Sunday, February 7, 2021

Book Review: Every Bone a Prayer

Every Bone a PrayerEvery Bone a Prayer 
by Ashley Blooms
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A fantastical yet genuine, loving yet hurtful, brilliant yet dangerous story. So emotional and well done that I found myself, and most I knew, in at least one character. I am Penny in this story; except I didn’t realize what was happening until decades later in my version of this story. This is a regret I live with everyday as I was too blind to understand circumstances make us all the people we are. Because of a personal connection to this story I cannot objectively remove myself from my emotions to write about it. So please forgive this review for being haphazard and a bit abstract than my usual musings.

Lead gal Misty discusses names as being the complete essence of everything we are and have done; meaning we cannot avoid the awful things, but also must embrace the wonderful things too. An emotional, throat choking story that some will cry over, will make others lament their own choices, will invoke guilt in a few, and ultimately make every one of us consider what our name is and if we have embraced ourselves and our pasts.

Ashley Bloom has a magical way with words and imagery that gives essence to things that are impossible to describe or know. Her ability to transfer feeling from the words on the page to the reader is incredible.
The opening of this book has a trigger warning from the author in it. Instead of warning about some of the events that transpire in the book I think Bloom should warn that the reader may never be the same after reading it.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to write a conventional review for this novel as it has invoked so many emotions and thoughts that I cannot share with anyone other than my own crawdads (Misty’s creature of choice); my pet snakes. Ironic (or perfect?) that my pets also shed their skin like the crawdads Misty is obsessed with in Every Bone a Prayer. Maybe we all look to shed some part of ourselves and our past; when in actuality humans cannot shed, but we can embrace, accept, and move forward with making our name our own.

If this feels a bit too random or abstract for a review then all I can say is read this moving story and you’ll see for yourself how it changes you. Maybe you’ll have a review of your own that is abstract, emotional, and all over the place just like this one.
This was written moments after reading the last line and knowing if I didn’t write something in the minute it was being felt that nothing I could compose in the future would truly have the right emotion that I feel now.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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1 comment:

Leonore Winterer said...

This sounds like a very special book. I'll keep my eyes open for it!