She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, an Australian Shadows Award and six Aurealis Awards.
From Description: "Long ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the Mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom.
A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea...."Miren, abandoned by her parents when she was a child, was raised by her grandparents. After her grandfather's death, her grandmother Aoife O'Malley prepares to use her granddaughter in keeping the O'Malleys viable by forcing her to marry an O'Malley cousin.
Miren, however, has long wanted freedom from the O'Malley traditions and makes some plans of her own. In the course of her journey, Miren meets with all manner of strange creatures: kelpies, ghosts, corpsewights, and other Irish folkloric creatures.
All the Murmuring Bones is a slow paced experience, steeped in Gothic and Irish folklore.
NetGalley/Titan
Myth/Fantasy. March 9, 2021. Print length: 368 pages.
This sounds intriguing and different as well. I don't do much fantasy yet I'm so curious.
ReplyDeleteIt is fantasy, but such a Gothic fantasy. I'd almost put it in a sub-genre of its own. :)
DeleteSounds intriguing to me. Will keep this book in mind. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is intriguing and haunted (and the O'Malley's deserve to be haunted). The strange creatures, dangerous though they may be, are nothing compared to the O'Malleys.
DeleteI love the sound of this. Atmospheric, Gothic and based in folklore. I think I might like this one.
ReplyDeleteI should have said this was fairytale instead of fantasy. Fairytale with that dark edge that weaves the sinister atmosphere throughout!
DeleteI love the Irish folklore aspect of it all! And very atmospheric!
ReplyDeleteThe Gothic/fairytale/folklore mix is extremely well done. It was never quite what I was expecting--the author and Miren kept surprising me. Not a Disney fairytale, much more Grimm.
DeleteI see that you mention up above that this one is a fairytale rather than fantasy. I can imagine that the "darkness" of the story works really well in a fairytale setting because the original fairytales were dark and scary things that have been really watered down in the modern versions - despite how gory some of those still are. Interesting plot, for sure.
ReplyDeleteFantasy can be dark, but usually there is a big difference between the darkness of fairytales and the darkness of fantasy. It is an interesting difference and part is that in fairytales character is rarely developed. Good, bad, indifferent, but not in depth. The characters in fairytales are almost place markers; Merin has more depth than in the classic fairytale, but her character is still dominated be events in many ways.
DeleteGothic fantasy sounds good to me. Is it a standalone, or part of a series?
ReplyDeleteIt's a standalone, Lark. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the gothic elements to this. This one is definitely going on my TBR!
ReplyDeleteGothic and strange!
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