The Rattled Bones by S. M. Parker - OPTIONAL

The Rattled Bones by S. M. Parker, 370 pages. Simon Pulse 2017. Language: R (22 swears, 2 ‘f’) Mature Content: PG-13 (discussions of mental illness, rape, and suicide) Violence: PG-13 (Semi Graphic Murder

HS- OPTIONAL.

Rilla Brae is grieving her father, and that’s why she is also afraid to tell anyone of the voices she keeps hearing from the bottom of the sea. She’s deathly frightened that people will tell her that her grief has made her go insane, or that she is just like her mother, who left home years ago to check herself into a mental institution. But when Rilla Brae meets a boy researching on the neighboring Island near her home in Maine, he helps her uncover the dark past of the Islanders who lived there eighty years ago, and she starts to think maybe neither her nor her mother are hearing things that are not real. She thinks they might be hearing a ghost.  

The Rattled Bones is a story that simply suffers from lack of plot. It is quite possible to sum up the entirety of this book’s happenings in one paragraph, and because the characters are either stereotypical or bland as toast, there is nothing to keep the reader interested. Rilla Brae as a protagonist is completely one note and constantly repeats thoughts that she has already expressed over and over again. It makes the reading experience tedious, and even the paranormal plotline fails to be creepy or atmospheric in any way. 

Reviewer: Jewel