Wednesday 26 June 2024

Book Review: When the Bones Sing by Ginny Myers Sain (YA Paranormal)

When the Bones Sing
Ginny Myers Sain
G.P. Putnam's Sons
4 March 2025
352
eBook - EPUB
YA Paranormal
ARC via Edelweiss

The past three years have been tough for Lucifer’s Creek, Arkansas, a small town quietly tucked away in the Ozark mountains. More than two dozen people have disappeared on the local hiking trails; there one moment, gone the next, not a trace left behind, until their buried bodies are discovered.

17-year-old Dovie doesn’t believe in magic even though she comes from a long line of women who can hear the bones of the dead sing, and for the past few years the bones have been crooning nonstop, calling out to Dovie to dig them up.

Some of the old-timers believe that it’s the monstrous Ozarks howler snatching people off the Aux Arc Trail. Well Dovie doesn’t believe in the howler, and she doesn’t believe her best friend Lo when he tells her he is being haunted by dark shadows. All she believes in is her talent that guides the local sheriff to the bones when they begin their song, then reuniting the dead with their families to give them some peace.

Lo doesn’t know peace, though. The shadows follow him everywhere. He soon learns they’re the murdered hikers and they want answers. But the truth of their deaths isn’t buried with their bones; it’s hidden somewhere deep in the hills. And Lo and Dovie must unearth it before anyone else is killed.

 

When the Bones Sing was a pleasing YA paranormal tale. The world building was nicely handled and both Dovie and Lo came across well as characters, both of them growing through the course of the story. It was a fairly simple, easy read, but it was an entertaining story and I didn't guess the true culprit behind the killings until close to the reveal, so it was well structured in terms of the mystery too. The paranormal elements added to the story without overpowering the human interactions and emotion, and I would certainly pick up other books by this author in the future. I am giving it a solid four stars.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. 

 

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