Book Review: Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World by Cullen Bunn

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World by Cullen Bunn

Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Genre: Horror

Series: Stand Alone

Publisher: Gallery Books (November 11, 2025)

Length: 464 pages

Author Information: Website

I’ve never read Cullen Bunn before, but his name has been on my radar thanks to my occasional wanderings into the comics world. And since small town horror is like my catnip, I was instantly intrigued when I heard about his new full-length novel Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World. Better yet, the book’s description was giving off strong Stephen King’s It vibes.

Set off the coast of North Carolina, the story opens with a violent double murder that immediately rattles the small, peaceful community of Wilson Island. And it’s not just the loss of lie that’s unsettling, but the shocking manner in which the victims were killed—the brutality and gruesomeness of it raising questions about whether it might have been ritualistic. The situation escalates when, in his haste to get away on foot, the killer has a near miss with a teenager behind the wheel of a truck. The resulting accident leaves the vehicle totaled, the driver shaken but uninjured, and the mysterious perpetrator still at large. The only evidence left behind is a bloody pile of organs, strewn across the road after the escaping killer dropped his bag of grisly trophies.

As word spreads, the whole town is set on edge. Willa, whose boyfriend was the driver of the truck, discovers that she is pregnant, throwing both their post-graduation plans into uncertainty. The incident also has Sheriff Buck and his deputies scrambling to make sense of the killings, working around the clock to identify the murderer. Meanwhile, some residents of Wilson Island feel the official response isn’t fast enough and decide to take matters into their own hands, including a local pest-control crew that ends up getting more than they bargained for. Then there’s the Warlock, a nerdy former D&D dungeon master and island outcast whose knowledge of the obscure might have him playing a bigger part in the investigation than anyone could have expected.

What follows is a story that is surprisingly expansive in scope but still keeps itself tightly focused on the small circle of people caught up in the action. The author jumps between the perspectives as more characters are pulled into the mystery, the shifting POVs and the frequent little interludes in between all ways to show the weirdness creeping in. For me, that’s where the Stephen King influence is felt the most, but in a way that feels more like homage than imitation as the tension builds gradually. There’s that sense of a small town carrying old secrets, and something terrible lurking underneath it all, causing certain residents to experience frightening things that defy any kind of logic, such as reality warping visions and creatures that shouldn’t exist.

The first half of the book was very enjoyable. Bunn does a good job building atmosphere and creating a mystery that really pulled me in. There’s a cinematic, almost storyboard or sequential-like structure to the way he tells a story, likely due to his professional background in graphic novels. And when dealing with such a big cast, maybe that experience comes in handy too when staging what the characters do and where they need to be. When they all started encountering different variations of the island’s horror, that kind of setup could have easily felt repetitive, but things were generally well-paced and for the most part stayed engaging.

That said, momentum started flagging in the second half and the final act also ran a little too long. There are still plenty of interesting ideas and creepy moments, but the pacing isn’t as tight as it is in the beginning. By the time the climax arrived, I wasn’t feeling it as I hoped to be—not because I didn’t care about how the resolution will pan out, but because I felt we were just playing for time. The ending doesn’t quite unravel, but a quicker wrap up would have kept the suspense high and the surprises more impactful.

Despite its issues, I still genuinely enjoyed Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World. The premise is ambitious, and Cullen Bunn does a solid job with building a tense, immersive atmosphere. Of course, with any novel debut there’s some room for improvement, mainly with regards to pacing. However, there’s no denying the imagination on display, especially in the “weird horror” department. I just wish the middle section had maintained the same energy so that the second half landed stronger. But for fans of Stephen King and It—or that something-is-seriously-wrong-in-this-small-town vibe—this one is worth a look.