Hello Book Lovers! Today on my blog I have the Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones. On my stop there is a spotlight, excerpt, and giveaway.
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.
Excerpt:
Ten quotes from BREAK THE BODIES, HAUNT THE
BONES
1. “Swine Hill was
full of the dead.”
2. “Though Jane
didn’t know the ghost girl’s name, it had been a part of her ever since she was
a child.”
3. “The robot
dressed itself in his father’s old clothes—something Henry was certain he
hadn’t programmed it to do.”
4. “The hulking
pig man pushed his cart toward the meat department.”
5. “Rabbits, heads
down, beggaring their way over the floor.”
6. “The alien
spark was basketball-sized, the sound of it shattering, like lightning sliding
across lightning.”
7. “Blood dripped
slowly from his ears, stained the hollows under his eyes, clotted in his
mustache.”
8. “Bright embers
of weak spirits, barely holding on to the world of the living, streaked back
and forth through the dark.”
9. “In the quiet
of the yearbook room, with all the teachers and students gone for the day,
Hogboss began to ask, ‘What are chocolate Swiss rolls? How are they butchered?
Are there pigs everywhere, or only here? Can I get inside the television? Can
people in the television get out? Where do ghosts come from?’”
10. “Between
Bethany’s ribs, an amphitheater of spirits roared, their hands raised with
hers, animated by their belief that there was nothing this girl couldn’t do.”
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
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.
PHOTO CREDIT: SCOT LERNER 2018
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Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I would also like to say Thank you to Jean for letting me participate in this blog tour. Don't forget to enter the giveaway below.
~Sabrina
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