Advance Review: BORROWED BONES

by | Jun 1, 2026 | Book Reviews, Reviews, The Horror Review News | 0 comments

Borrowed Bones
Winona Morris
Independently published (June 22, 2026)
Reviewed by Nora B. Peevy

At first glance, my review of Borrowed Bones appears to be about a man, Russell, grieving for his wife,  Liza, but it soon becomes much more as supernatural events start happening on his property and he is visited often by a beast with Liza’s voice. The beast looks otherworldly, but it smells and speaks like his wife and eventually, becomes a balm for his grief where he protects the creature from the villagers willing to hunt it down and shoot it for the revenge of people in the town. In a sense, it has a Frankenstein theme of being in love with the monster, but this monster is dangerous and doesn’t understand what it is doing, only that it “borrows bones” to please the one person showing it any affection.

The raw emotion of grief spilled across these pages is what makes this story work. Without that, the story would be a flop. Grief in its own way, becomes a character in the novel, ever present and heavily felt with every page turned and every memory retold on the pages. The tree itself is also a central character too. Without the tree, the plot would not be able to move forward because Russell would not have all the memories he shares with his readers and the connection with his wife and her beloved necklace recovered from the grave.

I read this book in two days. I had to know what the creature was. Morris never really explains what they creature is, which isn’t disappointing, it makes the story more intriguing. The only thing we learn is that it is a creature born from someone’s extreme grief, which is a romantic theme, when you think about it. That you could create a living monster of your own grief from the love you felt for your beloved.

If you read Morris’s first novel, and I certainly hope you do, you should also check out her first collection of short stories, On Darkened Wings and Other Short Horrors. Morris’s strength in her writing is her character development. She puts a character you can relate to in a normal setting which quickly becomes horrifying. It’s a wonderful talent to be applauded. If you are looking for other books that deal with horror and grief here are a few suggestions: Bag of Bones by Stephen King, The Fisherman by John Langan, and Our Wives Under the Sea by Julie Armfield. I hope you’ll go out and purchase Borrowed Bones by Winona Morris. Her work deserves to stand next to these authors.

About Nora B. Peevy

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She toils away for JournalStone and Trepidatio Publishing as a submissions reader, is a co-editor for Alien Sun Press, the newest reviewer for Hellnotes, and has been published by Eighth Tower Press, Weird Fiction Quarterly, and other places. Usually, you can find her on Facebook asking for help escaping from her human body or to get tuna. Tuna is nice. Cats like tuna.

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