Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

The Wishing Bones

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 238 - September 2019
BfK 238 September 2019

This issue’s cover illustration is from Cookie and the Most Annoying Boy in the World written and illustrated by Konnie Huq. Thanks to Piccadilly Press for their help with this September cover.
Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 238 September 2019 .

  • PDFPDF
  • Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
  • Send to friendSend to friend

The Wishing Bones

Michelle Lovric
(Orion Children's Books)
400pp, FICTION, 978-1444009972, RRP £6.99, Paperback
14+ Secondary/Adult
Buy "The Wishing Bones" on Amazon

This lengthy, complex and sometimes chilling book is not for the inexperienced or faint-hearted reader, but for those who are able and willing to persevere there is a mighty treat in store.

The story opens in Venice in 1739 with the murder of an innocent tourist in The Hotel Of What You Want, an establishment set up by Arabella Magoghe, one of four evil Sicilian sisters who fled to the city to escape armed conflict in their homeland and who have abandoned all compassion in the face of greed and a desire for revenge against the citizens of the city which refused to help them. Their hearts have become hardened to all but the pursuit of money and the bones of their victims are scrubbed and aged to be sold
as holy relics, much prized by Venetians.

Orphaned Sorrowful Lily, cruelly raised in the convent run by another of the sisters,is schooled in the murder of the hotel's guests by Ivo, who has his own tragic secret. Enter Darling Dearworthy, niece of one of Arabella's victims:feisty,Irish, with a marvellously poetic vocabulary, eager to find out what has happened to her uncle. Introduce Casanova in his fifteenth year and build an alliance of these unusual young people, united in their desire to strip the Magoghe sisters of their power and return the relic of Saint Lucy's body-stolen by the sisters- to her beloved Venice.

The fabric of the story is not yet fully woven, however. There is a strong thread of magic realism, with a talking statue of the Madonna, a fretful baby Jesus, mermaids who speak like wise but wonderfully entertaining pirates, murderous giant eels-and an overwhelming conviction that evil will be routed in the end. The narrative pace is brisk and the reader is taken on an unforgettable physical and emotional roller-coaster ride. This exceptional book repays readers a hundred-fold.

Reviewer: 
Val Randall
5
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account