Review: All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slater

 

Miren O’Malley is the last true descendent of the O’Malley’s, a clannish family who made their fortunes on the seas by striking a deal with the Mer: provide safe passage for their ships, in exchange for a child from each generation.

Unable to fulfill their end of the bargain to give a child of each generation to the Mer due to low birth rate, the O’Malley family has slid into decline and lost their fortunes. Miren’s grandmother schemes and plans to restore the family’s largesse by offering Miren up for marriage in exchange for wealth and the hope that Miren and her betrothed, a distant O’Malley cousin will have children to resurrect the deal with the Mer and restore the family fortunes.

After a brutal murder sets out to a band the plans that Miren's grandmother has put in motion, Miren sets out to escape her planned marriage to her betrothed fiancé and seek out secrets from her past and hopes that her future may be vastly different than she hoped. Through encounters with Merfolk, kelpies, vengeful ghosts, and an angry sea witch, Miren seeks to control our own destiny, to right wrongs done to her and her family, and to evade men who seek to control her future and possess her.

I greatly enjoyed this book; I enjoyed the mythology and the fairy tale aspects of the tale. The book started off strong and grabbed my attention from the very beginning.  However, my interests tended to wane toward the end where it felt like it sought to wrap up the conflict quickly. Many of the characters in the story are very hard to sympathize with or to even like many of them seem cold and greedy. However, Miren’s struggle to escape the life that has been planned for her is something to truly root for.

I give this story 4/5 stars.

Thank you to #NetGalley and to #Titan books for providing me a copy of this story for reading and reviewing. All thoughts and opinions of this story are my own.