Publishing Information: Paperback; 228 pages
Publisher: Wild Wolf Publishing; 19 May 2009
ISBN 10: 0956211453
ISBN 13: 978-0956211453
Standalone
Copy: Provided by publisher
Back of the Book: "They say you should never go back. But sometimes you don't have a choice.
After Gary Bull's miraculous survival from an explosion in Afghanistan, he is compelled to return to the small town where he grew up, a place that he thought he would never set his eyes upon again. Memories of a past long buried come back to him and he finds himself forced to face the horror of what he did when he was young. It started with the bullying...
Newton Mills appears normal enough on the surface, but scratch the surface and there is something far more sinister.
It has more than its fair share of graveyards and the skeletons are liable to walk right out of the closet.
Newton Mills is the scene of a despicable crime.
No one gets out alive."
This is my first novel by Kirby and I was not sure what to expect. At first the book sounded as if it was a zombie novel but after a few pages I was no where near the mark. Bully starts off in the middle of the on-going war on terrorism with our protagonist, aptly named Bully, dreading his current military assignment and then we flip to scenes from his broken childhood. The book constantly keeps you on your toes as we move from past to present and back again.
Bully is an interesting character with a shady past. He has joined the military in order to escape his former life and make a change for himself. however, his past keeps catching up to him and when he is injured while on duty he decides to confront his past and finally get rid of the nightmares that haunt him both day and night. When Bully returns back to his hometown in England he notices that things are not as they seem and that something is amiss. Kirby does an excellent job of describing the tiny hamlet and the various idiosyncrasies. The world building and characters are very well done.
Bully is a deep psychological thriller that has you trying to figure out all of the character's sanity. You may even find yourself questioning your own mental state as things get weird once he is back in England. There are few horrific scenes in Bully but when they are present they are slightly graphic. However, they are never over the top.
Kirby also uses color in Bully. Specifically the color purple and while he brings it out to the forefront of the book he never fully explores the idea and we never really find out exactly what it was. It left me feeling a little left out and I really wanted to know how worked. Bully is fast paced and a quick read. It reminds me a little bit of Stephen King's IT. By the end of Bully we never really have any answers to some of the questions that were raised in the book and it left me frustrated. In the end, it is a interesting psychological horror that may be just what you are looking for if you like the strange and unknown. It also does a fairly good job of subtly discussing post-tramatic stress in all of its many forms.
Plot 6
Characters 7
Style 6
Overall 6/10
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