All the Murmuring Bones: #bookreview

Synopsis:

‘One for the house, one for the Church and one for the sea.’

Long ago Miren O’Malley’s family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren’s grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren’s freedom.

Review:

In All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter, if the O’Malley’s can’t make a choice of sacrificing a child to the sea, then they will be poor and unsuccessful.

Miren is the last of the O’Malley children. She lives on a formerly magnificent estate with her grandmother. Her grandmother did not sacrifice her child to the sea.

Well . . . Miren’s mother, Isolde, eloped with Liam Elliott, had a child, and then ran away from home with her husband but not the baby. Miren found out later that her mother stole something valuable from the grandparents. It’s a mystery until the very end but it is enormously unexpected. For her whole life, Miren believed that her parents were deceased.

It turns out that Miren’s parents never came back for Miren. They were alive. After the granparents passed away, Miren went off in search of her parents, Isolde and Liam. Everyone that she talks to about her mother believed that she had magical powers.

First, she had to escape from her creepy, abusive fiance, Aidan. She doesn’t like Aidan but the grandmother arranged the marriage. He had a lot of money. People forgive too much bad behavior in the name of money.

So Miren escapes from the fiance. She has a few clues about where her parents are located. Some nice traveling theater people help her along the way.

After searching for a little while, Miren finally finds the place that she is looking for – her parent’s home. However, the parents are not home but her Uncle Edward, Nelly the nanny and a baby sister, Ena, are at the home. Those three people are a whole other mystery.

I’m already poor so I would stand by my choice of choosing not handing my child over to Ursula the Sea Witch. Ursula is one of my favorite villains but I wouldn’t want to give my child to her. If you had to choose which child to sacrifice to the sea, would you be able to do it?

Recommendation:

Maybe I should have been a casting director. I am confident in the following choices for any films made based on the book.

If you like Gothic fairy tales and mer-people, then you will enjoy All the Murmuring Bones. It is an actual fairy tale, which have tragic things happening throughout the book. It is not a Disney princess fairy tale. I read a review of this book that said how the reader was disappointed because it wasn’t a “real” fairy tale. However, that reader is wrong about the definition of a fairy tale. Plus, this is a Gothic fairy tale which is even creepier and more tragic than a regular fairy tale.

The people that only want pleasant endings to a pleasant story with beautiful princesses, loving mothers and happy mermaids will probably not enjoy this particular story. They might if they give it a chance. It’s such a good book, it would be a shame to miss out on it.

• I received this ebook from NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Obviously.
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