Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - All the Murmuring Bones

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter

12 reviews

reclusivebookslug's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The beginning-middle felt slow and a bit exposition-heavy, but things pick up towards the end. I definitely didn't expect this book to go in the direction it did when I started reading.

The convention of foreshadowing/explaining things through in-fixtion stories was really cool.

I didn't understand the thing with the automaton at all. Either I'm missing something or that whole thing felt really out of place.

I hear there are more books set in this universe, and I plan to give those a go as well.

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effingunicorns's review against another edition

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4.0

Whoever wrote the summary for this book needs to get off of BookTok, because the expectations I went in with were wildly misinformed. What you might think this book is about, based on the summary, cover, and available digital sample text: a young woman caught between the twin points of family drama and some manner of entanglement with mermaids, probably inherently connected, and all centered around the family's ancestral coastal home. Maybe like What Big Teeth, except with more marriage plots and fewer werewolves. What the book is actually about: the main character dodges all of that stuff early on to go traipsing into the countryside through a series of fairy tales and folklore, gets entangled in a whole other set of family drama, and finally addresses the issues she entered the story on almost as an afterthought.

It's not by any means a bad book--I love fairy tale bullshit, so I would've gone for it either way--but it's very much a different beast from what the available information would indicate, and I think people should be aware of that.

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imaginaryalchemist's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This is a dark, haunting fantasy story about family secrets and forging your own path.

I loved the stories within the story that helped unravel the mystery of Miren's family. (They're apparently all in a collection AG Slatter wrote, and I'd love to read it if I can get my hands on a copy.)

I love stories with magical and supernatural elements, so I enjoyed the inclusion of mythical and folkloric creatures. Mer feature very heavily in the story, and it also has creatures such as selkies and kelpies.

I also enjoyed the way the story's many mysteries unravelled. It kept me engaged. I wanted to see Miren solve them and learn all her family's secrets.

Slatter's prose drew me in immediately. It helped paint the picture of the world Miren lives in.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book! I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in dark, gothic fantasy and folklore.

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alanaefarrell's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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story_goblin's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was fascinating and helped me articulate something I wasn't able to before- I would love Gothic literature a lot more if the characters were more interesting. This book is exactly that/what the blurbs promised. It's a sweeping gothic fantasy with mer-people and other "monstrosities". Although nothing like myself, I found the main character to be well-constructed and engaging, so I was very invested in her journey. I was not able to fully guess all the secrets, which is always a plus for me, though the seeds were sown in the story. It reminded me just a little bit of What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo and Gallant by VE Schwab.

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