All the Murmuring Bones, A.G. Slatter
★★★★
All the Murmuring Bones is part familial saga and a love story to fantastic beasts. A young woman the last of long line of matriarchs must reckon with family secrets she uncovers. She sets out on a quest to escape an overbearing marriage proposal to find her family and shake free from the family curse.
The beginning of the story is slow-going, like trudging through wet sand, but you’ll find the occasional beautiful sentiment, like seashells, strew along the way. Throughout the story, the main character often harkens back to a family book which houses fairy tale and legends. The reader is uncertain of which ones are fact and which ones are false and which ones carry a grain of truth. But more often they are a ham-fisted way of explaining everything the character needs to know at that moment.
Soon the stakes are raised and the character is set on a personal quest where she meets all sorts of monsters and must decide which humans in her life are telling the truth. There were so many adorable moments of fantasy, like all of my favorite bits of fairy tales rolled into one story. Spiteful mermaids, water horses, ghosts, books with family legends, ocean zombies, and practical witchcraft. As the plot thinned and her journey appeared never-ending, the monsters took hold and I began to love the story for the attention paid to each fantastic creature.
By the end of the book I overlooked any grievances with the plot and just enjoyed living temporarily in a world where mermaids could hold a grudge, ghosts are tricksters, and a matriarchal family could bend monsters to their will.
[SPOILERS: The book is like a mirror folded in half, each half of the book tells the same story. Part I: She is trapped in castle by the sea by an oppressive fiancé. Part II: she is trapped in another castle near a body of salty water held by an oppressive uncle. All the while finding cheat cards along the way in the form of a helpful kelpie, spiteful mermaids, fairy tale books, hidden letters, and more.]
Thank you to Net Galley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.