Like Hellraiser, Colder: Toss the Bones is a perpetual nightmare state, both beautiful and frightening in its content and imagery. It’s like the Catcher in the Rye of horror stories; it reads like stream of consciousness, flowing fluidly from one terrifying element to the next, and yet there is purpose. Nimble Jack, the villain of the series, has an agenda, even if we don’t quite know what it is yet.
What I do know now, having not read the first two series, is what Declan’s (our hero) power is. Whereas Jack spreads insanity and chaos, Declan creates sanity in the insane. But, every time he uses his power, his body temperature drops. This becomes clear to me in issue #4, because writer Paul Tobin smartly doesn’t feel the need to use exposition as a crutch. Instead, he’ll let you know when it’s relevant to the story. And now, as Declan – with the help of his love Reece, a female character who is an equal and at times wiser than Declan – figures out what’s going on and to what extent Jack has thrown the world into chaos, they are able to begin devising plans to (hopefully) defeat him.
This is one of those books that I feel is a little under the radar, and indeed I may not have read it if I hadn’t read Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra’s collaboration on Prometheus: Fire and Stone. But, it is definitely worth the read for those who enjoy some demented fun and some spice in your horror story library. I highly recommend it.
