A review by amber_hastings
Bone Music by David Almond

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.0

I picked this up for the gorgeous cover, and the cover remains the best aspect of this book. Unfortunately I struggled with this one. Sometimes the writing was beautiful, but I found it so slow and so heavy-handed in dealing with its themes of teen independence, troubled/lost sense of self, and eco anxiety. I found that none of the characters felt real or convincing, least of all Sylvia. She and Gabriel did not feel like modern teens. I was particularly annoyed that Sylvia seemed to be a bit of a saviour to all the lost men in her life. The absence of her dad lends a Freudian angle to the fact that she and her mum seem to spend their lives attracting and placating troubled boys. The message of environmental destruction and anxiety tended to get a bit lost. And the addition of Andreas' Nazi past felt so out of place. I'm perplexed at why there are so many wonderful five star reviews of this book as I found it difficult to along with for many reasons.