The Colder Trilogy draws to a close with Toss the Bones as Declan and Nimble Jack face each other for the final time - but who will walk away?
This book is like a combination of the first two books in that Declan has to fight Nimble Jack again while most of the book is Jack doing crazy, horrific things to people like Swivel did in The Bad Seed.
I basically feel the same about Toss the Bones as I did about The Bad Seed in that Paul Tobin really doesn’t have any story to tell (there’s a half-assed plot about Declan getting new fingers) and he’s basically just coming up with cool stuff for Juan Ferreyra to draw. I loved the creature designs, particularly the monster dogs, but the scene where Jack’s face is made up of birds was truly remarkable.
I still like Jack a lot - he’s essentially Joker with supernatural abilities - and his chaotic nature infects the comic wonderfully. Panels are flipped upside-down and sideways on the page, Jack walks from one panel to the next by opening the borders up like doors, and he even lifts up scenes like they were cloth backdrops! It’s such a creative and imaginative treatment. It’d have been better if Jack had some goals he was aiming for besides just fucking with people but I understand that the randomness of his behaviour is more true to his character.
Visually, Colder is stunning but Tobin didn’t have enough material to make a trilogy worthwhile. It’s got a cool ending though. Definitely check out the first book if you haven’t already but I’d only pick up the next two if you’re taken with Ferreyra’s art.
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