Deadlands: Boneyard Is Brilliantly Creepy, Even for Non-Gamers

Annie Pearl is in charge of the oddities (please don’t call them freaks) in the traveling Blackstone Family Circus, entertaining small towns throughout the American west in the late 1800s. She’s very good at a job that entails managing not just the human performers, but also a trailer full of more alarming creatures: wasps the size of a man’s arm, “nibblers” (sort of über-pirahnas), a pumpkin-headed corn stalker, and even a full grown lynx. (A pet of Annie’s since it was a cub, the tamed cat is actually the least deadly feature of the lucrative menagerie.) Like many of the carnival folk, Annie came to the circus without a past that she was willing to speak of, but with a daughter: Adeline. Sickly and mute, the girl is nonetheless almost as fearless as her formidable, fiercely protective mother. Over the years, Annie and Nathaniel, the circus’ owner, have developed a chaste romance overshadowed by their individual responsibilities.
With the traveling season coming to an end, and money in desperately short supply, the circus family faces a troubling last stop: The Clearing is an Oregon community generally known for its hospitality, and as a home to generous and receptive crowds. That’s from the shows that return from their engagements there, anyway; not everyone seems to come back. It’s no choice for the Blackstone crew, but it’s worrisome. And it doesn’t take long at all before Annie and company realize they’ve made a terrible mistake. The townies are belligerent, which is less of a problem than whatever’s hiding in the woods. Adeline is left to her own devices long enough to be lured into the forest. To say more about what forces reign in those woods, and how they got to be there, would be to spoil the macabre fun. Suffice it to say, there be monsters.
Yet Seanan McGuire is happy to suggest that sometimes, a dark path full of fearsome beasts is far preferable to the veneer of civilization that human monsters hide behind. Annie, we learn, is on the run from a life of luxury ruled over by a vicious, cruel husband. Before all’s said and done, she and her daughter might be better off in the woods.
The Deadlands RPG is based on the premise that, in 1863, a Sioux shaman attempted a ritual to drive away white settlers, inadvertently creating a gateway to a realm of malicious entities with designs on all of Earth. They’re essentially seeking to release dark magic and evil creatures upon the world in order to transform it into a hell of their liking. That said, the details are only of modest relevance to the book. McGuire walks a fine line, creating a largely standalone novel that should appeal to new readers and fans of the game universe alike. There are intriguing references to creatures and events from the RPG, not least of which is the unseen, manipulating hand of amoral scientist Darius Hellstromme, but she assumes nothing, and guides noobs and seasoned gamers through it all admirably.
At heart, this is the story of a single mother struggling to raise a daughter under a particularly unique and trying set of circumstances. As in the the best horror, the creatures and the creepy setting are just the backdrop against which that emotional journey plays out. Yet what an incredible, evocative backdrop it is—and Annie Pearl is so well developed and grounded as a character, she slides right into a world of steampunk, monster horror, and alt-history. Deadlands: Boneyard is compellingly dark and wonderfully chilling, but with a warm human heart, and as the nights grow longer and the shadows grow deeper, it is an absolutely perfect book for fall.
Deadlands: Boneyard is available now.