Young, brash Darly can't overcome her anger at a father she never knew. Viv, her secretive mother, can't get over the man himself. What Darly doesn't know, and what Viv refuses to tell her, is that her father is not of human blood. One of the elusive wanaghi, the fey-like folk who live beneath the Dakotan hills, he left Viv to return to his own kind before realizing that she would bear his child. When the gift of a bone whistle brings Darly's father to her, she finally discovers who he is. She decides, against her mother's advice, to follow him to his land under the hills. There she meets the rest of her family . . . and a young man who steals her heart. Even knowing the dangers, Darly can't help but fall in love and into the intriques of the wanaghi.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More Eva Swan, please!,
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This review is from: The Bone Whistle (Paperback)
Eva Swan, The Bone Whistle (Juno Books, 2007)
One of the real crimes of recent book history has been Pocket's decision not to reprint a large number of Juno titles when they bought the imprint from Prime. (According to Juno's current website, just six of Juno's thirty-three extant titles have been reprinted as "Pocket/Juno" books.) Anyone who's followed Prime over the years is well aware of the impeccable taste they show in manuscripts; Sonya Taaffe, Catherynne Valente, Janelle Ferreira, JoSelle Vanderhooft, Paul Tremblay, Anna Tambour, K. J. Bishop, and a host of other brilliant writers either got their start with Prime or found a home there eventually. Add to the list Eva Swan (pen name of Erzebet Yellowboy, head of Papaveria Press), whose first novel, The Bone Whistle, is one of the Juno titles that Pocket seems content to let fade into obscurity. The Bone Whistle focuses on Darly, a sixteen-year-old living in Denver with her mother. Things are going as well as can be expected for a high-school girl (who gets dumped by her boyfriend as the book opens), except for one thing: for two weeks every summer, Darly's mother drags her out to the Lakota reservation in the Dakotas, a place where there's nothing but a circle of dusty huts. No videogames, no TV, nothing but prairie and the occasional hill. It's enough to drive a teen nuts. The only thing out there worth thinking about is Darly's grandfather, and this time Grandpa, sensing that Darly's restiveness is worse than usual, gives her a present--a bone whistle he tells her to use when she feels it necessary. Soon enough, she finds herself confronting a rattlesnake and uses the whistle. She's rescued by someone who seems to just pop out of nowhere, and starts wondering just what's going on in this place. After all, something has to be drawing her mother back year after year... The coming-of-age story has been done a million times in every flavor you can think of. Lord knows it's been done in fantasy literature; it's probably been done a hundred times this decade alone, and some of the game's heaviest hitters (Harry Potter, Twilight, Eragon) have all delved into this same subgenre. Given that, why would you read yet another young adult coming-of-age novel? Well, for one thing, because only one of those big series is actually worth your time. For another, The Bone Whistle stands out in a sea of heavy hitters for its brevity; it's a standalone novel of just two hundred twenty-four pages in a market that's saturated with doorstops. This is a book you could put away in a couple of days, which makes it perfect for between-classes reading. (It's also much lighter than anything J. K. Rowling has ever released by at least two or three pounds.) But these are all surface considerations. Have you ever noticed that stuff that's put out by smaller companies is usually of a higher quality than stuff put out by huge corporations? Think about a Quarter Pounder compared to a burger that you'd get at the little mom-and-pop place down the street. With the Quarter Pounder, you can go to any Burger King in America (maybe even on the planet), order a Quarter Pounder, and you'll always get the same thing. And your Quarter Pounder isn't that much different than the Big Mac you'll get at McDonald's across the street. But every little mom-and-pop greasy spoon makes an entirely different burger. The spice mix is different, the amount of egg and/or breadcrumbs, the type of bun, the toppings that come by default. Try getting a burger on a whole wheat bun topped with peanut butter and red onion at a big chain. That turned out to be an insanely long digression, but the point is that little books like this are the mom-and-pop burger joints of the literary world. They don't hold to the conventions you find in the massive conglomerates like Harry Potter Inc. Ignore 'em, pretty much. And because of that, you may find yourself in the same subgenre having a completely different experience. Swan's characters are finely-tuned and well-developed, her subject matter gets much more into what some would consider "adult" territory (though it remains as innocent as one would expect in a young adult fantasy novel), and she's got a damn good story to lay over it all. Yes, things to get a touch predictable now and again, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. What is a bad thing is your ability to get this in your local bookstore, which is probably "nil". (Think of mom-and-pop bookstores the same way you think of mom-and-pop burger joints. The inventory at any Borders in the country looks remarkably similar...) Special-ordering it will take a few days, but if Pocket sees special orders for the book coming in, they may rethink this decision to let so many Juno titles fade into nothingness. And as with anything Prime, this is worth your money. *** ½
4.0 out of 5 stars
Journey of Self Discovery,
By Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bone Whistle (Paperback)
Reviewed by Jeannine R. Burkholder
on 07/10/2008 The Bone Whistle by Eva Swan is a creative juxtaposition of traditional Native American culture to modern society. The main character, Darly, is caught up in her modern world and bored with being forced to revisit her ancestral home every summer with her mother. Despite the mystery surrounding her roots, she is sullen and withdrawn, until she runs into an intriguing stranger who takes her and the reader into a tempestuous world where ancestral traditions struggle to survive. What draws the reader into the story is the closeness of the parallel universe, separated only by a cave in the mountain. Reminiscent of the wardrobe to Narnia, the cave invites one to explore an entirely new world on the other side, coexisting with the world in which we live. Classic iconic struggles between two opposing forces, and the lack of clarity over which is the "good" or "evil" side, take the reader along with Darly on a journey of intrigue and self-discovery.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Jenny Salyers,
This review is from: The Bone Whistle (Paperback)
Darly lives on the outskirts of Denver with her mother Vivian. Darly is twenty years old, struggling with school and her first major heart break. As miserable as her life is, she is not looking forward to a summer spent on the Lakhota reservation. Spending her days in an isolated cabin with her mother is not the most ideal summer vacation in Daryl's eyes, no matter how much it recharges her mother or how long they've been spending summers there.. However, when her grandfather gives her an old bone whistle, it leads to an astonishing discovery: Her father is not dead, as she has believed her whole life, and he was not human, but wanaghi.
Who are the wanaghi? An elusive fey-like folk that lives under the Dakota hills. According to Lakhota legend, they once were a part of the Lakhota people. Long ago, as change was introduced through the coming of the white settlers, the wanaghi made the decision to retreat under the hills and preserve the ancient ways of life. Determined to find her father, Darly makes her way under the hill into the land of her father's people. It is a dangerous place full of magic and the old customs. With the help of a young wanaghi named Osni, Darly looks for her father. There is a war raging between factions among the wanaghi and Darly with all her innocence is thrown into the middle of the battle. She is faced with the fact that Osni, the man she has lost her heart to, and her father are on opposite sides in the fight. As Darly fights for self-discovery during the days that pass, she must struggle with the choices she has been given. Can she show Osni her love for him, reunite her family and help end a battle that may lead to the end of the wanaghi? What power is contained in the bone whistle her grandfather gave her and can it help her journey? Author Eva Swan has crafted a lovely fantasy story. I loved the inclusions of Native American legends into the plot. These themes, are explained extremely well, for those not familiar with them without being to simplistic sounding. This is Eva Swan's first novel, and is a strong debut into the romantic fantasy genre.
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