ROAD OF BONES TPB (IDW Publishing, January 22, 2020 release date) Writer: Rich Douek. Illustrations: Alex Cormack. Paperback, 128 pages. ISBN #1684055989 / #9781684055982
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . .
Horror, history, and Russian folklore collide in this brutal survival tale, where the worst prison in the world is merely the gateway to even darker terrors.
In 1953, the Siberian Gulag of Kolyma is hell on Earth--which is why Roman Morozov leaps at the chance to escape it. But even if they make it out, Roman and his fellow escapees still have hundreds of miles of frozen tundra between them and freedom. With the help of a mysterious being straight out of his childhood fairy tale stories, Roman just might make it--or is the being simply a manifestation of the brutal circumstances driving him insane?
My Four Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
True horror is always more unsettling than fictional horror. The horrific deeds that humans are capable of are more frightening than the carnage and destruction caused by monstrous inhuman creatures. ROAD OF BONES does refer to an unseen (except by one) creature of Russian folklore that main character Roman has believed in since childhood. That's why he's always left food outside at night as an offering, hoping the Domovik would watch over the neighborhood and protect it.
Years later in a 1953 Russian gulag surrounded by frozen tundra, Roman, with cooking duties as part of his slavish daily labors, continues to leave food outside for the creature he's never glimpsed. When he begins to have visions of the Domovik and hears it whispering in his ear, readers can't be sure if the creature is real or a product of Roman's madness, perhaps a byproduct of mental exhaustion brought on by hunger pangs and despair. Roman and fellow prisoners Grigori and Sergei have escaped the Gulag and are attempting to find freedom on the other side of an unending vista of mountain ranges and freezing cold. Desperate times lead men to desperate measures.
You can imagine where this story is going but it's not that predictable. It's the power of Rich Douek's storytelling and the brilliant art and colors by Alex Cormack that move the story along while vividly depicting the hopelessness, desperation, isolation, and madness that the trio are experiencing as they try to find their way to an alleged hunting lodge.
Gritty. Bloody. Gory. Disturbing. The grisly ending has a grim punchline. An incomparable work of true horror.
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