Reviews with content warning for Violence - Quiet in Her Bones

I never managed to connect with this book, but I wanted to finish it out of spite. It seems like this author threw a lot of elements at the wall to see if they could stick. You can tell she’s definitely a good descriptive writer from the prose but it felt purple at most parts. Since it’s a mystery, I’m sure every background character was given extreme detail to throw the reader off the trail of the killer. It just made the book confusing and hard to push through.
It reminded me of Dark Places by Gillian Flynn due to the unreliable and “unlikeable” narrator, but I actually didn’t really like the MC. His whole angry, manipulative streak was not endearing and he seemed full of himself. I wasn’t rooting for anyone in the book. Most characters served no purpose and I didn’t know who they were most of the time or their purpose in the story. The resolution of the main conflict of the entire story doesn’t even get covered in the epilogue and even then, it’s like an afterthought. I wasn’t thrilled or excited by this book, just wanted it to end so I could find out what happened to Nina, but jury’s still out on whether that was worth it or not.

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girlonbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

🍬🍬🍬🍬 (four stars as rated in Aarav’s exceptionally addictive stash of sweets)

It’s been ten years since Nina Rai disappeared with a quarter of a million dollars. Generally assumed to have fled her former life willingly, Nina and her disappearance have all but faded from the rumor mill of the close-knit cul-de-sac where she once lived. But when Nina’s remains are discovered only a short distance from her home, everything changes. With only a handful of neighbors that could have been responsible for her death, Nina’s murder uproots secrets about more than just her and the Rai family. Her son, Aarav, is determined to discover who murdered his mother, but having recently suffered brain damage from a nearly fatal car accident, his account of his mother’s last night alive is far from reliable. Still, he is willing to face every one of his demons to get to the truth. Even the ones his family would prefer never saw the light of day…

Ten years was a long time… For everyone to forget that Nina Parvati Rai had been a living, breathing woman who’d loved music and cooking and had a mind like a computer.
In another life she could have been a professor.
In this life she’d been a rich man’s wife.
Now she was just bones.

This book spoke to me the minute I saw that deliciously sinister looking cover. I’m adding Quiet In Her Bones to my list of rainy day recommendations because this is exactly the type of book with which one really ought to cozy up on the couch with a cuppa. I loved that the neighborhood in which the Rai family lives is so thoroughly multi-cultural and diverse; and not in a way that feels forced or “for show.” Nalini Singh really raises the bar when it comes to writing about a variety of races, sexual orientations and life experiences without leaning on tropes or stereotypes. I’ll be adding some of her other work to my TBR right away. Also, considering that she (according to her website) especially loves writing romance, I am blown away at how well she pulled of the mystery of this story. I really did not put the pieces together until just at the end. And the unreliable narrator bits were fun for me to try and sort through.

✨ Rep in this book: Indian protagonist, diverse community of side characters

✨ Content warnings for this book: domestic violence, blood, car accident, murder, adultery, assault, blackmail, medical stuff, drug use, addiction, suicide, memory loss, sex work

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cursedepub's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Quiet in Her Bones is an enjoyable and suspenseful read, but ultimately isn't very fulfilling. The prose is great - tense and action-packed, while providing a lot of emotional appeal and insight into main character Aarav's personal psyche, and the book is populated with the perfect cast of dramatic, trashy, filthy rich people that make for the most fun mysteries and thrillers. It starts off strong and the pace picks up very nicely, but towards the end I was beginning to grow impatient with the almost never-ending addition of new possibilities to explore and how nothing we had previously discovered seemed to be coming together. The final reveal of the culprit and of the circumstances of Nina Rai's disappearance and death was very unsatisfying for me, and the way it was all hinged on

a completely different disappearance and death

came off as cheap and sloppy. I think more should have been done to establish the connection earlier in the novel, rather than spending time on points and hints that would eventually fade away or not end up particularly important.

One thing that definitely detracted from my enjoyment of the novel is how egregious the sexually objectifying male gaze was in the narration. I think genuinely every woman above the age of 18 in the novel was described in terms of her sexuality and/or physical attributes, to a degree I found gross and uncomfortable.

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katiemack's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I've only read Nalini Singh's romances, so I was intrigued when I saw she had written a thriller (not my typical genre, but I've greatly enjoyed some). Singh's writing shines through, as usual; I always love her descriptions and some of the snarky dialogue she writes. I also enjoyed getting to know the side characters in the Cul-de-Sac as their lives become increasingly more interwoven and secretive.

The toughest aspect to get used to was the pacing--the way Singh reveals information to the reader was tough for me to handle. Aspects and detailed were doled out piecemeal, and while I detest the word-vomit exposition style of some novelists, this was almost as bad. I felt like I didn't have a great grasp on Aarav's family, especially his mother, or even Aarav himself. The ending felt rushed as well, which was frustrating.

If you're a big fan of thrillers, though, I'd give this one a try. It also features diverse characters, which is a plus.

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