Share for friends:

The Bone Parade (2005)

The Bone Parade (2005)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.77 of 5 Votes: 5
Your rating
ISBN
0786888334 (ISBN13: 9780786888337)
Language
English
Publisher
voice

About book The Bone Parade (2005)

This is my last surviving book from the Goodreads Bookswap days (please bring it back!!). Here is finally an adult horror book. Ashley Stassler is a renowned sculptor who is best known for his work depicting families in the deepest thralls of terror. What we find out, and this is not a spoiler, is that he finds his families by knocking on their door and asking if he can see his old childhood home, at which point he abducts the whole family and throws them into a cage in his basement. After terrorizing the family for weeks at a time, he finally ends up killing them off one by one as the others watch, in one of the most terrifying ways I can imagine. He pours alginate over their bodies (aka the stuff dentists use to mold your teeth), leaving only one nostril to breath out of. When he's had his fill, he stuffs the nose. Creeeeppppyyyy. While this book was scary and really action packed, I was annoyed a bit by the whole thing. Two of the main characters fall in love with practical strangers within a week of knowing them and Diamond Girl, although a fun little twist, certainly is not made from the cloth of reality. For being a regular length novel, it took me double the time to read it, which either means I wasn't that into it or simply didn't have the time. I'm not sure which answer it is yet.

The Bone Parade is an easy gripping read that kept me on the edge of my seat. I thought it was a good book, had enough disturbing elements to it (casting human form in bronze from families he has kidnapped and tortured) and kept me guessing when one girl he captured was almost or if not more evil than he was. Ashley Stassler is a famous sculptor. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world though, is that he actually uses human beings in their throes of pain and torture, to cast his molds. The author is very good at making the characters believable, from the criminal himself and the victims, (it was especially fun watching the wicked teenage girl from the family we see him capture antagonize the rest of her family and it left me wondering the dysfunction that was them even before this horrific ordeal)to the attempted ? heroics and bravery of the protagonist Lauren and her art student Kerry. There is a sprinkling of romance but not enough to bore you, the ending may be accused of being a bit cheesy, but I can forgive this as I am cheesy at times too. I have never read this author or even heard of him, but I am glad I stumbled across this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good horror/suspense type of read.

Do You like book The Bone Parade (2005)?

Overall, not bad. A relatively quick read I suppose. Honestly, it felt like watching a movie. Most of the internal dialog could easily be imagined upon the faces of the characters. What I found interesting about the story, of course, centered around the killer. Interesting, initially, in that it seemed most of his internal, more rational, explanations for his actions were a labor of his craft, and little to do with the pain and torture he inflicted upon his victims. But, as the story goes on, he is revealed more and more to the reader that he holds himself as an elitist of his art and utterly disdainful of others he feels are all inferior to his own dedication. I think the height of both interest and intrigue for me was up to the last quarter or so of the book, as his work is disturbed and he becomes an irrational fool. In this I mean, just when his program of normalcy is challenged, he begins unraveling, irretrievably. It detracts and in many ways countermands most of the man we've been led to see and expect.
—Jamie

This book is seriously disturbing and creepy but I couldn't put it down. The "villain" is a celebrated sculptor. He is best known for his bronze sculptures of people in various states of terror. What none of his fans realize is that in order to achieve these amazing likenesses, he has been kidnapping and torturing human beings and casting their tormented forms in bronze. The protagonist, an art professor, becomes involved when one of her students embarks on a internship at the artist's compound and subsequently goes missing. The teenage girl whom the artist has kidnapped as part of his latest sculpture project is horrifyingly wicked. This one is not for those with weak stomachs. Also, you might not want to read it alone at night.
—Steph Adams

He drew himself up at the sight of three bodies lying on the table itself, one of them a woman. Unmoving. As rigid as he found himself once again. But their skin was ... greenish. He touched the one closest to him, the largest of the three. It felt hard and brittle, and Jesus ... they were headless. Apparantly compared to Thomas Harris of Hannibal fame, Nykanen is no Harris. More like Patricia Cornwell. And Ashley Stassler is no Hannibal. Horrific, yes, but not intellectually challenging. Stassler torments families eventually making molds of their bodies during the last throes of death by suffocation, and then using the molds to pour bronze casts of them. Chased down by fellow sculptor and professor Laured Reed, not unlike Cornwell's Scarpetta, the book is a page-turner. I practically completed it in one lazy morning in bed, couldn't put it down. Three stars.
—Richard

download or read online

Read Online

Write Review

(Review will shown on site after approval)

Other books in category Humor