THE BONE PICKER

By Devon A. Mihesuah

Published by OUP (October 8, 2024)

Review by The Horror Zine Staff Reviewer Jonathan Chapman

Buy the book HERE

The Bone Picker, by Devon A. Mihesuah, (162 pages, University of Oklahoma Press, 2024) is a collection of short stories set in the American West of the turn of the century and amid the results of the relocation of the Choctaw and other Southwest Indigenous Peoples. The stories share the cosmology of the Choctaw peoples, the creation and spiritual beliefs of these people, with the specific emphasis of the stories and lore that are…well, creepy, scary, and unusual. These are not stories about love and life so much as terror and fear with a celebration on the daily stories people told, the way we tell stories today about the monster under the bed, vampires or mummies or whatever else we use in our campfire stories. These are “horror” stories about the daily beliefs of the people.

Since the 1990s or so, American publishing has opened the doors to indigenous voices and story, and about native “lore.” So, in my life, I have seen a great deal of published work by “native” authors about the cosmology of native peoples. The problem has been, though, that often a work about native lore would either be not much "lore" and only a thin veneer of indigenous culture, or stories so out of cultural context that they were hard to understand. The average non-native would read the stories out of context and shrug, mystified. Oh how things have improved! Now there are a great deal of amazing voices out there – the Never Whistle at Night Anthology comes to mind – but in terms of much of tribal lore, it can be a mixed bag. So it was with some trepidation that I picked up The Bone Picker for my assignment as a Staff Reviewer.

And then I read the opener, The Cornfield. This is a story about Elus Crow, a native…witch? Warlock? Mystical being? There is not a clear parallel in Western cosmology. Elus is a malevolent entity that poses as a man sitting on a porch at a crossroads, luring travelers to their death. Right away you feel it; it’s menacing. I felt the same feeling I get when watching an interview with Ted Bundy: Nice face, but this guy would kill me if he had the chance. It’s a feeling a mouse must have upon seeing the cat enter the room. It’s creepy, gritty…scary. Elus stalks his prey while skirting the deities of his own cosmology, and things get…mystical. But its internal consistencies allow you to keep up, to understand it the way we “get” Greek myths while reading Bulfinch’s Mythology, encountering strange deity but understanding it. Without giving away an excellent ending, it’s very good.

The next offering, The Light Horseman and the Shampe, introduces the story of the Shampe (a sort of bigfoot creature) to the lexicon. More Indiana Jones that horror, the story is both a detective story and an adventure/action piece that nonetheless fits into the whole. It’s fun, heroic and action packed, with a bit (maybe more than a bit) of gore.

From there we flow into the title story, The Bone Picker. This is the story of some kids in the impoverished world and mixed cultural arena of that age, exploring the traditional magical moments of their culture while navigating the strains of their new life. Mihesuah effortlessly weaves history, social issues and magical lore without coming across as trying to be political or sending a message. The story just takes place there, then, with these social issues as they were. But the focus is on the Bone Picker, sort of equivalent to a Sin Eater, and the way a child encounters such a creature. There is no chase, no menace, no threatening moments to the protagonist at first yet…the sheer creepiness of the subject matter forces us to confront our aversion to death, dead bodies and burial rights (The Bone Picker literally picks the deceased person's body clean to the bones for burial). It’s surprisingly universal in its creep factor.

From there the stories come on in a similar vein. Solomon Hotema, Choctaw Witch Killer, is a favorite. Devon Mihesuah makes the reader feel at home in the stories. It all feels alien yet familiar. You are immediately a part of the action with very little start up “telling.” It’s right to the action and I felt within a page the way I usually feel on page 100 of a novel…at home. If also unsafe and uncomfortable in the best way.

I came away from reading The Bone Picker with an amazed awe at the stories, the depth of the lore and the seeming authenticity of the work. And to top it off, Devon can write. The stories would work in any context with any change in scenery. They are REALLY GOOD! The feeling is creepy, full of awe and scares, while being human and full of moments that are perspective-changing. Devon writes what she knows, and it is evident in every word.

If you love truly authentic native lore, this is absolutely the book for you. It’s “got the goods.”