The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis
The Bone Cutters
by Renee S. DeCamillis
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Ratings 4.5/5
Synopsis
Dory wakes up in the padded room of a psychiatric hospital with no recollection of how she wound up there. She soon finds out she's been Blue-Papered--involuntarily committed. She gets sent to the wrong counseling group and discovers a whole new world of psychiatric patients she'd never known existed. At first she just thinks they're cutters, all marked by similar scars, but then she finds out that those scars are from carving into their bodies where they chisel and scrape their bones. They harvest bone dust. This dust is highly coveted and sought after, as well as highly addictive. When they realize she's never been "dusted", Dory becomes their target. After all, dust from a "freshie" is much more valuable than theirs. Frightened for her life, she desperately tries to prove to the psych. hospital staff that she's not delusional about these particular patients wanting to slice her open and scrape her bones. The staff doesn't believe her. They all think she's crazy. Dory ends up on the run, fighting for her life, trying to avoid getting "dusted" by The Bone Cutters.
Like Girl, Interrupted and "The Yellow Wallpaper", The Bone Cutters is one woman's dark and surreal experience with a madness that is not necessarily her own.
My Thoughts
Horror is a peculiar genre. If it’s meant purely to scare, what is scary? What might shock one reader is laughable to another. Ghosts, serial killers, great heaving monsters, the loss of self-control. The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis is an amazing piece of bone chilling novel in which characters are running for their lives. As much as horror is a genre it’s also a technique; a way to confront or explore something real by taking the audience to extremes. As a kid I was terrified of horror films – until I actually watched one and then I couldn’t get enough. But what really stood out about the films and books I loved the most was that more often than not the horrific aspect was only one part of what made the story special. The best horror has something more on its mind than just scares, and indeed finds a way to use the scares to explore whatever that something is, and The Bone Cutters by Renee S. DeCamillis is one those amazing books. The Bone Cutters totally got into my head to the degree that it found it's way into my dreams. I was so involved with the story and characters that they made my head their home. The characters are so superbly written.
If I have not made it clear that I recommend this book then I suppose that I have no gift for recommendation. Do read it if you have any taste for this sort of thing, and especially if your recollection is still taken up with the films.
A must read for sure!
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