Wetbones

John Shirley

There are certain books that, if you mention their names, will cause the eyes of horror fans in your immediate area to rise in amazement. “You were actually aboe to FIND a copy of that?” The three I've had in my sights for about two years now are Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, Caponegro's The Breeze Horror, and Shirley's Wetbones. The last of the three was the first I was able to track down.

A fun little book it is, but I'm not entirely sure what all the fuss is about. Wetbones is comprised of three (branching off occasionally into four) intertwining stories that all center around an isolated desert mansion called the Doublekey Ranch. Along the way, you get all sorts of fun stuff about mind control, various techniques for efficiently disposing of your victims, the Akishra (not going to try and describe them, read to believe), and various other interesting topics.

The various reviews I've read lead me to believe that the reason Wetbones is so sought after an item is that it's considered to have pushed the bleeding edge of splatterpunk. One wonders if the authors of said reviews were ever exposed to the early work of Robert Devereaux, whose novel Deadweight (released a year before this) has only recently found company in the corner of the envelope thanks to the emergence of Charlee Jacob. (Not to spoil the fun, but the scene I'm guessing is considered the bleeding edge, pardon the pun, is lifted almost verbatim from Iain Banks' chilling novel The Wasp Factory, released at roughly the same time as Wetbones.)

Now again, let me say that while it may sound like I'm trashing the novel, I'm not. It IS a good read, paced well, with well-drawn characters and enough of a plot to keep the reader interested in what's going to come next. I don't think, however, that when the academics get off their high horses and create a horror canon, that Wetbones is going to be one of the top nominees for a slot.