Bonewhistle review: S.E Reid invites us to Ferris Island once again.

I’ve never been to Ferris Island before, but I’ve always wanted to visit. Boneswhistle: tales from Ferris Island is one of many collections S.E reid has published about this eerie place, but there doesn’t appear to be a strict order in which to read them. You can hop on or off anywhere! On Ferris Island you can expect ghosts, urban legends, folklore and tales of revenge, deep secrets or bravery in the face of the uncanny.

I took the plunge and got myself a copy of Bonewhistle at the weekend. It’s a short story collection set on this fictional island off the coast of Washington State. I’ve never been to Washington State, but if you’ve ever seen Twilight (I know it was filmed in Vancouver) or heard Bigfoot stories, you can also imagine fogs, frets, pine forest and strange noises from across the valley.

Here’s what you can expect from this cosy horror short story collection:

Ferris Island, Washington is not a real place, but it might as well be. The inhabitants are normal folk just like you and me…except that the place where they live has some strange hidden corners and a very unusual history.

In this all-new collection of eleven uncanny and cozy folk horror tales, Ferris Island’s flora, fauna, and phantoms seek their own unique justice. Across these pages, the forgotten world bleeds into mundane lives: a lonely lighthouse keeper hears whispers that call him to worship, a high school senior dreams of the big-time but hides a sinister secret, and a hunter discovers that something in the woods never forgets a fatal mistake…these stories and more are ready to haunt you.

Spanning decades of Pacific Northwest island history, Bonewhistle is an unsettling brew of smalltown secrets, eerie folklore, and unexpected glimmers of hope.

S.E Reid is widely known on Substack for deeply atmospheric storytelling that feels like horror with a warm hug. That’s the best way I can describe it.

The story that stood out to me the most was Bonewhistle itself. It’s a deeply haunting, atmospheric story about longing and belonging, and it is still with me days after I’ve finished it. I can almost hear the whistle at the harbour. This one was the most magical of all of them, I think. I love horror and dark stories with a thread of romance running through them.

She meets his eyes without a flicker, without fear.

“Because you saved me first,” she says.

If you love your folklore and fairy tale creatures, Bonewhistle is as beautiful as it is haunting. It’s a story about how busy and uninspiring life can be for most of us, and for Warren who works at the ferry terminal, that injection of magic he finds changes his life forever.

‘And the music is haunting, unusual. Deep as deep as yearning like dusk.

Warren loves it, and the commuters don’t seem to mind. They’re busy, anyway.

Everyone is always so busy.’

As it generally is with short story collections, I can’t tell you too much about anything for the risk of spoiling this collection, so I’ll keep to the general themes and why I loved them.

Other stories that stood out to me were Bone-Stag and The Third Rabbit: both of these gave me a serious warning about the woods, but not with nightmares. If ever you needed to be reminded that on this earth you’re a tenant, not an owner, that’s the story to read. The Bone-Stag is a haunting tale of greed and disruption to the natural order of things for personal gain. Some of the spooky descriptions got me:

‘A large stag, a skeleton, ragged ribbons of dried flesh and fur hanging from its frame, bristle-crown of antlers glittering with spider’s webs, empty sockets of eyes and cracked ungulate hooves.

But the teeth. The teeth were wrong.’

Reid really doesn’t have to give you anything gory or explicit to give you the sense that something bad is going to happen. That’s what I liked about The Bone-Stag in particular. Mack, the main protagonist, had done a stupid thing, and Mack might have to pay for that stupid thing.

Another standout story is The Third Rabbit. It seems to be set somewhere around the 19th century, possibly crossing into the 20th. You can’t always tell with rural places, but we have a young girl who for a long time was her father’s only joy, and she’s entrusted with keeping his cabin and her new, heavily pregnant stepmother safe while he’s away for a few days.

This was a great story about courage, commitment and loyalty. As well as being about standing by your promises to those you love, The Third Rabbit is also about respecting the world around you… or else! Lizzie has her little quirks that she can’t explain, but they all come in handy in this tale of the past haunting the present until you face it.

The best bit: the intermissions.

My particular favourite thing about this entire collection was the preamble and the interludes that followed. They were a timely break between stories, and held you as the narrator rambled on about the local legends, eerie goings on and things he’d seen or heard, all while he’s showing you how to work the till. The language was so natural and easy to fall into, reminding me so much of Stephen King. This made the collection really hard to put down. Reid reels you in with an everyday scenario e.g. a pensioner buying more fishing goods, and makes it unsettling and creepy before the narrator then snaps you out of it.

‘The secret to fishing Lake Damascus is just to stay awake and aware and stick to the shallows.’

There’s a sense of old wisdom that kicks in just as you might start thinking it’s just a short story collection.

‘Son, you can give me that look all you like, but I’ve heard enough stories.’

‘Some folks disappear out there, without a sign. Boat and all.‘

I loved this additional element to the collection. It made sure that I stayed, and that I was always paying attention.

The stories in this collection cross time periods and themes but there is a solid, atmospheric sense of place, so heavy with history and legend that it drips off every sentence. Reid has a gift for giving you chills that are so balanced that you’ll come to Ferris Island again, even if it was a bit spooky.

I’d recommend this short story collection to any fans of cosy horror, eerie tales and folk tales surrounding forests, misty mountainsides and deep, unfathomable lakes.

I think what writers like S.E Reid remind us is that for too long, the short story collection has been overlooked. Traditional publishing is all about the novels, and then we get countless reviews saying things along the lines of, ‘This was so unnecessarily padded out. It could have been 20k words shorter!” Short stories can explore so much at once, and take you to one strong setting (such as Ferris Island) and leave you wanting more. I look forward to reading more of them.

Other eerie and uncanny things to read:

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