Fly Stone Fly

<h4><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)><em>A boy his dog and a monstrous friend. </em></strong></h4><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>Winner for Best Horror Novel 2025 Firebird Book Awards.</em></strong></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>First Runner-Up for General Fiction in the San Francisco Book Festival 2025.</em></strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>  For fans of Jones's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>Indian Lake Trilogy</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)> Ellison's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>A Boy and His Dog </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>Shakespeare's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>Hamlet </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>and the 1100's folktale </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>Ysengrimus -- </em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>this literary Western Gothic novel from debut author Dust Kunkel builds a new mythos for the 21st Century where descendants of the first giant-killer wield a magical axe that convenes gods and monsters alike. </span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>  16-year old Clayton Stonefly (retelling the story to his dog Dammit) has no idea who he is -- his parents hid him in the Idaho wilderness and spoke in riddles about his past. When he is thrust on a journey to revenge his father's murder and name the monster that shadows his every move he finds out much more than he ever wanted.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>  Clayton Stonefly who lost his parents four years ago and is being raised by his Granma Lina just wants to be brave like Dammit his dog and face the town bully Big Jim. That or read Shakespeare on the porch alone in the Idaho wilderness. But Clay has an unfortunate gift: he's haunted by monstrous dreams of his family's dead nemesis Das Ungeheuer and every time he tells a story someone dies. That - and he just watched his friend MK suck the soul out of a man leaving the man clawing at his chest. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>Clay learns that his parents kept many secrets from him - not the least being there's a family calling that involves monster-wrangling and a family axe with a mind of its own that may or may not be trying to talk to him.</span></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(48 48 48 1)>  If you like Dark Fantasy and Magical Realism - if you love dogs and riddles folktales and Shakespeare coming of age stories and the rivers and mountains of the West - then you'll enjoy this Naturalist Western Gothic. </em></p>