Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (July 11, 2017)
ISBN: 0062661965
Rivals The Girl on the Train as a compulsive read
(and beats it for style). — Observer (UK)
In the vein of Fiona Barton's The Widow and Renée Knight's Disclaimer, a psychological thriller about a war reporter who returns to her childhood home after her mother's death but becomes convinced that all is not well in the house next door—but is what she’s seeing real or a symptom of the trauma she suffered in Syria?
The One Person You Should Trust Is Lying to You…
Kate has spent fifteen years bringing global injustice home: as a decorated war reporter, she’s always in a place of conflict, writing about ordinary people in unimaginable situations. When her mother dies, Kate returns home from Syria for the funeral. But an incident with a young Syrian boy haunts her dreams, and when Kate sees a boy in the garden of the house next door—a house inhabited by an Iraqi refugee who claims her husband is away and she has no children—Kate becomes convinced that something is very wrong.
As she struggles to separate her memories of Syria from the quiet town in which she grew up—and also to reconcile her memories of a traumatic childhood with her sister’s insistence that all was not as Kate remembers—she begins to wonder what is actually true…and what is just in her mind.
In this gripping, timely debut, Nuala Ellwood brings us an unforgettable damaged character, a haunting, humanizing look at the Syrian conflict, and a deeply harrowing psychological thriller that readers won’t be able to put down.
MY SISTER’S BONES is a mind blowing suspense novel that you will only be able to put down for bathroom and subsistence breaks. Additionally, this is only Nuala Ellwood’s first book so waiting to see what she will come up with next to this reader feels like torture.
The plot is astoundingly penned including how the book itself is put together. The story flips back and forth between two different situations that the main character Kate is entangled in than about three-fourths of the way through the book there is a part two and finally, a part three where lo and behold during these intense transformations I literally felt as if I had been kicked in the gut. Generally, a reader is used to the emotional rollercoaster that a book, especially like this, can bring about, but I had never had a physical reaction to a book such as I did with this one indeed it was quite the surprise to me. Therefore, if this writer can bring on this reaction when no others before have just imagine the possibilities. The story keeps you on your toes wondering what's about to happen next leaving you in awe and perplexed. Throughout the book innumerable emotions are imposed upon you such as having your heart wrenched, bravery, a tad of joy and then there’s gruesomeness smacking you right upside the head. Also, a mystery saunters along with the plot holding you in its clutches along the way.
I hear Paul’s voice through the clanking sound of a bell ringing somewhere on the edge of my consciousness. Then a hand clasps round my waist, a gust of cold air whips into my face and I am one the ground, shuffling on my belly towards the men. I feel blood in my mouth, congealing and thickening as I try to breathe. Then the sound of gunshot pummels the air. I put my head down, close my eyes and start to count, and when I open them I see his face.
I was left with many questions because of this book. How fluid is our reality? We know from scientific studies that two people can witness the same event and their explanations will not be the same. How much emotional trauma can one individual take before they lose their marbles? Also, how stressful do things have to become in one's life before your mind tricks you into seeing things that do not exist? Then finally can one person have multiple forms of PTSD?
It’s funny but whenever I think of you two girls I see you there on that beach with your mom...I’m blindsided by a memory...I’m digging in the sand with my fingertips, waiting for the touch of a jagged tooth, but instead my hand rests on something thick and hollow. I pull it out and sit back to examine my find. The object is black and has a criss-cross pattern indented into its surface. I run my fingers along it, delighting in in the rough sandpapery feel. It is my treasure, my secret, and I sit for a few minutes holding it to my chest like a sleeping baby...My mother is yelling at me. She grabs the object and runs toward the sea...she explains that the precious object I’d held to my chest was a tiny bomb-it was most likely a remnant of the famous bouncing bombs that had been tested on Reculver beach during the war.
If you want to read a book that goes above and beyond this is the one❕
★★★★★
Nuala Ellwood is the daughter of an award-winning journalist. Inspired by her father’s and other journalists’ experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder, she gained Arts Council Funding for her research into the topic and ultimately made it the main theme of My Sister’s Bones, her debut psychological thriller.
TOUR STOPS:
Monday, July 17th: SJ2B House Of Books
Tuesday, July 18th: she treads softly
Wednesday, July 19th: Readaholic Zone
Thursday, July 20th: Tina Says…
Monday, July 24th: A Bookish Way of Life
Tuesday, July 25th: Kahakai Kitchen
Wednesday, July 26th: Art Books Coffee
Thursday, July 27th: A Bookworm’s World
Monday, July 31st: Ace and Hoser Blook
Tuesday, August 1st: StephTheBookworm
Wednesday, August 2nd: Book Hooked Blog
Friday, August 4th: 5 Minutes For Books
Friday, August 4th: Jathan & Heather
