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A review by nuevecuervos
Bones of the Moon by Jonathan Carroll
1.0
I read this book entirely based on Neil Gaiman's 2012 recommendation, and I'm now sorry to have done so. CW: for racial slurs, abortion, abuse of women, abuse of LGBT characters, extreme patriarchy, and axe murders
This particular tale was written in 1987, and hasn't aged terribly well. Carroll uses slurs like "gypped" and "gypsies", talks about "gook-eyed Martians", and about how European women are real women who like being women as opposed to American women who are all clumsy, frumpy, and want to be mannish.... except MC Cullen of course, who is of course, stunningly pretty, tall, slender, and often fawned upon (*eyeroll*), but surprisingly even though she is the main character and the singular PoV, has very little happening in her head. She just goes along without agency entirely at the service of the men and children in her life after deciding to have the abortion that starts it all (and we can go into the subtext at LENGTH on that, but not today, satan), and deciding to pursue a relationship with Danny, the friend that can save her from, let's see... yes-- her job that pays her bills in NYC and a lively social and sex life. Sounds awful, check.
Danny, of course, is the best Nice Guy ever... until Cullen stays out too late one afternoon and then he gets scary, passive-aggressively mad to a truly unreasonable extent and reminds us about how early in the book Cullen says that when he gets really mad, he goes quiet and then all you can do is hide until it was over. Frankly this was the biggest goddamn red flag/foreshadow that is never played out, and that's the hill I'll die on. (Or at least, one of them-- Who does that?) I really was thinking he was going to turn out to be the villain, because the actual villain was telegraphed fairly early and I was totally waiting for the twist that never came.
Eliot, the gayest BFF ever is probably my favorite character. Even though his trope is 100% the 80's ideal will-and-grace flaming gay stereotype, he's written with surprising amounts of compassion and grace for the time. Of course, then Carroll goes and
Or, say, Weber, who literally tries to
Ok, dammit, just a couple of thoughts on the abortion backstory
Speaking of Pepsi, though, there's another situation where Cullen is just floating along behind the kid, letting him do all the talking and deciding, just along for the ride because she's mom, unhelpfully hyperaware that this is what she's doing. Neat!
Also, when I said the villain was telegraphed early, I mean that the book opens with
So here's the thing-- I question the people Carroll knows that would make these characters believable. Being a dude writing urban fantasy from a female perspective in the 80s with a gay bff was groundbreaking-ish at the time (yes, this is 'urban fantasy', even though it's tagged as 'magical realism'. Same difference, only when women write it it's urban fantasy, lol. Fuck that.) but this woman doesn't ring terribly true. She's a (very pretty, omg so pretty)(and almost as good as European women, did you know?) vehicle to tell this story about what happens to all the dudes who fall into her orbit one way or another. I should probably have seen this coming from the Goodreads blurb that starts with "In her first dream, she found the perfect man-and the same thing promptly happened in life."; lol, whut?
Finally, though, I can't shit on it entirely. The book is competently written and the fantasy parts as well as the plot of the dreamland bleeding into real life is brilliant. Carroll successfully uses the structure of a horror novel to tell an urban fantasy tale, playing on the uncertainty of the MC to know whether they're losing their mind or whether events are objectively occurring, giving the MC a crutch friend to help come to terms with the situation, and letting the crazy just snowball until we get to an improbable, bloody, and horrifying end (those? fucking nightmare fuel. I did in fact read this in the course of two days, and I really did want to know what happened, but the slurs and the paper thin MC, and the weight of the bullshit she was carrying around was just too much.
Sometimes when I tell people that I've spent the last few years consciously choosing to read a majority of books by Women and/or PoC, I get called things like 'woke' (which, lol), or I get embroiled in conversations about how you'd know the gender or ethnicity of a writer without being told, etc. etc. But I gotta tell you, Women and particularly WoC do NOT generally bring this kind of bullshit to my doorstep (generally, but yes sometimes the misogyny does come from inside the house), and their stories just as creative and well-told, if not moreso. This book is *literally* the kind of thing I'm trying to avoid, so I mean, I guess thanks for the reminder?
This particular tale was written in 1987, and hasn't aged terribly well. Carroll uses slurs like "gypped" and "gypsies", talks about "gook-eyed Martians", and about how European women are real women who like being women as opposed to American women who are all clumsy, frumpy, and want to be mannish.... except MC Cullen of course, who is of course, stunningly pretty, tall, slender, and often fawned upon (*eyeroll*), but surprisingly even though she is the main character and the singular PoV, has very little happening in her head. She just goes along without agency entirely at the service of the men and children in her life after deciding to have the abortion that starts it all (and we can go into the subtext at LENGTH on that, but not today, satan), and deciding to pursue a relationship with Danny, the friend that can save her from, let's see... yes-- her job that pays her bills in NYC and a lively social and sex life. Sounds awful, check.
Danny, of course, is the best Nice Guy ever... until Cullen stays out too late one afternoon and then he gets scary, passive-aggressively mad to a truly unreasonable extent and reminds us about how early in the book Cullen says that when he gets really mad, he goes quiet and then all you can do is hide until it was over. Frankly this was the biggest goddamn red flag/foreshadow that is never played out, and that's the hill I'll die on. (Or at least, one of them-- Who does that?) I really was thinking he was going to turn out to be the villain, because the actual villain was telegraphed fairly early and I was totally waiting for the twist that never came.
Eliot, the gayest BFF ever is probably my favorite character. Even though his trope is 100% the 80's ideal will-and-grace flaming gay stereotype, he's written with surprising amounts of compassion and grace for the time. Of course, then Carroll goes and
Spoiler
kills him senselessly at the end, because of course, one must kill one's gays. OF COURSE.Or, say, Weber, who literally tries to
Spoiler
assault Cullen when she turns him down, and then spends weeks begging her to chat with him because he can't stand to not talk to her. Sure we find out that it's because he, too, has been sucked into her fantasy world, but like, he tried to *hit* her for telling him to fuck off because she's *married* and she's like, "OH You. Lol. I guess I owe you time since you're going a little crazy on my behalf." Oh! And Eliot calls around and gets nothing but women who say he's a good guy, honestly and a good friend? riiiiight. Normal men don't just randomly decide to get violent. Fuck. You. Weber.Ok, dammit, just a couple of thoughts on the abortion backstory
Spoiler
honestly, there's a paragraph in there where the MC says that she realizes that the main character in her magical dreams is obviously the child she aborted, and though she knows she killed him, she still thinks it's necessary for women to have access to abortions. I myself, am a staunchly pro-choice person, but I also have never chosen to write a story about the potential second life of an early-stage abortion where the MC literally thinks to herself, "Sorry to have killed you, but I didn't have much of a choice so if I can help you now, I absolutely will." Given the end, we also know that she wasn't imagining any of it, so like, I can't help but feel it's a little on the 'abortion = murder' tip.Speaking of Pepsi, though, there's another situation where Cullen is just floating along behind the kid, letting him do all the talking and deciding, just along for the ride because she's mom, unhelpfully hyperaware that this is what she's doing. Neat!
Also, when I said the villain was telegraphed early, I mean that the book opens with
Spoiler
Axe Guy killing... yes, indeed, the women in his apartment below the MC's, and that he takes an interest in the MC creepily because she's so pretty, but not conceited about it. Granted, there's no winning with this kind of psycho, since if she *had* been conceited about it, he would have come for her anyway. Once we notice that real people are bleeding back and forth into the dreamland, it becomes fairly apparent that Alvin's going to show up as a bad guy (which is imho still a lost opportunity to have used Danny instead, but I digress).So here's the thing-- I question the people Carroll knows that would make these characters believable. Being a dude writing urban fantasy from a female perspective in the 80s with a gay bff was groundbreaking-ish at the time (yes, this is 'urban fantasy', even though it's tagged as 'magical realism'. Same difference, only when women write it it's urban fantasy, lol. Fuck that.) but this woman doesn't ring terribly true. She's a (very pretty, omg so pretty)(and almost as good as European women, did you know?) vehicle to tell this story about what happens to all the dudes who fall into her orbit one way or another.
Spoiler
She can't even save herself at the end, she has to depend on her aborted son who is now king of a fantasy land.Finally, though, I can't shit on it entirely. The book is competently written and the fantasy parts as well as the plot of the dreamland bleeding into real life is brilliant. Carroll successfully uses the structure of a horror novel to tell an urban fantasy tale, playing on the uncertainty of the MC to know whether they're losing their mind or whether events are objectively occurring, giving the MC a crutch friend to help come to terms with the situation, and letting the crazy just snowball until we get to an improbable, bloody, and horrifying end (those
Spoiler
crazy, mutilated childrenSometimes when I tell people that I've spent the last few years consciously choosing to read a majority of books by Women and/or PoC, I get called things like 'woke' (which, lol), or I get embroiled in conversations about how you'd know the gender or ethnicity of a writer without being told, etc. etc. But I gotta tell you, Women and particularly WoC do NOT generally bring this kind of bullshit to my doorstep (generally, but yes sometimes the misogyny does come from inside the house), and their stories just as creative and well-told, if not moreso. This book is *literally* the kind of thing I'm trying to avoid, so I mean, I guess thanks for the reminder?