Blog Tour + Review + #Giveaway: Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks @JeanBookNerd

Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Blog Tour + Review + #Giveaway: Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones by Micah Dean Hicks @JeanBookNerd

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (February 5, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1328566455
ISBN-13: 978-1328566454

Praise for BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES

“A tour-de-force of the imagination. Hicks has created a world that is beautifully and brutally surreal and yet, at the same time, BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES stands as a hyper-realistic psychological portrait of the death of the American factory town. My own identity as an American was disturbed and changed by this novel; some dormant understanding was shaken awake. This is a stunning and profound debut.” ―Julianna Baggott, bestselling author of New York Times Notable Book Pure

“Hicks’ debut novel is a thoughtful tour of the rotted and haunted heart of America. Highly recommended.” ―Jeremiah Tolbert, Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author

“I can’t stop thinking about this book. It’s a haunting story that burrows under your skin like an insect laying eggs that hatch within you in the middle of the night. Hicks’ mesmerizing imagery kept me turning the pages and asking myself ‘How is this book happening? What sort of literary witchcraft am I witnessing?’” ―Maurice Broaddus, author of Buffalo Soldier and The Usual Suspects

“BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE BONES is a breathless wonder of a debut novel… Hicks is a magician with words and has written a spellbinding, haunting and necessary book.” ―Anne Valente, author of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down

“Hicks has crafted a haunting story with multi-generational appeal, where the very real horror of poverty meets supernatural horror, and social issues like xenophobia, racism and economic anxiety are addressed organically through allegory and gripping storytelling.” ―Chris L. Terry, author of Black Card and Zero Fade

Swine Hill was full of the dead. Their ghosts were thickest near the abandoned downtown, where so many of the town’s hopes had died generation by generation. They lingered in the places that mattered to them, and people avoided those streets, locked those doors, stopped going into those rooms . . . They could hurt you. Worse, they could change you.

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn’t want to know. Henry, Jane’s brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

When new arrivals begin scoring precious jobs at the last factory in town, both the living and the dead are furious. This insult on the end of a long economic decline sparks a conflagration. Buffeted by rage on all sides, Jane must find a way to save her haunted family and escape the town before it kills them.

You can purchase Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones at the following Retailers:

My Review:

Swine Hill is a place; a town that is overrun with ghost not only is the town haunted but the people in the town are haunted as well. Some ghost just come to sort of hang out with their host giving them certain abilities while others are possessed by their ghost. Once you enter the town of Swine Hill you may never leave again.

Each and every person in the town of Swine Hill has quite a few deep dark secrets in their souls that they hide away from even their own selves. Like most everyone else in the world they have something they feel guilt over or maybe even have done somethings that they wished they had never done or may just wished they had done differently. Or maybe just things that they blame themselves for and have never let go of.

They are also afraid of having something new come into their lives and changing things as they know it. They are afraid of anyone new coming into town who are different than they are. They are afraid that these new people will take over and rule and they will no longer be the ones in charge.

Our main character Jane has had her ghost for a long time ever since she was a little girl. Jane’s ghost just likes to hang around to be kind of like her friend. Jane’s ghost tells her what everyone around her is thinking. With this knowledge Jane tries to help people or keep them safe.

Henry, Jane’s brother’s ghost is the possessing type and has like moved itself into Henry’s body. It will at times take over and help Henry fix things. Jane’s mother can’t touch anyone as her ghost will burn them to a point of leaving scars. Everyone in Swine Hill has their own similar stories to tell about their ghost.

Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is a very intriguing and intense read that will having you opening up your mind and giving it a lot of thought and applying it to your own life. It is a deep heart felt read that will hold your attention from beginning to end and have you thinking about it long after you have read the last page and wishing for more. I love a good book that will just haunt your bones so to speak.

In my opinion I think that Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones is for everyone especially anyone who is looking for a good story that will have you thinking and opening up your mind and for anyone who likes a good ghost story as well.

Photo Credit: Scot Lerner 2018

Micah Dean Hicks is the author of the novel Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones. He is also the author of Electricity and Other Dreams, a collection of dark fairy tales and bizarre fables. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. Hicks grew up in rural southwest Arkansas and now lives in Orlando. He teaches creative writing at the University of Central Florida.