Publisher:  Leisure

I usually am more of a fan of books than of movies. Rarely do I give a book review that is below three overall stars, but in the case of Nate Kenyon's new book, THE BONE FACTORY, I found myself having a hard time getting through this one. It's not that the story is bad, it's the way it was written that didn't keep me coming back for more.

THE BONE FACTORY is about David Pierce, an unemployed engineer who, after quitting his  job, is having a hard time finding work in his field because of a disagreement with his former company. David has a wife, Helen, and a daughter, Jessie, who is a very special little girl. When David is offered a good-paying job up north in the town of Jackson, he takes it immediately, despite the prospect of living in the cold climate on the Maine/Canada border and living in the middle of nowhere. David's job is to look over a hydroelectric plant and help get it kick-started once the winter season passes. The plant will create a lot of power for many cities in Canada and the eastern United States. However, not is all as it seems in Jackson. It is the middle of winter and the roads in and out of the plant are shut down. But people have gone missing, a little girl and a sheriff deputy among them, and no one knows where they are or if they are still alive. Jessie knows the truth, and she knows that there is a madman on the loose killing people and making his home near and throughout the plant, and where he keeps the bodies of those he has killed.

By knowing what the book is about, the idea is one that catches the eye right away. It sounds like it's going to be one crazy horror story, and don't get me wrong, it is, but the book has elements that are a bit drawn out. THE BONE FACTORY, to me, felt like it was over-developed, both with the storyline and the characters. The story goes far too deep into the characters' backgrounds, especially that of David and his past. For me, it took away from the pacing of the overall story and I ended up losing track of what was going on. The story does begin to pick up about two hundred pages in, but by then, it was too late. I already knew every aspect of the characters' lives. Don't get me wrong. The remainder of the book is very intense, and the book puts some great horrific images into your mind that reflect the likes of early Stephen King novels such as THE SHINING.

Overall, THE BONE FACTORY is not a bad book, but it's nothing great either. I can usually read a good book in a few days if it keeps me coming back for more. This one took me over three weeks to finish. It's not that it's a bad book, it's just that I had a hard time getting into this one and enjoying it the way I need to enjoy horror novels. Kenyon is a great writer, and I'm not going to say that it's a dud, because it isn't. As a horror writer, he writes some very impressive stuff in this book. But, when it comes down to it, he lets his research on such things as the minutiae on the operations of hydroelectric plants take over the story at certain key points in the book. Really, I just felt that the story as a whole was overdeveloped and that, at times, there was a certain repetitiveness about the characters, pasts. In my opinion, it's a serviceable, but not necessary, read.

 - Horror Bob

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