When I’m writing, there’s a soundtrack playing in my head. BONES OF OUR STARS, BLOOD OF OUR WORLD has quite a few songs embedded in its DNA. Songs of horror. Songs of heartbreak and loss. Songs of loneliness. Songs about fighting back. I’m sharing a few tracks that echo the novel’s characters, events, and themes. There are secrets buried in these songs. Horrible secrets. Maybe, you’ll piece them together.
Phantasmagoria (Bloody Hammers)
Some who have read BONES OF OUR STARS, BLOOD OF OUR WORLD have pointed out that the book is my personal love letter to everything horror. Of course, it is! That’s why I wrote it! “Phantasmagoria” by Bloody Hammers is an anthem to the terrifying, the ghostly, and “the horror of it all.” So it works perfectly in the playlist for this novel.
Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
It just makes sense, right? This song is an exploration of a frustrated, angry murderer. But it’s also about anxiety. It’s about feeling alienated from those around you. It’s about forces that are outside your control. This makes it the perfect theme for Mr. No-Face, the killer in the book, but it might apply to a few other characters, too.
Swamp Thing (The Chameleons)
This tune is a crawl through decay, the slow process of getting stuck in a mire that may or may not be of your own creation. Believe me, there’s a storm coming, and the demons are definitely knocking on the door.
Cigarette Daydreams (Cage the Elephant)
As Willa stands on the beach and looks out across the waves, she thinks about the things that can’t be fixed and the confessions that she just can’t bring herself to make.
People Are Strange (The Doors)
Another discussion of alienation, this one is cloaked as a song about people being weird. It’s almost as if the novel I’ve written is masquerading as something it’s not. And not for nothing, but our friend Willa is dealing with some heavy thoughts that make her feel… other than those around her.
Five Magics (Megadeth)
“Five Magics” represents the Warlock, a key player in the book and a seeker of forbidden knowledge. He is the wielder of the Many-Named Sword, and he has a destiny ahead of him that he doesn’t quite understand. The revelation of that destiny may carry a heavy cost.
Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division)
Love can be salvation, but it can also be a destructive force. BONES OF OUR STARS, BLOOD OF OUR WORLD of love, and the fear of love. Love is either going to save the world… or rip it to pieces.
Sad in Carolina (Dexter and the Moonrocks)
This is a ballad about distance and disconnection when everything is going wrong and the world seems to be collapsing all around you.
The Dungeons Are Calling (Savatage)
The dungeons call to the Warlock. Different dungeons call to Willa. But the song reflects the dark call of destiny many of the residents of Wilson Island hear.
Blood on Blood (Bon Jovi)
When you meet Willa and Sarah, you will know that they are ride-or-die friends. At the end of the day, we all deserve a friend like Sarah. This song is about unbreakable bonds of friendship and youthful oaths that transcend time.
La La Love You (The Pixies)
Love can be awkward and uncomfortable, and speaking about love, especially in the early stages, can come out in a pitiable display. There’s unspoken love in this book, emotion that no one will speak for fear of being seen as pathetic.
The Vale of Shadows (Gunship)
This song is an exploration of a world where reality and fantasy intermingle. Sometimes, we map this world on our own. The Warlock, for example, paints the world around him in terms of the fantastic. Sometimes though, we find ourselves being dragged into surreality by forces beyond our control.
Bury a Friend (Billie Eilish)
This song is a conversation. In BONES OF OUR STARS, BLOOD OF OUR WORLD, there are some conversations between a few of our characters and the monster within (or is it without?) that allow us to walk a thin line between villain, victim, nightmare, and waking horror.
Backwater (Meat Puppets)
I have many reasons for including the Meat Puppets in this list. You’ll see. But this is a song in which the narrator has surrendered against the current, against whatever the world has in store for you, and being… okay with it.
Paint It Black (The Rolling Stones)
Loss and despair can feel like cosmic events, a stripping of color from the world, because looking at anything more hurts too much. This is a song about grief, yes, but also a song about transformation through loss and emptiness.
The Sword of Truth (Magic Sword)
This is the song I imagine playing when the Warlock takes up the Many-Named Sword and embraces his fate.
Ready or Not (The Fugees)
This one’s all about inevitability. And it’s about stepping into your power, whether you’re prepared for it or not. These are lessons Willa and her friends will need to embrace… and they still might not survive.
This list is a reflection of Wilson Island, its characters, and the terrors it will be facing. These are only a few of the songs that spring to mind, and I’ve set up a much longer playlist you can enjoy while you read BONES OF OUR STARS, BLOOD OF OUR WORLD.
I hope you dig them!
Spotify Playlist - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5JVdHdkCRrQsi383Zeprpk?si=55c49a44993d4ccf
Narrator: Timothy Andrés Pabon
New York Times bestselling and Eisner Award–nominated comics writer Cullen Bunn presents his adult novel debut—a high-stakes hunt for a masked killer whose brutal murders may be a portent of an evil as ancient and cold as the stars themselves.
The bodies are stacking up on Wilson Island.
The town’s sheriff has his suspicions but no genuine evidence for an arrest, even as the murders continue and appear increasingly ritualistic in nature. And when an arrest is finally made, all hell breaks loose—literally—as a terrifying horror rises to envelop the town. Soon it’s all up to an unforgettable and motley group of residents to band together and eliminate an ancient evil in a desperate struggle for survival.
Horror | Small Town [ Gallery Books, On Sale: November 11, 2025, Paperback / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781668065273 / eISBN: 9781668065280 ]
Cullen Bunn is a comic book writer for Mad Cave Studios (Grimm Tales From The Cave, and A Legacy of Violence), Oni Press (The Sixth Gun, The Damned, and The Tooth) and Marvel Comics (Wolverine, Spider-Man: Season One, and Fear Itself: The Fearless). He also writes short fiction and novels, including the middle reader horror novel, Crooked Hills. Cullen's short stories and non-fiction have appeared in dozens of magazines, anthologies, and e-zines. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. Since then, Brian and Cullen have teamed up on The Sixth Gun, an ongoing supernatural western, and Cullen has also worked on several other projects for Oni Press, Marvel, and DC.Andrea Mutti began his career illustrating the superheroes comic 'DNAction' for Xenia Edizioni. He then illustrated horror comics for Fenix. He moved over to Star Comics, where he drew stories with 'Lazarus Ledd' and some episodes of 'Hammer'. Since then he's worked with DC/Vertigo, Marvel, Mad Cave Studios, and IDW.Rus Wooton is a comics letterer who has worked on hundreds of your favorite comics, from INVINCIBLE to THE WALKING DEAD and beyond! Rus works with Marvel, Image, Mad Cave Studios, and many other publishers. If you're a comic fan, Rus has probably worked on one of your favorite titles.
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