Book Review : Max Booth III - I Believe in Mister Bones (2024)

Oct 10

Oct 10 Book Review : Max Booth III - I Believe in Mister Bones (2024)

When you read as compulsively as I do, novels start blending into one another after a while. They all follow a certain format meant to appeal to precise audiences and the more you read, the more it is obvious to you and the more you get bored with stories you can intuitively finish by page 30. What I’m looking for now, first an foremost, is originality and unpredictability, two qualities which Max Booth III's novels never fail to deliver and I Believe in Mister Bones might be his most original and unpredictable yet.

How can I even start to explain what this novel is about? Daniel and Eileen are independent books publishers based in San Antonio, Texas (yeah, this is totally metafictional) who get egregiously queried for a book with no regard whatsoever for their submission guidelines. The book in questions tells the story of a supernatural entity called Mr. Bones, which you can summon by breaking your own bones when you think of him at the same time. What does Mr. Bones even do? He steals the bones from your body…

What happens when you spend too much time on the Internet

The best thing about I Believe in Mister Bones is how it exploits an antiquated usage of internet in order to create horror: emails, grainy videos, discussion forums, oversharing with complete fucking strangers without any consequence. As Daniel becomes gradually obsessed with Mister Bones, it becomes unclear what part of the phenomenon is real and what part is created by the weight an overconsumption of internet content bears on Daniel’s mind. Not unlike Annie in Hereditary, except funnier.

Because I Believe in Mister Bones is a light hearted novel about the impossible grind of running an independent business in the internet age until it isn’t. It’ll be disorienting to some readers, but I thought the funny, funny, OH-MY-FUCKING-GOD-THIS-IS-HORRIBLE, oh, funny again dynamic kept me honest and dialed-in like someone walking through a haunted house at the fair and anticipating the next scare. Especially that Mister Bones isn’t a prefabricated monster. Who knows what the fuck he even wants?

Is Mister Bones a construction? Is Mister Bones real? If you believe that he is, then he’s real enough. Although it doesn’t have the same tone than Hereditary at all, I keep coming back to it when thinking about I Believe in Mister Bones because the two projects weaponize your own confirmation bias against you. It’s human nature to see a familiar explanation to something mysterious, but Max Booth III keeps pulling the rug from under you each time you think you get there, It makes the reading feel alive in a way most don’t.

Max Booth and Metafiction

All of Max Booth III’s novels have featured metafictional element, but except for the names I Believe in Mister Bones is the most straightforward metafiction he’s ever written. Not only it is about the lives of indie publishers, but it’s also about the annoying (and sometimes tragic) pitfalls of the publishing business. So, there’s somewhat of a working class, bohemian charm to Daniel and Eileen’s struggles to bring the world cool art. Booth’s reflection on he and his wife Lori’s Sisyphean living is heartfelt.

Of course, there’s extra value to I Believe in Mister Bones if you’ve been following the indie horror scene drama online as Booth keeps slinging thinly veiled arrows to various actors of the scene. Its unabashed frankness reminded me of Nick Mamatas’ infamous novel I am Providence, which made fun of precise people who take H.P Lovecraft a litttle too serious. I like to believe the arrows slung by Max Booth III are all good natured, but I’m unfortunately not in a position to comfirm nor deny that!

I wouldn’t say I Believe in Mister Bones is Max Booth III most consistent and intense novel. It had its fair share of lengths and self-reflective passages on indie publishing that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the payoffs. Oh, the payoffs! They are grandiose and bone chilling (pun intended) at the same time. They sure make it worth reading, especially the final third, which takes you down a rabbit hole only Max Booth could’ve come up with. It comes out soon, you should preorder your copy now.