A review by jzkelley
Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Jackal meets Mexican Gothic and Just Like Home in this haunting story of a border town that eats its daughters and spits out their bones. From the first chapter, Givhan’s poetic, dreamlike prose had me by the throat. It was her writing I fell in love with first, but it will be her messy, profoundly flawed characters who stick with me, especially Mal, the worst best mom in the world.

I do have a qualm with the marketing of this book. In the same way that a Beauty and the Beast retelling without any fathers or roses would not quite be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, the absence of certain iconic images and characters from the Greek myths makes Salt Bones not really a Demeter and Persephone retelling. Demeter and Persephone isn’t even the myth the novel alludes to the most.

I received a free advance copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol

Minor: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Vomit

There is a lot of unreality and loving descriptions of animal butchery.