Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones

hardcover, 304 pages

Published Feb. 5, 2019 by John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

ISBN:: 978-1-328-56645-4

(1 review)

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms... They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you. Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living. When new arrivals begin scoring …

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms... They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you. Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living. When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.

4 editions

Michael Gouker reviewed Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks

Review of 'Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I finished this a while ago, but it works deeper in the mind, so I needed some decompressing. This is as spoiler-free as possible. I'm not going to discuss any plot points per se, but there are some aspects of the story that are special and need to be addressed to discuss the novel at all.

The setting is a depressed Southern town, Swine Hill, in more-or-less modern times. The pork processing business has become the town's livelihood. Almost everyone works there or works in businesses that support its employees. The special thing about the town is that its center is inhabited by ghosts and their circle of influence is growing.

Jane & Henry live amidst these ghosts. Swine Hill ghosts are a bit non-traditional, reminding me of Pullman daemons, but they are selfish and basically sinister. They lend their special abilities to their haunteds. Jane's ghost allows her to …

I finished this a while ago, but it works deeper in the mind, so I needed some decompressing. This is as spoiler-free as possible. I'm not going to discuss any plot points per se, but there are some aspects of the story that are special and need to be addressed to discuss the novel at all.

The setting is a depressed Southern town, Swine Hill, in more-or-less modern times. The pork processing business has become the town's livelihood. Almost everyone works there or works in businesses that support its employees. The special thing about the town is that its center is inhabited by ghosts and their circle of influence is growing.

Jane & Henry live amidst these ghosts. Swine Hill ghosts are a bit non-traditional, reminding me of Pullman daemons, but they are selfish and basically sinister. They lend their special abilities to their haunteds. Jane's ghost allows her to see people's internal thoughts and loves secrets, causing Jane much anguish, but sometimes also saving her. Henry's ghost kidnaps his consciousness to go problem solving, because of the same lack of empathy in which Jane constantly drowns, usually creating a worse problem.

One of the "problems" that Henry creates is an entire species of people, which Hicks uses to juxtapose modern race relations (how whites excluded black people from the prom for years versus how Dennis--the young pig--was welcomed with such "originality." ;-)

The other theme is redemption, how you can constantly get everything wrong but through sheer persistence and sincere commitment battle through to find solutions. This is a healthy message but it's despite the character actions, rather than because of them, so this is no moral play. If there is a lesson at all, it's that you should keep trying even if you fuck everything up constantly, which (checking my watch) really works good for 2020.

Hicks has written a very special novel that reeks of Gothic madness. It's not perfect (for me). I would have liked to see more sexual tension. I would have enjoyed more background on Swine Hill's violent past, because there seems plenty here to mine. (The snatches I got reminded me of Derry-like secrets.) At the same time, I love how the ghosts are represented (it's fresh) and frankly enjoyed the characters so much. Pig-Boss, especially, is a complex character worthy of more exploration. I mean... can you imagine his pov? ;-)

Good story for your Coronavirus confinement! Things can always get worse. See?