Hollow Bones By Erica Wright
Hollow bones book
Erica Wright s Hollow Bones may be a crime novel set in West Virginia but it is inspired by Shakespear s Measure for Measure No knowledge of the original tale is needed to enjoy this complex character driven story. Kindle Hollow bones tv The cold open of Hollow Bones introduces readers to Father Micah a preacher who has taken over a church in Vintera West Virginia where worship involves poisonous serpents not snakes This is a week before a fire that destroys the church building The fire is blamed on Clyde one of the two children of the former pastor and his wife who both died from snakebite The other Essa lives in the old rectory and has drawn the attention of Father Micah and who offers her a Mephistophelian deal. Hollow bones strain The narrative of Hollow Bones focusses on three very different women Eighteen year old Essa Clyde s pregnant girlfriend and town psychic Juliet and Merrit an ambitious news reporter who has her own suspicions about Micah And then there is Micah himself a man who has the ability to exploit the weaknesses in others but who finds himself obsessed with breaking Essa. Book Hollow bones It is Essa s story in particular where Wright has drawn her inspiration from Shakespeare In Measure for Measure the corrupt priest Angelo sentences the young man Claudio to death but falls in love with the man s sister Isabella when she comes to beg for her brother s life The deal that Angelo offers to Isabella is the same as Micah offers to Essa as is the way the two young women respond But this is still also a well constructed crime story with crimes following the destruction of the church including a murder and an unexpected resolution In doing so Wright also delves into one of the bizarre subbranches of American Christianity a group who also feature in Christian White s debut The Nowhere Child Wright has successfully threaded a needle here in delivering this melange of crime fiction inspired by Shakespearean characters and situations in this modern West Virginian setting 269 3. Hollow Bones crime rate 5 stars Oh I just love a good mystery Take me to the hills of West Virginia and immerse me in a crowd of religious zealotsit s mysterious and creepy Essa grew up in the New Hope Church where her father was a pastor It s not your run of the mill Christian church it s a rural church that believes in snake handling or serpent handling as part of their worship service As teenagers the lives of Essa and her older brother are rapidly altered when their parents unexpectedly die resulting in the church closing down Fast forward a few years Essa continues to live in her childhood home which is on the same land as the closed New Hope Church Her brother Clyde is in a relationship with a psychic medium a sharp contrast from his childhood belief system When a new pastor comes to this little neck of West Virginia and reopens the New Hope Church life starts to feel unsettled and the snakes reemerge Then things really start to heat up when the New Hope Church goes up in flames For the reader this is where the mystery takes off Who burned down the New Hope Church Erica Wright does a fabulous job of setting the scene conducive for a spine chilling mystery as well as developing some incredibly diverse and complicated characters They ll keep you guessing as several of them have a reason to want to burn the church down I found myself plowing through the pages invested in solving this crime As I read the final page my only wish was that the character Juliet the psychic medium and Essa s brother s partner would have played a pivotal role She added such an interesting dynamic amongst this alternative religious community. Poetry Hollow bones coffee Thank you to Severn House for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback All opinions are my own And now I fear I may be dreaming about snakes 269 From the prologue the reader is made to feel uncomfortable and weary There is something off about Pastor Micah and it s not snake handling This story centers on the lives of three women that become intertwined through a church none of them attend Essa s father was the previous pastor for New Hope a church that still partook in the controversial use of snakes in their services and his wife Essa s mother assisted with the snakes After a freak accident during a service a few years prior Essa and her brother Clyde suddenly became orphans Neither attend the church after the arrival of the new pastor Essa is quiet keeps to herself wears her mother s clothing and works in a kind of animal medical examiner s office She has heard about but never really interacted with Clyde s girlfriend Juliet who we also follow Juliet is a psychic of sorts and at points communicates with ghosts I find her fascinating The third woman we follow is Merritt a reporter who was just doing a story on Pastor Micah s programs to combat narcotic use in the rural area who stumbles on the story of her career after New Hope is burned to the ground with two teens inside We also get a few chapters from Pastor Micah s POV which were the most uncomfortable and creepy chapters by far I really liked the way the author painted the story and crafted this small town Though the town and the county do not exist it feels real Though this book does deal a bit with religion it mostly focuses on personal development for the main three women through the police investigations of the church arson that has narrowed in on Essa s brother Clyde. Hollow bones book I think the story could have used a bit of a resolution with the whole Pastor Micah situation and with his character Things remain a little vague in my opinion for certain things that are spoilers If you like mysteries that lean towards the creepy and possible supernatural I think this book will give you that I haven t read Measure For Measure the Shakespeare play this story is loosely based on but I did read a synopsis after finishing and I would say it likely stands up as a good retelling that makes its own divergences Thank you so much to Severn House Publishers Weekly and NetGalley for the eARC All thoughts are my own 269 This was an ARC read and it was interesting It s kind of a niche story but interesting nonetheless It read like a local hometown author using the country dialog of the Appalachian community We find ourselves in the backwoods of West Virginia The premise of the story is that an old time snake handling church gets destroyed and two innocent people are killed as a result Our female lead is certainly socially backward holding onto her grandparent s religion and trying to make it on her own We have an overly ambitious female reporter who will stop at nothing to make a name for herself We have the soon to be sister in law who is kind of like a witch with tarot card readings and some sort of mysticism for seeing apparitions There s the new preacher who is so full of himself and has the town in his pocket after having just arrived. Hollow bones birds fly We don t get a lot of background on any of the characters The important side characters are never fleshed out There are gaps in the story that make it feel rushed It felt like the cliffnotes version of a full novel. Hollow bones strain This was such a unique crime thriller where in the best way the crime thriller aspect to second seat to the exploration of the character s personality loves and betrayals This peak into life in an Appalachian town held together destroyed by unusual religious practices was fascinating The stark realities of the opoid epidemic alongside the mysticalness of the magic was a gorgeous reflection Erica Wright managed to get so much across in such few pages and whilst I m sure you could fly through this book I really wanted to savour the enjoyment I was getting from it. Hollow Bones ebookers I loved the three points of view that we followed in this story Erica Wright was able to give each woman such a distinct voice The way they interacted with but also supported each other was so good and really allowed the women to be the heros of the story. Hollow Bones ebookee I know that I will be thinking about this book and its characters for a long time 269 This book follows the story of Essa Montgomery in a small town in West Virginia called Vintera Essa s dad was the pastor at the church before he and his wife passes away Essa struggles with religious trauma and being the serpent orphan When the New Hope church is burned down with two teenage kids inside her brother Clyde is the first suspect after Pastor Micah blames him for it Essa gets caught in the middle of the investigation where to cops are trying to use her to incriminate her brother and the pastor tries to use his power in the town to manipulate her into giving into his dark desires This book was eerie and unsettling from the very beginning It takes dark twists and turns and there were parts where I felt like any character was capable of doing desperate things in dark times Essa s character developed from a timid traumatized girl to realizing her potential and being grateful for the people and opportunities she had in her life She was able to think for herself and took matters into her own hands when she felt others couldn t be trusted I like the style of writing in this book You could hear the way the talked and envision the scenes as they played out in the story I did find it to be predictable but that doesn t mean anything as I can usually predict the ending It has been a long time since I read a book that surprised me. Hollowboneszen.org how 269 This book feels unsettling from the very first page Pastor Micah has won acclaim for his addiction programs replacing it with a brand of spirituality that includes handling venomous snakes and drinking poison But when his church burns down with two teenagers inside it suddenly the attention of the world is on his ministry When Pastor Micah blames an outcast the adult son of the former pastor he hopes to use it to draw closer to Essa the sister who has fascinated him since he first laid eyes on her Essa has left the church but not really After the death of both her pastor parents from snake bites she struggles to let anything else go She wears her hair long in her mother s old clothes and lives in their former home only adding a few books of her own But when her brother is accused of setting the fire she reaches out to his hippy live in girlfriend setting her life on a different path. Hollowboneszen.org Although the book begins with Pastor Micah it is truly Essa s story It chronicles her journey of breaking free from the cult she was born into as she embarks on a quest to save her brother. Hollow bones birds fly Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review 269 The book initially had a slow start and I found it difficult to connect with the character Essa at first The prospect of delving into religious trauma was daunting However as the story unfolded I found myself increasingly captivated and eagerly anticipating each new development. Hollow bones birds fly I particularly enjoyed the character Juliet and I wished her storyline had been fleshed out Additionally while the references to the occult were intriguing I felt that they didn t significantly impact the overall story I had hoped they would play a substantial role because of their intriguing nature. Hollowboneszen.org This was a different kind of thriller and in the end I did find enjoyment in the book and I m pleased that I persevered through the slower beginning 269 When I was a junior in high school I went on a field trip to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery where I saw a production of Measure for Measure I had never read the play before which is perhaps why I was shocked at the plight of Isabella as well as swayed by her passionate pleas for mercy Decades later I can recall how I leaned forward in my seat rapt Measure for Measure remains my favorite Shakespeare play and certainly doesn t need to be reimagined yet here we are Which is to say thank you for reading 269 When I was sixteen we studied the poem Mariana by Alfred Tennyson at school My teacher provided the background to this character by giving us a quick summary of Shakespeare s Measure for Measure I fell in love It immediately became my favourite Shakespeare play and I fondly remember going to the bookshop to pick up a copy choosing between a few different covers I still haven t had the chance to see it on stage but I live in hope that a revival will come to London in the near future. Hollow bones tattoo norwich A novel inspired by Measure for Measure I couldn t believe my luck Oh Essa What a beautiful version of Isabella from the play Essa is not a nun like Isabella was but she is a young woman who has never had a sexual or romantic partner so she is chaste in the way which works for the plot Oh Micah He is a truly awful man just like Angelo It works pretty perfectly to make this version of the character into a preacher given the religious justification behind Angelo s initial actions in the play. Hollow bones lore game The initial scene between them in the novel was such a gorgeous companion to their first scene together in the original play How incredibly charged and what a fantastic dynamic it genuinely sent chills down my spine As I write this review I have my copy of Measure for Measure beside me on the desk I just had to go back and read that scene after finishing this novel. Hollowboneszen.org I had an absolute blast trying to match up the characters in Hollow Bones with the characters from Measure for Measure The only character who retains their name is Juliet Claudio becomes Clive There are two different women who could be incarnations of Madame Overdone it makes the most sense for it to be Charlene who owns a bar named after her but there is also a Madame Clarita The famous Mariana is recreated in Kimberly After that it becomes pretty murky Is Doctor Kester a strange version of Vincentio Who on earth is Meritt Of course this is not a straight retelling of Measure for Measure so the characters don t need to all align in this way but it was fun to ponder. Hollow bones of birds Despite my nerdy ramblings you absolutely don t need to know anything about Measure for Measure to enjoy this gorgeously written and twisty little novel The eerie setting well drawn characters and clever plotline will keep you on the edge of your seat. Book Hollow bones hyland Thank you so much to Netgalley and Severn House for the ARC 269
| Hollow Bones By Erica Wright |
| 1448313953 |
| 9781448313952 |
| English |
| 269 |
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.: Book Hollow bones hyland Overall not a bad book but definitely could have been better 269 I loved this: Poetry Hollow bones THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY FOR GIVING ME EARLY ACCESS TO THIS BOOK: Book Hollow bones cast This creepy suspenseful novel delves into themes of trauma addiction and abuse making it an excellent choice for book club discussions