All the Murmuring Bones

Finished this book yesterday. What a fantastic ride into the inky depths of family secrets, siren lore, and the expression & psychology of grief, identity, and trauma. This novel was a lot more dark than I thought it would be, but still gorgeously written, almost like a poem at parts. The characters are fully fleshed out, something you're aware of even when being shown their surface level selves. I would have loved to have read the back stories of some of them from their POV. Our protagonist Miren is great though and I liked seeing her process her feelings around the hand she'd been dealt, while at the same time playing detective.

There's a lovely balance between the fantasy elements and the more rooted-in-reality obligations and expectations our protagonist endures. She's a person navigating this world -- one where ghosts stop you in the middle of your journey to play a guessing game -- with the weight of generational trauma, neglect, and abandonment on her shoulders. Also, I really enjoyed the author's choice to include fantasy vignettes, which our protagonist reads from an old family book of stories. They were generally wonderful, but also devastating and melancholic. I think that's actually how I'd describe this novel too.

What an utterly exquisite read! It's dark and luxurious and full of magic and blood. Anybody familiar with Slatter's fairytales from her other works will be delighted to find them mentioned inside All the Murmuring Bones. Her writing is deeply sensual and I was enchanted by the practical, casual mentions of mer, ghosts, and other beings as just another day in the life of the youngest O'Malley. This book is like starlight in glimmering pools. I'm so glad I read it.

This is deliciously horrifying and lovely. Took me several chapters to warm up to the tale (I thought it was just atmospheric and nothing would happen!) but then I couldn't stop until it finished, and there was no way to predict what turns it would take. My favorite book so far this year.