Customer Reviews

The Family Bones

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

The Family Bones by Kimberly Raiser

The book started with a mystery and proceeded to become more mysterious. My initial reaction was that it was going to be a "slasher" book, you know, Jason in a hockey mask kind of thing. That is a venue I am not overly thrilled with but I proceeded. Much to my pleasant surprise it wasn't the simplistic psycho running wild plot but much more thoughtful. I admit finding my self a bit uneasy in some of the scenes. The characterizations were good and I enjoyed the mysteriousness of the setting. Growing up in Western Pennsylvania, I could practically picture the locale. The introduction of an alien influence provides a nice twist to the characterizations. An entertaining book to read, my biggest complaint is that it could have been bumped up another hundred pages and maintained my interest. I recommend the book. Look for an interview with the author in January on my blog, Pick of the Literate.[...]

I think the best way to describe this book is 'spooky'. I'm not a squeamish reader, but I had to read this book during the day. I started it early this month, during the afternoon. I'm the type of person who HAS to read in bed before going to sleep. I could not read The Family Bones before going to sleep.

There are some really great elements to The Family Bones: children in danger, disappearing/reappearing tunnels, a well. Not to mention all of the mystery and suspense. It didn't take me long to get swept up in this book.

I'm very eclectic about what I enjoy in reading - anything from Sci-Fi to Jane Austen. I love both Mark Twain and Stephen King and how different are they? I'm not always fussy about books, either, quite often being satisfied at the end if I've been entertained even if I hadn't finished a piece of great literature. But I have to say this is probably one of the worst books I've ever read. The protagonists were not only one dimensional but not even particularly likable or even interesting. Weird new characters seemed to have been introduced at various times into a plot that was already confusing, at best. It was like the author couldn't decide if she wanted to write science fiction, horror, or a mystery and so threw all three in the mix, finishing up with none of the above. By the time it was done, I couldn't have cared less what happened to any of them. Thank goodness the Kindle version was so cheap.

"The Family Bones," by Kimberly Raiser, started out as an on-line serial under the name Astral Plains, and as such, this 178 page horror book starts out fast. The Weavers, father Steven and mother Tara with their two young children, Charlie, age 8, and Sara, age, are visiting family property Steven just inherited. With sub-basements, hidden attic rooms, and secret doorways, along with black outs, the Weavers are lost, scared, and mystified. And this is just the first few hours.

This fast paced page- turner has a creepy book cover and is full of very surprising twists and turns. I am not going to describe more because it would reveal too much of the plot, and I definitely don't want to spoil it for anyone. But I will say the book could be in several genres, horror, thriller, or sci-fi. I think this would make a good short movie!

This review is by my husband, Steve.

I am such a horror/mystery junky that it is rare for me to feel that a book has let me down, but this one did. The writing is at grade school level, the plot has no logical flow and the characters are superficial. The two stars are for some originality, so the author has potential.

Plot - barely
Characters - not developed
Story telling -- sub-par (the author couldn't even decide if she wanted 1st or 3rd person)
Genre -- Who Knows?

Just an awful read. Don't bother buying! Even if it is only 1.00 -- that is WAY TOO much to pay. I am just left wondering how on earth this was published??

I eagerly dove into my copy of The Family Bones . . . to find myself adrift in wild imagination and writing better suited to short stories than novels. Here's what I found in this debut novel:

PROS: This author has tons of imagination. Expect to be surprised at the twists and turns the story takes.

However,

CONS: Misplaced referents, abrupt changes in point of view, and under-developed characters left me happy to set the book aside. While characters cannot be developed in short stories, they must be developed in novels lest the reader is left with the feeling of "who cares."

My conclusion: This novel displays the imagination of a Stephen King. When this author develops her skill at the craft of writing as well, she'll provide him competition.

Three stars.

I didn't believe the bad reviews, and now I wish I had. I'm just lucky the kindle version was so cheap. This is a mediocre story, written terribly. The characters seem to have long conversations with themselves ( not that you can always tell when the are speaking out loud or just thinking, since the writer does not seem to know the difference), and the perspective changes from first person to third person a few chapters in -- for no reason whatsoever. The text is full of typos and misused words, and the formatting is just plain awful. I guess the only positive is that it's relatively short...

This story wound up confusing me and left me shaking my head at wasting the money I spent. Family inherits old house in the country. That's where the simplicity of the story ends. The author seems to have little rhyme or reason to what happens, and tries to wrap it up in a neat package even if people had to die to get there - or did they? The story simply left me wanting to read nothing further by this author.

Kimberly Raiser has put together a novel combining mystery and science fiction to give readers a delightful experience.
The author states that she was influenced by Douglas Adams and read Steven King's book on writing. I feel a similarity to King's earlier works, particularly "Firestarter."
In this story, Steven Weaver, a normal guy with a wife, Tara, and two children set out to visit the family home he's just inherited. Strange things begin happening that the reader cannot understand but the author will reveal the the later part of the book.
Upon a second visit to the home, suspense mounts as Steven seems to evolve in ways that are better read so the revelation will be fun. We do learn that Steven's parents were killed in a car accident that happened before his eyes as they were coming to see him at his boarding school and that his partents were accused of murder by some neighbors but the issue was dropped when they died.
Raiser tells a fun story that seems like it should be told around a camp fire with an owl hooting in the tree. The plot was original and the characters believable in a science fictional setting.
Recommended.