She Treads Softly: The Bones of You

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Bones of You

The Bones of You by Debbie Howells

Kensington: 6/30/2015
eBook review copy, 320 pages
hardcover ISBN-13: 9781617737664
http://debbiehowells.blogspot.com/

My Thoughts:

The Bones of You by Debbie Howells is a highly recommended psychological thriller that is somewhat reminiscent of The Lovely Bones. The novel opens with 18 year old Rosie Anderson telling us about her death by stabbing and how her life begins to flash before her eyes.

Kate McKay is a friend of the family whose daughter Grace is the same age as Rosie. Kate knows Rosie very well because the teen often stopped by to see her horses and help her in the stables. She knows Rosie as a quiet, pretty good girl who kept to herself. She is quite naturally shocked when she learns of Rosie's disappearance and, later, her horrible death. Kate reaches out to Rosie's mother, Jo, and wants to be supportive to her and to Rosie's younger sister Delphine. Rosie's father Neal, is a successful journalist and he seems to have it all under control. Jo, on the other hand, seems odd - either intense or scattered. Delphine is very quiet and always alert and watchful. It will be obvious to readers that all is not how it seems to be in the Anderson family.

While the search for the killer is underway, Howell's uses Rosie and Kate in a dual narrative to tell the story (with a third point of view included intermittently). Rosie's parts are short and provide flashbacks that provide insight and delve into the history of her family's dynamics. Kate, who genuinely liked Rosie, is concerned with finding out who the killer is and trying to be a friend to Jo, but she is also struggling along in her daily life and that of her own family.

The Bones of You is not a fast paced thriller, but it is very well written which should capture the attention of most readers, as it did mine. Howells is great at character development. On the downside, in many ways Kate is rather naive, which was somewhat distracting and unrealistic. It was also hard to believe that the presence of the police was so absent in the novel, considering a murder investigation was underway, but I can also see this as a choice made by Howells for the format of her novel. Many astute readers are going to guess what happened long before the big reveal.

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Kensington for review purposes.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.