Alarming - edgy, often disturbing, and superbly written - these short stories illuminate the dark, troubled heart of human existence.
A young girl escapes the bonds of her abusive adopted mother. A woman does not leave her rotting apartment for over a month. A widower passes through his wife's garden for the first time. A cosmetician slowly destroys her family. Dark and compelling, Drying the Bones deftly explores the emotional lives of its characters with electrifying concision.
These stories need not rely on a trend or a label for their success: startling and cleverly crafted, they distinguish Sonik as one of Canada's finest up-and-coming writers in any category. She brandishes a unique ability to handle a surprisingly broad range of characters and settings, all with the same power to send shivers up your spine.
"It is Sonik's firm grounding of stories in a single image that distinguishes her from most other fiction writers . . . Sonik's stories assume a refreshing variety of tones. . . The detachment of the narrators is curiously uplifting, for the conflicts they face, while totally unresolved on a human level, are in fact subject to an aesthetic resolution through the humour employed... I would highly recommend Sonik to readers of fiction - and surely that recommendation must have something to do with originality. . . so polished that I feel as though I were looking through clear glass into a world more real than my own."
-John Fell, The Antigonish Review