Road of Bones

Really enjoyed this one - very tense, quick pacing.

This was pretty good. I usually balk at the fantasy / supernatural stuff, but this drew me in. I'd read more from this author.

*3.5 stars

this book was so short but took forever to read. the horror in this just wasn't my favorite and there was a part of this that pulled at my heartstrings but it felt like nothing happened even tho it did. the bitterly cold atmosphere was really the only part of this book that was fleshed out 

Spooky, atmospheric, mysterious. Read it on a cold, very windy night... hopefully without wolves near!

This is a fast moving and effective horror novel, with a strong sense of place and the hostility of the landscape - in fact, it's tempting to get pseudy and read all the supernatural horror as metaphor, a reification of just how inimical this place is to life. But then again, it's also pretty fun to think about unstoppable horned shamans in endless pursuit of our heroes and animistic spirits messing people up in inventively gory style. I guess you can indeed have it both ways, and this one was a very entertaining slice of pagan horror in a fresh and undressed setting. Nice one.

This book will give you the chills even if you're reading it in the middle of the hottest day in summer. Set in the middle of a Siberian winter along the twelve hundred mile long R504 Kolyma Highway, two men are traveling to a small isolated community in Siberia to film a documentary about the supernatural in this sparsely populated area of the world. The Kolyma Highway is known as the Road of Bones because it is built atop the frozen bodies of the hundreds of thousands of Stalin era gulag victims that died helping build the road that then became their grave. Teig is the idea man behind the project who is trying to jump start his failing career as a producer of documentary films. He owes his one last loyal friend, companion and cameraman, Prentiss, eight thousand dollars. If successful, the earnings from the documentary will more than settle his debt. They've made arrangements to meet a guide who speaks the local language and will take them the final leg of their journey to their destination. Traveling the highway in the middle of the long deadly cold Siberian night they find and rescue a girl, Nari, whose car has broken down. When the now four travelers reach the small village destination they soon find that it has been deserted; signs that all the people abandoned their warm homes and walked through the snow into the surrounding forest, some even barefoot. But one small girl, Una, the niece of their guide, is found in a catatonic condition huddling in her home. Why she was spared is unknown but the group soon realizes that something mysterious and dangerous is lurking in the surrounding forest. Nari calls it the parnee, a thing of nature; an antlered spirit with an army of animalistic wolf-like beings that can shift from the physical to shadow. With the little girl in tow, the four travelers now find they must flee for their lives back down the frozen highway pursued in the deadly cold night by powerful supernatural forces. The terror has just begun. A fast read that somewhat reminded me of the classic Algernon Blackwood horror story, The Wendigo.

If you like paranormal thrillers set in a remote location, this will be the book for you. I was intrigued from the beginning of getting to know the MC's Tieg and Prentiss. Being a big fan of paranormal investigator shows and the like, I was excited to learn that that was the background these men had. And their goal in being in this remote part of the world was to create the next best show. So, I was a fan of the characters right away. The excitement in the plot really started right from page one. I could really feel what they were feeling being in this super cold, remote area in Siberia.

That's the next thing...it is cold. At first, I found the descriptions of the cold endearing and helpful. I can barely imagine, but I felt like this was the best I'd ever be able to get close to imagining. However, as the book goes on there is no way that you can forget it's cold. It's mentioned so regularly by every single character, multiple times. It went past proving the point to being a bit grating. However, this was only mildly annoying. I would quickly lose the annoyance of it when gripped with the issues that these characters end up facing. And those problems surmount as the book goes on.

Overall, I find this book to be exciting and unique. I enjoyed the writing style. There were times it did drag and felt repetitive, but overall a good book. The one thing that I think would have made this book so much better for me is if we got a bit more information on a big character/plot point. However, I don't feel like it was very necessary to elaborate on it for the story to be a good one.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this ARC for a fair and honest review.