My Sister’s Bones audiobook

My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood is a 2017 William Morrow Paperbacks publication. Bleak, atmospheric, somber-Psychological thrillers are not all created equal. They can come in all shapes, sizes and forms and still solidly fall within the specifications applied to this genre, but with various degrees of success. While this book adheres to the standard requirements, the author turns the genre on its ear by producing a multi-layered literary piece told from the first -person perspectives of two sisters, both of whom are dealing with immense loss, psychological demons, and emotional scars, but unable to find comfort in each other. Kate is a journalist who has spent the past several years covering the atrocities in Syria. After her mother’s death, she returns home to put her affairs in order. It soon becomes obvious that being back in her childhood home is bringing back torturous memories, on top of being haunted by the images of war, topped off by her sister, Sally’s, alcoholism. The stress manifests itself with vivid nightmares and hallucinations.Sally’s alcohol issues multiplied after her teenage daughter, Hannah disappears. Now, after the death of her mother, she crawled inside the bottle, not even bothering to hide it or fight it. The only sane person in this shadowy land of illusion is Sally’s husband, Paul. He takes care of both sisters and they work their way through childhood abuses, PTSD, and their broken relationship with each other.The imagery is Aleppo is haunting, reminding us that journalists are out there in the crossfire, and can suffer the same ill effects of war as soldiers, and even lose their lives on occasion. What happens to Kate in Syria easily explains her PTSD, and how she ends up in the shape she does. The subject matter is heart wrenching, harsh, and cruel- so if you are sensitive to scenes of psychological and physical abuse, or the depictions of war - be aware of these possible triggers- most of which occur in the first half of the book. Sally holds deep resentments toward Kate, who she believes was her mother’s favorite child, and while Kate wishes to help her, Sally resist to the point where Kate feels helpless and hopeless, especially under the circumstances. While all this is very interesting and is an absorbing character study, there are some odd occurrences thrown in that makes us question our narrator. The author planted seeds of doubt, making me wonder just what is real and what is deceptive. I was very caught up in the story, but the deeper I tread, the more I began to wonder where on earth all this was leading. Wasn’t this supposed to be a thriller? As a matter of fact, yes, it is, and I’m glad I was patient, because when the twist came, it hit me hard, right in the gut, and I could have kicked myself for not seeing it sooner. Once the bottom drops out, it’s a harrowing, white knuckled fight that held me enthralled and made me a little jumpy, while totally screwing with my head. At the end of the day, I was mentally exhausted and stunned emotionally by this moody, melancholy, but exceptional novel. I am impressed with the author’s style, the way she layered the events so I was kept off guard, using a powerful prose to slowly entice me into her web.This is a novel with much more going for it than most standard thrillers. This book examines thorny issues, made me think, forced me to work at solving the puzzle, and packed an emotional wallop that left me shell shocked. While the story is very dark, and rarely offers a moment of reprieve, the ending did show much improvement and even a ray of hope for those who live to tell the tale. This is one of the very best psychological thrillers I’ve read this year. So, if you are a fan of this genre, I highly recommend it!!

What a truly brilliant novel. I could not find enough hours in the day to keep reading this, I knew from page one it was going to be good and it ended up exceeding my expectations. This will be a big hit in 2017, of that I am sure. I commend the author Nuala Ellwood for writing a novel that has parts of it set in, and about the terrible humanitarian crisis and war happening today in Aleppo, Syria. Events that I watch on the news that I feel so helpless to do anything about but want to. The author has done a brilliant job of bringing some of that truth to the public in the format of a really well written novel. I hope that many may be somewhat educated to the plight of the people living in the hell that is called Aleppo.Kate is an investigative Journalist. She is no stranger to war-torn countries or being in the midst of danger, death and destruction. She has seen the worst atrocities up close and personal, in Iraq, in Syria, in Africa. Journalism and her passion for reporting the truth is in her blood and her bones. Kate's sister Sally is an alcoholic, spending her time wasting away with bottles of wine and ruminating on the bitterness and anger that runs through her blood. Sally's husband Paul is at a loss what to do with his wife and does his best to welcome Kate back to her home town, desperate for her to try to get through to her sister about her destructive drinking.Yet both girls have come from the same family home, were witness to the same events, were impacted by painful and alarming family issues but could not have turned out so different in their outlook on life. The plot is really good and very interesting, it's paced really well, you won't be bored for a second and takes us on a journey into Kate's life and inner world. As the book moves us between timelines and locations you get the sense you are on a journey with the characters but are not sure where you will end up. All the characters in this book are strong points.It's hard to review this book in-depth without spoilers, so I am going to keep it simple. Just trust me - the plot is very good, very interesting and it blew me away with some reveals that I did not see coming in a million years. The characters are written well and easy to connect with, form opinions about (those opinions may change over the course of the book) and there is nothing obvious about the book. There are so many hidden gems within the book that you really can't see fully in all their glory until the end of the book. The chapters leading up to the ending really stunned me.The research done by the author into how PTSD impacts an individual was very good. It's written into the plot very realistically in regards to how it impacts a person who has experienced terrible trauma. I hope that the book does it's bit to raise some awareness of how debilitating PTSD is.I truly didn't expect the book to go where it does, as a reader this novel kept me on my toes, just when I would get comfortable thinking I knew where we were going I would be spun around on my head and proved wrong, chucked back out of that comfort zone. I loved that element of Nuala's writing! There was nothing I did not like, this book has everything you need for an entertaining and page-turning read and I highly recommend this to everyone. Without a doubt - 5 stars for My Sister's Bones, truly riveting with many outstanding features.I received an ARC paperback of this book from the publisher, plus had it approved through NetGalley also in exchange for a fair and honest book review, many thanks.

Firstly thank you to goodreads for me winning this in a giveaway. I really enjoyed this book and specifically Kate, the main character. She is a journalist and seen some terrible things in war torn countries, which have affected her deeply. The story has a lot of twists and while I suspected these fairly early on this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book.I recommend this to readers who enjoy thrillers.

Kate Rafter was part of a dysfunctional family and the only one who escaped. Her father was a drunk who beat her and her mother. She had a younger brother who drowned when he was young ... Kate's mother has always felt guilty about that. Her younger sister, Sally, is following in their father's footsteps. Sally has already driven her own daughter away .. she's not had anything to do with Kate, and even Sally's husband is about to wash his hands of her.When their mother died, Kate came home. She's now a hot-shot journalist following the war in Syria. She's seen things that most of us have never even thought of. Suffering from severe PTSD, she's an insomniac, depending on sleeping pills, and now she's drinking to escape the hallucinations.Her first night home, she's awakened by a scream. Looking out her window she sees a very young boy ... who is the spitting image of her deceased brother, David. She convinces herself it's only a dream, a hallucination ... but is it?The beginning of the book is Kate being questioned by a therapist. They are holding her for 74 hours to determine if she's a danger to herself or others. Slowly, bit by bit, the reader is privy to her life, from her childhood through the days she spent in war torn countries.There are surprises at every turn. It's a compelling read, very cleverly written. All the characters are fully developed .. these are people who could be your neighbors.It's a poignant telling of how she and her family related to each other. It's also a story of love, loss, guilt, forgiveness. This is a book that begs to be read. From the very first, the pages practically turn on their own, keeping you so engrossed you can forget everything else.I highly recommend this book, this author to anyone who enjoys a psychological thriller. It's one you won't forget anytime soon.Many, many thanks to the author / Penguin Books (UK) - Penguin Viking /NetGalley who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The book contains a multitude of disparate mysteries that all are seemingly unconnected... until they aren't. Linked only by the protagonist they centre around, this is a thriller on a large global and political scale, the likes of which I have not encountered in a mystery novel, for quite some time.This begun at a relatively slow pace and fooled me into believing I was aware of where this book was taking me. Falling into this trap of presupposed assumptions proved to intensify the shock I felt when this book revealed it was about so much more than what it initially appeared.Kate Rafter is a well-known and widely-respected war reporter, who has spent much of her adult life amongst bombed-out and poverty-stricken regions most others avoid.. But all these pale in comparison to where she grew up, and what she discovers there is far less alarming than the childhood she is still running from. But when the death of her mother unwillingly returns her to this past life, she realises what she has been hoping to avoid is something she can never run from. A return to the idyllic seaside family home only serves to bring back how much she longs to flee, and how there isn't anywhere where the horrors of her life can't reach her.This is a novel that has many separate threads, but the point on which they all converge is always with Kate. The trauma she endured in Syria combats against the inescapable memories of the past, and both become bound into her present grief until she can no longer discern fact from fiction. With the merging of these two separate entities, both the reader and Kate herself are constantly striving to decipher the true events from those imagined. This transforms this into a novel that incorporates a depth of subject matter into the central thrilling plot-line.This novel confronts the harsh reality of the chaos of our world. As a reader, we are somewhat distanced from it. For our protagonist, there is no such distance provided and she is left to cope with the devastating effects on her mental and physical well-being, alone. This exploration is one I found both a painful yet mandatory, and the viewpoint helped navigate this novel as well as the world at large.And this is just one of the many poignant topics 'My Sister's Bones' diverges on to. Domestic abuse, alcoholism, abduction, immigration... I could go on. This is a novel that is fearless is the breadth of subjects it addresses, and it does each one an illuminating and sensitive justice.I went in to this expecting nothing more than a passive yet suspenseful read. What I received was something that made me think. This delivers point after point about the injustice and savagery abundant in the modern-world and, through one story, the reader is invited to open their eyes and notice it. We can't all be highly-paid war reporters, but we can all become aware of the horror that may live on our own doorsteps.I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Nuala Ellwood, and the publisher, Penguin Viking, for this opportunity.

Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-review...NOW AVAILABLE IN THE UK!Trigger warnings are noted in the first paragraph. We’re all of us, every day, just a hairbreadth away from evil. If I’ve learnt anything from fifteen years of reporting, it’s that. But I couldn’t expect these people to understand. This is a really heavy read as it deals with some really dark and depressing subjects, such as the war and refugees in Syria, domestic & child abuse, rape, death, mental illness, alcoholism and miscarriages. Don’t read this if you’re having a low period in your life because this is not going to make you feel any better, throughout it’s a rather distressing and upsetting story.Each character in this novel was well developed, no matter how small a part they played in the plot. Ellwood has done a fantastic job with her research into PTSD as Kate’s fears and anxieties seem so real to the reader. Though I’ve never experienced anything even close to PTSD, I can really imagine how terrifying and disturbing it would be, from reading this book. It’s definitely the best and most harrowing description of the condition I’ve ever read in a fiction novel.This was a really well presented novel and I’m amazed that it’s a debut! It was excellently written and thought out. My only issue being that sometimes, the timings in this book felt a little off. When Kate and Paul were together, one minute they'd be serving dinner and the next, after a small 5 lined conversation, it would be midnight and time for Paul to leave and Kate to get into bed. It seemed like large chunks of the day would just disappear.Maybe I shouldn’t have read some other people’s reviews on this beforehand, but because I was expecting all these super duper amazing twists, I kind of didn’t feel that they were super duper amazing. I also found some of them to be a little far fetched and silly, rather than surprising. I can definitely see why this has gained so many 5 star ratings, but it’s all down to personal preference at the end of the day, and this one was just a little too dark for my liking. That's not to say I didn't like this...I enjoyed this a lot, hence the 4 stars. I found myself not wanting to put it down, even when my eyes were telling me it was definitely time for sleep. It was certainly a thrilling and page turning read, but I don’t know if I could recommend this to anyone because of all the dark subject matters. It seems like the sort of book some people are going to love for it’s dark realism and others are going to hate that and find it too distressing to read.Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! This was so NOT what I was expecting. I think because my review copy didn't have any blurb on it, I kind of went in blind to this one and it came across all the better for it. I'm still reeling from all the the twists that popped to the surface to this bubbling cauldron of suspense to be honest but I don't want that feeling to end quite yet! This noticeably has a very topical feel to it from the start as we meet journalist Kate and realise she has been a witness to the atrocities taking place in Syria. The first part of the story is split in two, with Kate coming home to Hearne Bay following her mother's death and this is alternated with Kate being questioned by police following her arrest for an undisclosed crime. This part was left deliberately rather vague reflecting Kate's fragile mental state. She is obviously suffering from PTSD so the reader comes to the conclusion that this may not make her a reliable narrator. She sees and hears things that aren't there and her nightmares are graphic and realistic so what is real and what only exists in Kate's imagination? But when I read the end of Part One.....oh my goodness, what a gasp out loud moment! And that's when the book suddenly became totally unputdownable for me! Kate and her sister Sally are both damaged individuals. Brought up in an abusive home where the mental abuse was worse than the physical, the girls have self medicated in totally different ways, Sally with alcohol and Kate with her destructive relationship and her dedication to her job. I need to say that the journalism side of the plot is meticulously crafted and I really felt Kate was a living breathing person who had actually seen and been through the horrific war zone in Aleppo. We see things through her eyes and my heart felt like it was being ripped out of my chest at times through the whole destructive and senseless violence there.I don't want to spoil this book for anyone by talking further about the plot but I just want to say that this is a book full of surprises. It's so very cleverly written that I can guarantee most people will be shocked by the turn of events that occur here, I know I was. In fact, I'm still thinking about it now and have just gone back to read the prologue again. It gave me goosebumps the first time round but that second time.....chilling!Definitely one to watch out for if you're a fan of psychological suspense, just watch out for those twists!I received my review copy of My Sister's Bones from the publisher.

When I first saw the title of this book I conjured up so many different scenarios but oh my god I couldn’t have been more wrong! New author on the block Nuala Ellwood has certainly written a disturbing and spine chilling tale that I found impossible to put down once I started reading. Kate Rafter is a war reporter it’s clear from the start that she has seen terrible things during her time reporting from war zones, so much so she is having horrendous flashbacks that torment her day and night. Kate begins to see and hear things but is it a symptom of PTSD or is there something more sinister at work?Our first introduction to Kate, she is in a Police Station, Kate is being interviewed by a police doctor, you aren’t sure why but you do get a sense that it’s very bad. Layer by layer the author reveals more and there are shocks galore as the truth emerges. My Sisters Bones has two very unreliable narrators Kate who relays heavily on medication to get her through and her alcoholic sister Sally. The two sisters never had the best life growing up, mentally abused by an alcoholic father, they are both struggle to cope with past events.At times I found it difficult to work out which sister was the most disturbed or whose narrative was the more reliable which made for an highly engaging read. This book really messed with my head as you try to work out if Kate and her sister are imagining things or if there is something much more sinister going on, and for me that’s what a book of this genre should do, keep you guessing right up to the end. As the plot progressed I really felt I was no nearer to guessing the outcome than when I started, and I remained in the dark until the last couple of chapters.There are numerous threads running through my sisters Bones and I have to say the author paints a vivid picture of both women’s torment so much so I found this book both harrowing and disturbing at times. What I found intriguing and added depth to this novel was the way the two sisters lives were connected by past horrifying events, but their lives took very different paths, they also had very different memories and views on their past experiences, which for me made it difficult to distinguish whose memories were the more credible.If I had one small criticism I did feel I had to suspend my disbelief for the ending, it really wasn’t what I expected at all, don’t get me wrong this never spoilt the story in anyway I just didn’t find it to be a credible one, but on the other hand it works making this an outstanding psychological read. My Sisters Bones is well paced, and it certainly keeps the reader on their toes, as it’s so difficult to second guess where the plot is leading. I find it hard to believe this is Nuala Elwood’s debut as it is so well executed, it’s creepy, harrowing and down right disturbing at times, but readers of psychological thrillers will love it, and it’s a book I feel will do really well, in fact I would go as far to say it could be a bestseller on its release.

Fantastic book!! Didn't see that twist coming at all! listened to the audio book and one of my favourite narrators Imogen Church.

Great book.... Cracking twist at the end . Looking forward to the next one

Kate returns to her home town, for the first time many many years, following her mother's death. Kate has been stationed in Syria as a war reporter, and is not coping very well with all of the death and destruction she's seen over there. Returning home to her childhood memories, and a mean drunk sister, are very difficult things for her to do as it is, and then she starts to hear a little boy screaming and crying. Her mental health issues and drinking mean that no one really believes her, but she's convinced that something is going on at the house next door.It's been a long time since I've finished a book in a few hours, and it was really easy to do with this one. A well told thriller.