A review by s_marie
Every Bone a Prayer, by Ashley Blooms

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.5

For me, the writing was slow and repetitive. And the story itself seemed somewhat thin, even given the serious subject matter. I love magical realism but in this case, the descriptions and incorporation of it seemed to become filler/fluff, until the imagery closer to the end of the book which was quite impactful. The entire story could have been told in half the time—not that a shorter read is better, necessarily—but I was noticing the page numbers passing going “why is this so long.” I guess for me, instead of the magical element elevating the story it felt very forced at times and detracted from the stronger dynamics going on with main character, her family, and the other people around them.
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