From one of the most effective writers of literary-quality weird fiction, this is a deeply unsettling meditation on the unraveling of one man’s sanity, and perhaps his very reality. Hopes, desires, and regrets merge with the uncanny and the impossible to upset our grasp on the reality of the story itself in a way that is both unsettling, and yet has the sense of being completely unavoidable. Powerful work.

There are a few horror elements but this is weird-fiction that explores the metaphysical, delusions, existentialism and philosophical questionings.In my mind, Griffin challenges our austere notions of time, plot, space, relationships, wants, etc.This narrative is a concoction of 1st P.O.V, a stream of consciousness, inner monologues and, Free Indirect Discourse.Thus, making it hard to follow but that's the whole point, right? to break conventions and the need to categorize? (This need is explore...

A beautifully written book with an intriguing story that, unfortunately, dissolves into abstraction at very critical moments. I loved the character of Lily and her fascinating, temporally warped world, but at the crucial times when we can learn more about her, the narrator dives into his own head. Quiet horror that manages to create a wonderful atmosphere of tension, but I feel the payoff never happens. Apparently, this is normal for New Weird, so maybe it's just not my genre.

I had my first experience with Michael Griffin’s words last summer when I read his collection of novellas and short stories, The Lure of Devouring Light. It made an instant fan of me and I was something approaching ecstatic when I found out his newest work, Hieroglyphs of Blood & Bone, from Trepidatio Publishing, was headed to my mailbox. Griffin has a uniquely captivating style and a voice all his own, and every story he writes is different from the last. Even when taking on familiar themes, he...

As per usual, my full review is coming soon, this time to HorrorTalk, but I wanted to share this with you. This incredible book by Michael Griffin, is worth more than the price of admission, guaranteed. It's one of those trippy, broodingly terrifying stories in which you don't know exactly what's going on until the last page. It's a book full of unexpected twists and turns, but the biggest of all surprises, the hugest of payoffs, doesn't come until the very end. Brilliant, entertaining, and insa...

When a decade of love and marriage ends. Guy falls into a turmoil of lost memories and wishes for it to be the same. His call to life change is lost in words with his roommate who leaves him with nothing but the things in his possession to start a new life. Following a turn of events that are buried deep within the grounds he crosses for answers and becomes lost even more with every turn. Hieroglyphics of Blood and Bone is tale hidden within language that Griffin tells so well until the very end...

Michael Griffin is fast becoming a well-known writer within the contemporary weird fiction movement. His first collection, The Lure of Devouring Light, made waves back in 2016, and his next collection is due out in June 2018, which will include his novella An Ideal Retreat. It's exciting times for Michael Griffin, and especially so for his fans.Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone tells the tale of Guy, whose marriage of two decades ends suddenly and he's living with a co-worker, Karl who is much young...

The style and the techniques Griffin employs in Hieroglyphs are a departure from his more lyrical stories. I think his novella, An Ideal Retreat, is a bridge between the beautiful (sometimes lush) language and imagery of The Lure of Devouring Light and the more tightly focused Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone.Here the language has been pared down and there is an undertone of unreality to the action. Simple, mundane events in the protagonist's life are weighted with a kind of dread that reminded me

Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone is no ordinary genre novel. The horror here is subtle, though perhaps of the most profound variety: the terror of losing one's self. After his divorce, Guy is utterly unmoored. He's relegated to the spare room of his bro coworker’s houseboat, with virtually no possessions of his own (the running tally of his meager book collection is an appropriately dreary detail). It’s a depressing coda to his life as he’s known it so far. A day of fishing in the Northwestern wood...

Now that I have read nearly all of Michael Griffin’s stories, I have to say I am a big fan. His brand of emotionally moving weird horror consistently strikes a chord with me. As with much of his work, the dynamics within the intimate relationships in Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone are a focal point. After a confusing yet amicable split with his wife and first love, Guy moves into friend Karl’s houseboat. Urged by his alpha male friend to enjoy the other fish in the sea and let go, Guy begins to v...

Griffin’s Hieroglyphs of Blood & Bone is a bizarre trip through the life of Guy, a recent divorcee who is in a personal freefall. His feelings towards his ex-wife are still a source of pendulum-swinging confusion, he hates his job, and his sole companionship is Karl, his younger bro-dude roommate and co-worker who is constantly trying to get him back in the metaphorical saddle. Guy has enough trouble with all of this to find a star to chart a new course by, then he meets Lily. Lily brings litera...

From visionary new voice in weird fiction Michael Griffin comes Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone. When Guy's marriage of two decades unravels, he's driven from his previously stable domestic life and ends up renting a room in the houseboat of his much younger co-worker Karl. Pushed outside his comfort zone, Guy tries to follow Karl's example, until he ends up exploring entirely new frontiers, both natural and uncanny. He finally encounters the enigmatic Lily, who offers to share with Guy her own ar...

I'm giving this book a 4 (though if we're honest it's more of a 3.5 but I like to aim high instead of low). I really enjoyed it, though clearly it is not what is being presented to us via the cover and the synopsis. This is not a horror story at all. It is weird fiction, but it is more steam of consciousness. A character study of a man who loses all sense of self as his marriage ends. This story is being given to us in a framework of Pagan symbols and Eldritch dread. It's a beautiful book but do...

Heiroglyphs of Blood and Bone is the dread-soaked story of Guy, a newly separated man in his forties, who is bunking with his friend Karl while he gets his life back together. While the book focuses much of narrative on the relative normalcy of daily life, Griffin paints a picture that is alive with dread throughout. The reader is constantly aware that something awful is going to unfold. For a more detailed review, head over to This is Horror.

Deeply, Darkly WonderfulMichael Griffin is one of today's most exciting writers of Weird and Horror fiction, and with Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone he's in full swing. Lyrical language, heartfelt and fully-realized characters, and an impeccable sense of dread combine to make this dark and powerful story come to life.Highly recommended!

And, from that, you can see this review itself is a work-in-progress, a description that the novel’s text also gives about itself. A truly remarkable novel that both frustrates and inspires, and I feel increasingly confident that the deliberate-seeming balance between frustration and inspiration is perfectly poised.The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.