Reviews

Bone Quill by Carole E. Barrowman, John Barrowman

jtwolf33's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

’Paint me like one of your French girls’ suddenly got a lot more sinister...

liketheday's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Grarrrgh, cliffhangerrrrrrrrr. I hate cliffhangers. I like my books to have an end, even if it's one that leaves a million questions to be answered by the next book. Not only is it polite to give readers an ending, it makes it easier for this particular reader to, you know, remember what happened when it comes time to read the next one!
read more...

wdecora's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

These are wonderful stories that lend themselves to rereading simply for the beautiful visuals the book conjures up. Looking forward to the third book.

nattyg's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I enjoyed this book. Sometimes it feels like there was a scene or two edited out to make the book shorter that would have explained more or filled out a part, but overall I am enjoying the series.

leonajasmin's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

An excellent cliffhanger, but a bit hard to follow the plot (though I very much appreciate the 'Previously' section at the beginning summarising Book 1!)

octobertune's review

Go to review page

3.5

I am not sure how I found out about this series, perhaps from a tweet from one of the authors (John Barrowman, who I followed because he played Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and Torchwood), but I knew that I wanted to read it because I thought the summary was quite interesting. I bought the first book, and was pleasantly surprised, even though it was a book written for children I enjoyed it very much. It wasn't the best story I've ever read, but I did like it enough to want to read the rest of the series.

Bone Quill starts off, I think, a couple of days after the events from Hollow Earth. The twins are under house arrest while the grown ups search for their mother. I didn't really remember anything that happened in the previous book, because it'd been a while since I've read that. But luckily, there was a sort of 'previously on...' page in front of the book. I am going to start a petition to force every author to do this at the beginning of their sequels, because that would save so much precious (re)reading time! (Of course, rereading a book is not that bad, but if you just want to start the sequel without having to reread the rest of the series, a 'previously on...' page would come in handy).

I liked the story in this book very much, loved how the twins started to find out their powers were much more than they had thought they were. They found out they can sort of travel back in time through paintings, and they also find out they are not the only ones who can do this. We learn more about the island, and about the events that happened in the middle ages after the vikings attacked. We are introduced to some new characters, and we see most of the older characters again which I liked (I really liked Zach and Jeannie).

This book was still a multiple POV story, and it was still a bit confusing whose pov the story was being told from sometimes. Because like with the previous book it sometimes seemed like the chapter was from Em's POV, and then it would change to Zach's POV sentences later. I did get used to this a bit more thanks to the previous book, but it was also still a bit annoying in my opinion. Also of course the story happens in two places - or I should say two times - at once. Present day (with Em and Matt) and the middle ages (with Solon), and I liked that.
They eventually met each other near the end of the story, thanks to the twins being able to travel through time and I really hope they'll meet each other more often.


In the end, I liked Bone Quill and I will definitely be reading the third book in the series, because I just want to know how the story ends. It ended with a kind of cliffhanger, and I HATE CLIFFHANGER GODDAMNIT! Ugh. Yeah, will definitely be reading The Book of Beasts soooooooooon-ish. 

girlpuck's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

thedayoflight's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

flamesplash's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This is a solid follow up to Hollow Earth and involves time travel! The story is fine but doesn't really pop with me. I think they need to reveal a little bit more about the monks of the island and have a little more action off the island. The Hollow Earth society kinda just pops up and we don't really know much about them to be afraid of.

dandelionsteph's review against another edition

Go to review page

I don't recall exactly why, but I think I hit a point where I didn't believe the book would "get to the good part".