mad_about_books 's review for:

Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

4.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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It took me a moment to settle into Salt Bones. Though I studied Spanish in high school, and grew up familiar with ‘Spanglish,’ in the Bronx, those days are long behind me. Thankfully, much of the blended Spanish and English is easy to grasp from context, and reading on Kindle allows for quick translations. 

 

Salt Bones is a gripping mystery infused with magical realism, Latina and indigenous culture and environmental themes, all set in the Mexicali borderlands. Girls go missing in the town of El Valle, a once booming mecca of sun and sand, now a desolate beach littered with fish bones along the brackish Salton Sea. 

 

Jennifer Givhan skillfully blends supernatural horror with the saga of two families—one white and powerful, the other brown and proud. The fates of the Calahan and Veracruz families become deeply intertwined through their children, Harlan and Griselda. Themes of mother-daughter relationships, loss, and the search for missing girls are central to the tale. 

 

Mal’s older brother, Esteban—now calling himself Steve—is running for Senate, aligning himself with the influential Calahan clan. Her younger brother, Benny, works as a local police detective. History threatens to repeat itself when Mal's coworker vanishes without a trace. Mal becomes overprotective of her daughter, Amaranta, fearing she will be next. 

 

The disappearances in El Valle stir up whispered legends—the horse-headed woman, La Siguanaba, who haunts Mal’s dreams, and the boogeyman, El Cucuy, whom townspeople blame for the missing girls. These figures, rooted in Latina and Indigenous lore, add a supernatural weight to Mal’s unraveling reality, making the novel feel like a descent into myth and terror. 

 

Every character in Salt Bones harbors secrets, and within those secrets lie answers to mysteries both old and new—truths that could unravel everything.