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A review by siavahda
All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter
4.0
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.
HIGHLIGHTS
~the coffins have locks and you should be grateful for them
~good girls carry knives
~the mer might be monsters but the humans definitely are
~Witchcraft – so easy, anyone can do it!
~a little blood fixes everything
First thing’s first: this is not a selkie story. I have no idea why it’s being described that way; All the Murmuring Bones features many magical water-creatures, but selkies are not among them. So if that’s what you’re after, you want a different book. (Maybe The Blue Salt Road by Joanne Harris, if you’re cool with having your heart ripped out.)
Which is not to say that All The Murmuring Bones is not a good book, because it very much is. It’s just not about selkies.
Miren O’Malley is the last ‘true’ O’Malley; while offshoots of the family are flourishing, the trunk is very much not. She lives with her grandmother in a manor growing more dilapidated by the day, on the coast, next to the sea that has been the source of the O’Malley fortunes since time immemorial. There are all kinds of stories told about the O’Malleys, and plenty of stories that they tell each other about their pasts, but the fact is that however grand and powerful they once were…they’re really not, anymore.
And Miren is more or less okay with that, until it becomes clear that her grandmother is scheming to marry Miren to Miren’s awful cousin, in order to rejuvenate the family fortunes.
And Miren’s not going to just lie down and take that.
All The Murmuring Bones has a cadence to it, a rhythm and style that is reminiscent of a folktale – something only strengthened by the actual folktales that break up the story, tales from the O’Malley’s book of not-quite-legends. And like a folktale, Miren’s story has a frank and undramatic acceptance of all things magical. I thought the world of All The Murmuring Bones was more or less like something from the Regency period…right up until Miren casually mentions the zombies (she doesn’t call them that) that the carriage-driver has to avoid when going into town. It was the wonderful casualness with which the magic in this world is introduced – so blithely, all of it taken for granted, all of it considered all but mundane – that made me sit up and pay proper attention.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
HIGHLIGHTS
~the coffins have locks and you should be grateful for them
~good girls carry knives
~the mer might be monsters but the humans definitely are
~Witchcraft – so easy, anyone can do it!
~a little blood fixes everything
First thing’s first: this is not a selkie story. I have no idea why it’s being described that way; All the Murmuring Bones features many magical water-creatures, but selkies are not among them. So if that’s what you’re after, you want a different book. (Maybe The Blue Salt Road by Joanne Harris, if you’re cool with having your heart ripped out.)
Which is not to say that All The Murmuring Bones is not a good book, because it very much is. It’s just not about selkies.
Miren O’Malley is the last ‘true’ O’Malley; while offshoots of the family are flourishing, the trunk is very much not. She lives with her grandmother in a manor growing more dilapidated by the day, on the coast, next to the sea that has been the source of the O’Malley fortunes since time immemorial. There are all kinds of stories told about the O’Malleys, and plenty of stories that they tell each other about their pasts, but the fact is that however grand and powerful they once were…they’re really not, anymore.
And Miren is more or less okay with that, until it becomes clear that her grandmother is scheming to marry Miren to Miren’s awful cousin, in order to rejuvenate the family fortunes.
And Miren’s not going to just lie down and take that.
All The Murmuring Bones has a cadence to it, a rhythm and style that is reminiscent of a folktale – something only strengthened by the actual folktales that break up the story, tales from the O’Malley’s book of not-quite-legends. And like a folktale, Miren’s story has a frank and undramatic acceptance of all things magical. I thought the world of All The Murmuring Bones was more or less like something from the Regency period…right up until Miren casually mentions the zombies (she doesn’t call them that) that the carriage-driver has to avoid when going into town. It was the wonderful casualness with which the magic in this world is introduced – so blithely, all of it taken for granted, all of it considered all but mundane – that made me sit up and pay proper attention.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!