booth is a good man and it's hard not to like him. The relationship that develops between him and the reader during the course of the stories adds considerably to their effectiveness. 

THE STORIES:

The first three stories, "Bringing Helena Back," "The Venebretti Necklace," and "The Bone Key," left me very underwhelmed. They were well-written and easy to read, but the ghost element was pedestrian and lacked the oomph to move the needle on the fear meter. From these stories, however, we do learn about the museum where Booth works, about his unrequited love for his best friend, and that he lives under a family curse, which is explored in the title story.

A major upgrade occurs with story #4, "Wait for Me." In this one, Monette finally got my creep organ tingling, and left me experiencing heebies and jeebies for days afterwards whenever I passed a mirror.  Following that gem is "Drowning Palmer," a solid effort that finds Booth revisiting his boarding school days in a story themed around bullying, the wolf pack mentality and the stain of abuse that lingers on those that perpetrate it. 

The next two stories are my favorites in the collection and show what Monette can do when she's firing on all cylinders. First up, "The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox," which reads like a perfect M.R. James pastiche. In it, Booth finds himself coming the aide of one of his boarding school tormentors in a plot revolving around a dark quest for immortality. The end is absolutely flawless. 

Second in the "best of collection" double header is "Elegy for a Demon Lover," during which we finally see Booth address/confront/embrace his sexuality in a story that is both gorgeously written and achingly powerful. Full of love, loneliness, passion, and gut-wrenching despair, the end will leave all but the heartless moved. When I think of the character of Booth, this is the story that springs to mind. 

Next up is the longest story in the collection. "The Wall of Clouds" finds Booth seriously ill and on the verge of death following the events of the previous story (Note: the cause of Booth's illness is never explained, but Monette makes it clear in the afterward, and I think knowing this adds something to this story). Booth is sent to one of those convalescent hotels that are not-quite-a-hospital to rest and recover. Well, it turns out that an abnormally  high number of people staying at the hotel have a nasty habit of contracting a terminal case of the deads, and Booth finds himself X-filing the situation. 

The penultimate story,"The Green Glass Paperweight," is another terrific piece that sheds light on our hero. It explores the history and nature of the tumultuous relationship between Booth and his cold, abusive stepparents, and the destructive power of hate. 

The last story, "Listening to Bone," is very forgettable...so let's go ahead and forget it. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is a quality collection. If it wasn't for my lack of enthusiam for the first 3 stories and the last one, the rest of the tales would have earned a solid 4 stars, with a couple of five star ribbons for my two favorites. However, judging all of the stories en masse, I will have to settle for a strong "I like it." 

Thus, 3.0 to 3.5 stars. Recommended. 

[K.J. Charles]

A very enjoyable set of ghost stories, creepy and inventive. Excellent writing and painfully sad at points. The author never loses sight of the worst evils being entirely human. The Lovecraftian museum is particularly wonderful and in its weird way very funny.

***

Reread July 18. Better than I remembered. Sad, sensitive, queer, and a beautifully judged arc of stories that interlock just enough and climb to a kind of tiny candle-flicker of hope in human nature.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a solid collection of short stories from an author I haven't read before is always a joy. This one was really fun - well written, inventive and creepy. All follow the adventures of Kyle Murchison Booth, a young man who works in a museum. He's an expert in mysterious books and (naturally) gets involved in investigating supernatural goings on. There's a range of creepy things for him to go up against in a series of elegantly told tales that recall the classic style of Lovecraft. It was the quality of the writing that impressed me most about this collection, it has a beguiling richness that makes you want more.

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all I want to thank you guys for giving my review those seven likes even before I actually had written any review. I don't know how you did that, but I appreciate it! Seven is a lucky number!

Now, the review. I must confess, I'm a bit disappointed with Mr. Kyle Murchison Booth and his amazing titular Bone Key, because it wasn't amazing at all. Who ever have called it amazing? - you may ask. Well, I did myself, because I thought the title was luring and promising, duuh. Also that sweet word "necromantic", mmmm...

Here I will tell you, I will actually warn you, that if you're reading a horror book and in the first chapter there's a sentence like "I've read/seen unimaginable terrible things in there, too terrible to mention any of them to you" don't expect fireworks in following ones. OK, maybe I'm too harsh, maybe you will say Lovecraft didn't do that much either, he worked with atmosphere, but I will riposte, that Lovecraft did describe Cthulhu in detail dozing over there on his rock or w/e, or how stinky Dagon was and didn't say "they saw a creature so horrible, that I won't be describing it here to you".

So not really much necromancing is going on, not literal one at least, but you will get the atmosphere and a lot of atmosphere building. Which actually worked. But I wanted something more. Something bone chilling or at least unsettling.
Instead you will read a lot of how Kyle was nervous, stressed, getting pale, getting red, sweating, feeling uncomfortable, escaping in his mind, escaping in real, trying to not be seen, etc, etc. Kyle is a recluse and an introvert with paranormal abilities and psychological problems, to say the least, and all he wants from people around him is to leave him alone. Which I could understand and support to the point that I wanted to not finish the book, so Kyle could live his life not being distracted by anyone.

Which said, I must confess I liked him as a character, yes, surprised much after all this bitching, yeah?! I liked Kyle, even though he was stiff and unsociable and I just pity that he wasn't given some more action, some more interesting stuff to do, than just polite conversations or watching things going on with others. Or self-loathing.

In fact, I even find this book beautifully written, masterfully, in great style and atmosphere that is comparable to the great masters of suspense and horror. The ideas were good, the horror parts... I don't know. I didn't get scared. Maybe 11 year old me would be. I have no idea why people tag it as horror. It's not, it is really not. I'd tag it as an old fashioned victorian gothic (is there a progressive victorian gothic, btw?) and label it +12.

So yes, I am a bit disappointed with this story collection, it was a bit too slow, too tame for my liking, but I also enjoyed the writing, some parts of it really much, but it missed the WOW element, a lot. 3 stars, because in general I liked it. If you like your gothic a bit sedated - you can give it a try.

[Meredith Katz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette is a collection of interconnected short stories which begin the adventures of Kyle Murchison Booth, the overall ‘verse of which is The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth. It consists of the first ten stories; of the remaining five, four are not in any collection but can be found available online (The Replacement, White Charles, The Yellow Dressing Gown, To Die For Moonlight) while the fifth can be found in her short story collection, Somewhere Beneath Those Waves. While this review is only for The Bone Key, I want to help make it easy for the rest to be found because I enjoyed this collection greatly.

I nabbed The Bone Key off my shelf because I was very much in the mood for something vaguely lovecraftian, and I found that this collection scratched that itch nicely. Written as a tribute to Lovecraft and M.R. James, the stories aim to capture that unsettling air of creeping horror, but add to the mix a sense of consistent, ongoing character.

The titular Kyle Murchison Booth is a socially awkward, uncomfortable man, a rare book archivist with the Samuel Mathers Parrington museum (and I can only assume that Monette wanted us to recall that Samuel Mathers) who dislikes conversation, physical contact, and having any expectations placed on him whatsoever, while he likes, mostly, books and being left largely alone. The first story begins with a queer take on a story like Lovecraft’s The Statement of Randolf Carter, where the timid protagonist is dragged along by the stronger willpower of his more charismatic friend. By making Booth gay and the one-sided tension between the two characters homoromantic, Monette launches into a strong start at establishing a character-first take on the discomfiting terror of the genre.

Booth as a character has a lot of appeal to me—he’s neurotic and anxious and can barely get a full sentence out, but these things aren’t done for the sake of an exaggerated persona but are instead the product of a man who was emotionally abused and bullied through most of his life, and for whom every conversation is a potential trap. His mental voice is rich and full of intelligent metaphors; he just chokes on the words on the way out. I find him quite charming.

Another reviewer on goodreads noted that while none of the individual stories were 5/5, the collection as a whole was, and I have to agree. Now, I’d rate most of the individual stories quite highly, but the real charm of the collection is seeing Booth grow, his terrifying experiences snowball, and his acquaintances return with the past between them still important. Ratcliffe’s offer to go to coffee with Booth “in celebration of the fact that we are no longer fourteen” absolutely sticks with me as so much of the underlying significance of these stories—that the people in them have a life beyond those horrible moments (assuming, at least, that they survive). And then, as a collection, this satisfied the desire for my wanting all kinds of paranormal creeps. Ghosts, vengeful and otherwise; strange eldritch horrors in the woods; incubi; the horror in the walls… Something for everyone, and deeply satisfying.

I look forward to when Monette writes the next Booth story and I assure you I’ll do my best to be one of its first readers.

Edit Jan 2022: Time for my triennial Booth stories reread! Despite the fact they're horror stories, they're SUCH comfort reads for me. My absolute favourite queird horror series (yeah that's queer weird horror).

[Fey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start by pointing out that I'm already a huge fan of Sarah Monette. I love everything I've ever read by her. I suppose that could make me biased towards her works, but I'd actually like to think that it only makes me more harshly demanding. Afterall, if I've rated most of her other works 5 stars this one has A LOT to live up to.

But oh look - ANOTHER 5 Star Rating. She's done it again! damn I love this woman.

Kyle Murchison Booth is a quiet, shy, reserved man; an insomniac with very little social life, and seems to spend most of his time at the museum where her works, cataloguing old books and papers. He does however stand out from the crowd, being that he is well over 6 foot tall and all his hair is mysteriously and prematurely pure white. And then add in a brush with necromantic magic that has in some way attuned him to the darker side of life, so that he's practically a ghost magnet. Well. He's certainly my kind of protagonist.

The Bone Key is a collection of 10 short stories (in which Booth is the first person narrator), most of which were originally published separately in various horror zines and publications. Obviously they can each be standalones, but they're much better collected together in one giant ghoulish smorgasboard. Apparently Monette's chief inspiration for Booth was Lovecraftian horror. I'm afraid I can't comment much on that, as I think I was born a little too late in the century and lovecraft completely passed me by! But honestly, this? This was some bloody good horror.

The best things about The Bone Key are probably also the worst things. Hear me out..
The Good: They're scary as f*ck.
The Bad: They're SCARY as f*ck.
The Good: The individual stories are quite short. You can get through them really quickly.
I'd rather not be stuck in the middle of a horror mystery just at bedtime.. I'd 've never get any sleep!
The Bad: They're short and they're over quick. Yes they're that good.


In conclusion: Sarah Monette + horror = win.

[Sage · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know, the more I think about this book, the more I really love it. As stated elsewhere, it's a a series of interlocking short stories in the life of Kyle Murchison Booth. It's set in some historically nebulous time in the years after WW2, but the protagonist is so NOT grounded in the physical world that the lack of a detailed setting works very well. The things he pays attention to are exquisitely detailed, and I love that because specific detail ought to reflect what the pov character cares about.

Best for my inner language geek is the phenomenal amount of word-porn in this book. Booth's narration uses old words, antiquated words, and words whose primary meanings have gone far afield from their rare usages -- which leads to some lovely poetic double readings throughout the book.

The ending (SPOILERS AHEAD) given in The Green Glass Paperweight was kind of huge for Booth and makes me wonder what happens next. We're led to believe he recovers some freedom to feel, but I'm not sure we see enough to believe in it. *ponders*

[Terra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ranked this 5 stars not because I felt that any of the stories within this collection was perfect. I don't, and I probably would have ranked any individual story within the collection a 3 or a 4. Maybe a 4.5. Though many of the stories did things I wish more stories would do, particularly with regards to the way Monette explored subtle nuances of a character motivation that other writers might overlook.

No, the real reason I ranked this a 5 was because these ten sometimes-imperfect but always compelling 3 and 4-star stories combined in a way that, for me, painted a convincing and faceted portrait of a character who, by the end of the book, had become fascinating and engaging in his own right, well beyond the context of each story. And that definitely deserves a 5.

I have no idea if Monette plans to write more Booth stories, but I certainly hope so.

[Beige]

Recommended by...
https://www.tor.com/2010/03/30/queeri...

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Bone Key" is a collection of 10 linked, gothic, short stories revolving around shy and anti-social museum archivist Kyle Murchison Booth, who specializes in rare manuscripts.  After a botched raising-the-dead ritual, Booth has attracted the attention of various supernatural entities such as ghosts, ghouls, incubi.  The stories are fairly entertaining and interesting.  They weren't particularly terrifying, but some were creepy. 

Sarah Monette also writes under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.

[Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a general rule of thumb, I don't like horror writing. I'm also not the biggest fan of short stories. And I tried Monette's main Melusine novels and ended up not even getting through a third.

Yet the Kyle Murchison Booth stories are some of my favorite rereads, and I've got a signed copy sitting proudly on my shelf. Clearly, something went very, very right here.

The premise is straightforward. Take the basic dynamics of H. P. Lovecraft or M. R. James, with the nebbish antiquarian encountering terrifying things Beyond Human Ken, and update it to the 21st century. Less sexism and racism, more realistic psychology, a generally defter touch with character development.

Our protagonist is the titular Kyle Murchison Booth, generally called Booth by all and sundry. He's an odd duck, cripplingly shy and self-effacing, socially helpless, yet brilliant and perceptive, and with more courage than he thinks. Also far enough in the closet he's having tea with Mr. Tumnus. Working as the archivist at the Samual Mathers Parrington Museum (an enormous, sprawling, inchoate mass of rooms and objects), his own necromantic dabblings leave Booth like catnip to every ghostie, ghoulie, and long-leggedy beastie in the unnamed East Coast city where he dwells.

Monette does a few things particularly well in this series. First, even though the structures of the stories tend towards tell-rather-than-show, the writing is sophisticated enough and her grasp of atmosphere good enough that you find yourself engrossed by the accounts -- rather than clumsy exposition, it reads more like Booth telling you what he's found in some ominous book of lore. Second, and related, Booth is a very interesting character with a strong sense of voice. Monette balances well between having Booth be a generic hero and having him be completely uninteresting or unlikable. Booth is a guy with major issues, but he's also capable of rising to the occasion, driven by a sense of duty even as he would really prefer to hide in his office. Finally, even though the basic structure of the stories is "Booth runs into creepy thing, Booth reacts to creepy thing," Monette does a good job of keeping the stories diverse in plot and form. Sometimes Booth is merely the observer of some largely unrelated haunting, sometimes he's an investigator, sometimes he's the instigator, sometimes things end happily(ish), sometimes.... not so much.

Overall, an excellent series, and I dearly hope Monette writes more of them.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

My god, this was a good book to read on Hallowe'en. Almost too good, in fact. I finished reading it in daylight, but the atmosphere it created was with me well into the evening.

Kyle Murchison Booth is a museum archivist, bookish, erudite, awkward, and painfully shy. After a reluctant experiment with necromancy, in the collection's first story, "Bringing Helena Back", he finds that he has opened the door to the world of the supernatural, beginning a series of encounters which will bring him into contact with ghosts, ghouls, demons, and the mysteries of the human soul. The stories are all excellent -- subtle, witty, atmospheric, and quietly bone-chilling -- but it's Booth himself whose presence pulls them together and makes them remarkable. He could choose to ignore the odd events around him (some of them, anyway -- some demand his attention), but he can't; his compassion for others and most of all, his deep need to know and understand compel him to investigate the mysterious happenings around him.

I wasn't sure I'd like The Bone Key, as I'm not generally a fan of horror or ghost stories, but I was willing to give it a try because I love Monette's other books. I'm very glad I did. Once I started, I couldn't stop; I wanted to draw the stories out longer, but I couldn't tear myself away, even when I told myself it would be nice to save some for the evening to read while waiting for trick or treaters.

If I had to pick out favorite stories, I would say "The Venebretti Necklace", which has a wonderful secondary character among other virtues, or "Elegy for a Demon Lover", which brought tears to my eye, but honestly, they're all absorbing.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bone Key is actually a series of short stories, all about Kyle Murchison Booth (nobody calls him Kyle) and his encounters with the paranormal. He traces them back to a necromantic rite he foolishly helped a friend perform, which seems to have made him more receptive to strange things.

In her introduction, Sarah Monette says she was inspired by M. R. James and Lovecraft. It shows, mostly in the atmosphere. I was not at all surprised to discover that she had a story published in the anthology Lovecraft Unbound, which is just a little further down my To Read list.

Our hero, Booth, will not be to every reader's taste. He is painfully shy, socially awkward, reserved almost to the point of being a hermit, and very academic. He's also gay, which plays prominently in two of the stories but otherwise simply forms a backdrop to his character. I actually loved Booth, being painfully shy, etc. myself.

The stories could have used a bit more punch, though. My spine tingled in a few places, but overall I was not left checking over my shoulder as I read. The one image that will haunt me is the wrenching ending of Elegy for a Demon Lover. But scared? Not so much. This is a minor issue, because I wasn't exactly expecting to be scared witless, and the stories are good enough that I just didn't care.

There is apparently a (sort of?) sequal which prints four more Booth stories. I'll be trying to get my hands on it, too.

[Armand · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heavily recommend this scrumptious book to all fans of horror, especially those who prefer their fare erudite, cultured, or occult

I have nothing but the highest praise for the author. While her slightly mannered prose hearkens to those piquant horror classics of yore, it is far from being overwrought. Indeed it is quite accessible, and I'm very much impressed by how Ms. Monette managed to marry a charming old world sensibility with a limpid, modern style that makes her stories compulsively readable. She may profess a deep reverence for the imposing works of Lovecraft and James, but this book is its own animal, and definitely not a sad, second-rate imitation of either.

The author has a scholarly bent (not surprising given her background) that is neither affected nor pretentious. Indeed the myriad references to and occasional expositions on classical tomes and forbidden arcana both real and imagined are fascinating rather than off-putting, and they are clearly intended to buttress the stories and make them fuller and richer. They are not in the least ornamental, superfluous, or worse, self-aggrandizing.

Regarding our protagonist, he's easy to warm up to even though (or perhaps precisely because) he's comically socially inept. His general awkwardness and occasional stammer is endearing rather than annoying, reminiscent of Robert Graves's Clau-Clau-Claudius. And like the latter, though many of his contemporaries are prone to have a poor opinion of him, his considerable intellectual capacity and innate decency make him easy to root for.

When reviewing anthologies I usually pick the stories that stood out, but in this case their uniformly high quality makes this moot. Prepare some savory victuals, lock your study, ensconce yourself in your favorite chair, and immerse yourself in our solitary archivist's quaint, haunted, and strangely wholesome world. This book merits an easy 8.5/10 or 5 wondrously recherché stars out of 5. I'm just glad that I gathered the stories in the sequel beforehand so that I can quickly devour them like doomed bacon hors d'oeuvres.

[Jam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Monette is a thinky writer and this definitely plays to that strength. In the introduction, Monette says that she wanted to write something with the feel of M. R. James and Lovecraft, but that acknwoldged things that are conspicuously absent in James and Lovecraft's works - things like strong women and sexuality.

And she succeeded remarkably well, to the point where I almost don't want to mention it because when I'm reading it, I don't have to think about it. It's a good thing, when you're reading a book (and after you finished), when you don't have to agree to ignore aspects of it.

It means you can concentrate on the fact that the stories are real, old-fashioned horror without having to hand-wave over the author's obvious issues with X, Y or Z. The style is that mixture of understated combined with very specific moments of precisely terrifying descriptions that is a feature of that type of horror. The monsters are often monstrous, are things that are genuinely creepy and dangerous, but most of the evil, the wrongness is human. Even the things that are dangerous and need to be resolved, are sometimes sympathetic.

The book is a collection of horror stories set about 1950, published separately and in different magazines, but with the same narrator. Later stories do refer to earlier ones, but you can see that they'd play well separately. The narrator, Kyle Murchison Booth, is an archivist, withdrawn by nature and socially awkward (and according to Monette, the most autobiographical of her characters) and a good narrator. Observant, on the outside and uncomfortable, but also unable to look away as much as he might like to.

Strongly recommended, especially for people who like their horror creepy-terrifying, rather than graphic.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that a more appropriate shelf for this book would be "Horror (sort of)".

The Bone Key is a book of short stories all themed around the narrator who works for a museum.

This guy is an amazingly dried up, shy stick of a man. At first it's just "there" but eventually i was shaking my head at the character and groaning...

That's not all that changes as you go. The stories in this volume are supposed to an homage to H.P.Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe, and you can see it. There are clear connections to given stories. At first that's interesting. I was involved in it till a little over halfway through and was frankly just bored.

Then I realized why. These stories are to Lovecraft and Poe as diluted tea is to whisky (whiskey) neat.

The stories are interesting at first but they usually boil down to mild haunting stories where things get tied up with Kyle [Mr. Booth] (our protagonist) wiping away sweat and being very...nerve wracked.

On a couple of occasions he does actually have to deal with ghosts or revenants...still it's very (are you ready) very "low key.

Okay, anyway not bad but not great.

[Juushika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten stories about Kyle Murchison Booth, a museum archivist with an unlucky talent for encountering the strange and supernatural. The atmosphere is phenomenal, a historical horror vibe which is more cozy that particularly scary. The short fiction format is immensely readable; Booth's eccentricities and precise diction make for a charming, sympathetic narrative. It isn't as directly confrontational re: bigotry as the Lovecraft retellings we've seen in the last few years, but quietly and effectively introduces the characterization and representation absent from early horror/weird fiction. I wonder if a skeptical supporting character might help underscore the strangeness of Booth's experience, but the near-universal acceptance he encounters avoids tedium and compliments the character study. Ten stories is an ideal length for this (potentially first?) collection, in terms of variety and readability--but a part of me would happily live forever in the ambiguously historical, deceptively cozy, haunted, evocative world/PoV here presented.

[Issendai · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bone Key was okay, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd read all the stories before. It felt as though the author was new to writing horror and had to get all the basic tropes out of her system before she could move on to inventing new twists. I don't know whether that's true of Monette--she wrote some splendidly horrific moments in Melusine--but it was the lingering impression I was left with.

Not to say it's not a good read. Kyle Murchison Booth is the book's greatest strength, a profoundly introverted and very odd man who's not at home among his own species... and doesn't get along all that well with non-humans, either. (With one disastrous exception.) As a character study, The Bone Key is excellent.

[hedgehog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of paranormal horror shorts - more on the end of psychological, unsettling horror than the splashy gore kind, which suits me just fine. The frame story in the introduction, complete with footnotes and convincing in-universe analyses of the stories? Super fun. Booth's narrative voice reminded me of Neil Gaiman's default meek-dude-recounting-mindless-horrors narrators, though Monette explicitly namechecks Lovecraft and M.R. James as influences, and I've no doubt Gaiman drew from them as well, so my real observation here I guess is... I don't read enough horror, pastiche & homage is a funhouse mirror, time is a wheel, etc., etc.

Favorites: "The Wall of Clouds", "Elegy for a Demon Lover", "The Green Glass Paperweight".

[L (Nineteen Adze) · Rating 3 out of 5]

First impressions: I'm not sure how to rate this one. Overall, it's a very 3.5-star experience. Some stories are strong, especially the novelettes with plenty of room to breathe, but others feel too rushed and aren't very memorable. The strongest element is definitely Booth's voice: he's anxious, miserable, averse to being around people, and nervous about having one foot in the supernatural world. It makes for a compelling and realistic portrait, going a step beyond reluctant-hero and well into someone struggling to survive these experiences. RTC.

[Venus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very quick read, but I loved it. I have some mixed feelings on Sarah Monette's work, but I think she excels at short stories.

I'd love to read any further forays into the horror genre from her. It was amazing to read Lovecraftian horror without having to flinch and cringe around all the racism.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection of ghost stories. Although the stories stand alone, the narrator, the eccentric and solitary Mr. Kyle Murchison Booth is the same. The tales are creepy and disturbing and yet leave the reader wanting more.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweetly prim museum archivist navigates a series of regretfully supernatural events.

I really liked this series of interconnected short stories with a classic horror bent (as in, 19th- and early 20th-century-style tales). Think Arthur Dent meets Edward Gorey and you won't be too far off.

Recommended for lovers of classic horror.

[Kathrin Passig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich mochte das Konzept: Horror-Geschichten im Stil von M. R. James, aber sympathischer und mit einem interessanten Protagonisten. Ich habe alle Geschichten gern gelesen, nur drei Sterne, weil der Horror für mich nicht funktioniert hat (mit einer Ausnahme).

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I’m as thoroughly enamoured with the writings of M.R. James as one can be, I have had this feeling of incompleteness for quite some time now that the scholarly protagonists featured in his stories are not real, because they are simply too devoid of earthly passions, except fear. On the other hand, his antagonists (including the spectral ones) appear to be more real, since they are full of hatred, avarice, anger, and all other emotions that are on display everywhere in ‘real’ life. One ‘Jamesian’ author who had overcome this deficiency, and had given us some awesome horror stories in the same vein but which were much more believable (and hence absolutely terrifying), is Reggie Oliver. I am happy to state that I have found another author who has also broken through that ceiling, imbuing her characters with humane emotions, while staying true to the Jamesian maxim of malicious ghosts, incorporating several nasties from the world of Lovecraft in the bargain. She is Sarah Monette.

I had come to know about Monette and her absolutely outstanding collection of loosely connected horror stories in a Facebook group discussion. The book has been arranged in a manner that conveys the impression of it being a collection of experiences of a scholar, Kyle Murchison Booth, who used to be the Senior Archivist at Department of Rare Books in Samuel Mather Parrington Museum. The contents of this book are:

 Introduction
 Introduction to the Second Edition
1. Bringing Helena Back
2. The Venebretti Necklace
3. The Bone Key
4. Wait for Me
5. Drowning Palmer
6. The Inheritance of Barnabas Wilcox
7. Elegy for a Demon Lover
8. The Wall of Clouds
9. The Green Glass Paperweight
10. Listening to Bone
 Story Notes
 About the Authors
 Acknowledgements

Trying to summarise the stories, or the ‘adventures’ (bad ventures?) of Mr. Booth, would be a horrific act that might undo all the pleasure that you are likely to gain from the reading of this book. Hence I would desist from that act, and would simply submit that if you like to read Jamesian horror stories, but with modern sensibilities that are not to be found in the classical works of that great author, then look no further. I myself would be waiting for a further lot of ‘papers’ to be unleashed upon the unwary world by Sarah Monette eagerly.

Highly Recommended, obviously.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

March 8, 2024 review:

Bumping this up from 4 stars to 5 stars, and adding this to my favorites shelf. This was SUCH an excellent collection of creepy short stories with a delightful emphasis on archives & museums & such. My favorites from the collection were Wait for Me, Listening to Bone, and Elegy for a Demon Lover, but all of the stories were incredibly fun.

January 31, 207 review:

I liked this collection of short stories a lot - it's creepy and gothic and a little bit gay (in short, it's just about everything I love).

I happened to start reading this book not too long after finishing another collection of short horror stories, Thomas Ligotti's Tales of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe, so it's inevitable that my mind jumps to compare the two, and Monette overall ranks more favorably than Ligotti in my estimation. The two are clearly influenced by H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe, and both write horror stories that are more under-your-skin-creepy than outright gory. But the differences more or less end there. Ligotti is the more complex author - but this isn't exactly a compliment. The stories of Ligotti's that I enjoyed were scarier and had a more lasting impact on me than Monette's stories, but I had much more fun reading The Bone Key than I did Ligotti's works. Monette makes it clear in the forward to her collection of stories that despite being a fan of Lovecraft and Poe, she wanted to correct the lack of sexuality and sustained characterization in their work. Ligotti's short stories all have no link to the other, so eventually, reading his collection became a chore. It was difficult to distinguish between stories, and because I didn't have enough time to get to know each new narrator, I sometimes had a hard time caring. In contrast, this collection of short stories avoids coming off as disjointed because Monette sticks to just the one narrator. I will say that, at times, Monette's writing seems a little watered down and obvious, but it's much preferable to how obscure Ligotti's writing could get.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 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.)

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of interlocking classical tales as chilling and curious as those by Algernon Blackwood and H.P. Lovecraft, accompanied by vivid character development which drew me into the haunting human realities which fuelled the supernatural mishaps which occurred in each story. These stories were told by shy, misanthropic Kyle Murchinson Booth, library employee and occult scholar whom sees and notices way too much, far more than he’d like, for all his attempts to hide in his library. From a request from a beloved best friend to raise from the dead a mercenary wife, to haunted houses, rest homes, boarding schools filled with hated memories, a demon lover who’s too perfect to be true, and his own cursed heritage; Booth faces each challenge with trepidition and a reluctant courage which is touchingly human. Happily Booth does make friends amidst all this (although they have to be quite aggressive in pursuing his friendship), and finds others to assist him, so he’s never quite as alone as he thinks or tries to be. Company, however, doesn’t dismiss the chill many of these stories leave, in spite of the situation being resolved. If you enjoy James, Lovecraft, and Blackwood and longed for a more overtly queer, yet realistic protagonist to be in them, don’t miss this.

[Isidore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discard at once the author's notion that she is retooling Lovecraft and M.R. James: in terms of imaginative reach there's little here that would have strained Mrs. Riddell, and there's no sign of James's startlingly unexpected imagery. It's easier to imagine Monette's pastiches as the work of a solid, second-tier Edwardian craftsman of the Weird.

But if the horrors to be found here are somewhat unambitious, they are laid out intelligently in well-told narratives. "Wait for Me" is particularly good, thanks in part to clever details, such as having an adult's collection of children's books eventually prove to be an indication not of puerile tastes in literature, but of a sinister supernatural harassment. The nasty/pathetic revenant of that story gives it exceptional impact; so does the presence in "Wall of Clouds" of two old ladies who at first seem nothing more than a amusing pair of gossips, but whose increasingly ghastly chatter finally compels a surprising reassessment of their true nature.

Monette is a deft hand at turning the commonplace into the monstrous, and to that extent at least is a worthy follower of M.R. James, but her style and tone are her own.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a big fan of HP Lovecraft and, in many ways, the protagonist of these stories is the quintessential HPL character: a shy, awkward, insomniac antiquarian from a rich, old, New England family. On the other hand, he is much more realistically and sympathetically portrayed. He is also a closeted (1920s) homosexual, which is certainly something that HPL would never have written about. While very timid, he has a good heart and can act with courage in times of need, but Kyle Murchison Booth is no two-fisted action hero from the pulps. This book is a collection of short stories in chronological order featuring the same protagonist, so it has the feel of a novel, but each "chapter" is a complete story. All feature the supernatural, mostly ghosts and necromancy, but also at least one demon (incubus). None of the stories have any of the beings from HPL's "mythos", either his originals of the expansions dome by other authors. 3.5 stars.