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A review by beverleyleeauthor
The Bone Weaver's Orchard by Sarah Read
5.0
This has been on my radar since I first saw it on bookstagram a year ago. Turns out I should have read it much sooner!
Sarah Read's debut novel is a dark, gothic mystery featuring a young protagonist, Charley Winslow (I'll add that I adored Charley and wanted to protect him from all of the Badness) sent away to the lonely Old Cross School for Boys in North Yorkshire. The story starts in 1926 as Charley arrives from Cairo clutching a box of jars. As with all old schools, this one hides a secret locked away in the crumbling East wing. When boys start go missing in strange circumstances, Charley finds a hidden passage and is soon snared in the jaws of grisly discoveries, dragging him further and further into danger.
With a young protagonist it's easy to think that the darkness in this might be somehow sanitised, but what happens to Charley pulls no punches, and I really admired the way the author tackled this element of the story.
With wonderful character development, this well-paced and atmospheric story is definitely worth picking up!
Sarah Read's debut novel is a dark, gothic mystery featuring a young protagonist, Charley Winslow (I'll add that I adored Charley and wanted to protect him from all of the Badness) sent away to the lonely Old Cross School for Boys in North Yorkshire. The story starts in 1926 as Charley arrives from Cairo clutching a box of jars. As with all old schools, this one hides a secret locked away in the crumbling East wing. When boys start go missing in strange circumstances, Charley finds a hidden passage and is soon snared in the jaws of grisly discoveries, dragging him further and further into danger.
With a young protagonist it's easy to think that the darkness in this might be somehow sanitised, but what happens to Charley pulls no punches, and I really admired the way the author tackled this element of the story.
With wonderful character development, this well-paced and atmospheric story is definitely worth picking up!