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Summary
Summary
"Blooms has taken the voice and names of Appalachia, tended, and evolved them, and created a book that is at once haunting and hopeful."--NPR
Praised by BuzzFeed, Good Housekeeping, POPSUGAR, Bustle, and more!
Misty's holler looks like any of the thousands of hollers that fork through the Appalachian Mountains. But Misty knows her home is different. She may be only ten, but she hears things. Even the crawdads in the creek have something to say, if you listen.
All that Misty's sister Penny wants to talk about are the strange objects that start appearing outside their trailer. The grown-ups mutter about sins and punishment, but that doesn't scare Misty. Not like the hurtful thing that's been happening to her, the hurtful thing that is becoming part of her. Ever since her neighbor William cornered her in the barn, she must figure out how to get back to the Misty she was before--the Misty who wasn't afraid to listen.
This is the story of one tough-as-nails girl whose choices are few but whose fight is boundless, as her coping becomes a battle cry for everyone around her. Perfect for fans of Southern coming-of-age stories like Where the Crawdads Sing and If The Creek Don't Rise, Every Bone a Prayer is a beautifully honest exploration of healing and of hope.
Praise for Every Bone a Prayer:
"Haunting and healing, Every Bone A Prayer is a powerful debut that will leave its mark on readers' hearts."--Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
"This is a book and a writer I highly recommend."--Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard out of Carolina
"This is the kind of book we need to set literary expectations for a new decade. It's so textured, so layered with love and so wonderfully terrifying, intimate and magical."--Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
"Searing and soothing, honest and elusive, Every Bone a Prayer is a gift. It's the pure truth, told slant."--Alix E. Harrow, author of The Once and Future Witches
Author Notes
Ashley Blooms has published short fiction in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Shimmer, among others, and her essay 'Fire in My Bones' appeared in The Oxford American. Ashley is a graduate of the Clarion Writer's Workshop and the Tin House Winter Workshop and received her MFA as a John and Renee Grisham Fellow from the University of Mississippi. She was raised in Cutshin, Kentucky, and now lives in Berea, Kentucky. www.ashleyblooms.com
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Blooms's haunting and magical debut follows 10-year-old Misty and her family and neighbors through a summer of trauma in her Appalachian holler. Misty's favorite companions are crawdads, who speak to her and her friend and neighbor William, a boy her age with whom she explores a barn owned by their landlord, Earl, who is rumored to have killed his wife. Misty is contacted by a strange voice she calls "the garden," which tells her more about Earl's crimes. Then, one night, William takes Misty to the barn and sexually assaults her. Misty's sadness over William's betrayal is unbearable to her, and she learns how to slip out of her skin. When she returns to her body, she's accompanied by the "persistent ache of being born." As Misty explores her relationship to her body and tries to get past her pain, she open herself to the voices around her and learns more about the fate of Earl's wife. Blooms succeeds in building an enchanted world and teasing out the truth of what happened in Misty's holler, as seen through an evocative child's point of view. Blooms's powerful tale makes for visceral, sometimes uncomfortable reading, and it's well worth it. Agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House. (Aug.)
Booklist Review
It began with a green glass statue. Overnight the figure mysteriously appeared in Earl's garden, after Misty and the closest thing she has to a best friend, William, buried a bottle there following a game of spin the bottle. Misty is a girl with a mysterious ability to understand and speak to the world around her, from the crawdads in the creek near the holler where their trailer home stands to the trees and, in time, the garden. The garden seems to harboring a secret, something involving Earl, which goes far deeper than the mystery statue. William becomes convinced that Misty is responsible for the statue in Earl's garden, and he begins to force her to create more. But when Misty feels she can no longer survive in her own skin, she finds a grotesque solution that allows her temporary escape. In this haunting debut novel, Blooms makes a mystical exploration of the hidden power that lies within and the strategies assault survivors can undertake to regain a feeling of ownership over body and mind.
Library Journal Review
DEBUT This glimmering, painfully honest first novel tells the story of ten-year-old Misty, who lives in an Appalachian holler with her feuding parents and an older sister to whom she is closely bonded. Misty's ability to talk with crayfish, birds, trees, and even inanimate objects proves her salvation. When strange sculptures suddenly sprout in their landlord Earl's barren garden and the boy next door becomes too familiar, Misty's story is touched by both magic and the sordid reality of sexual abuse. As she faces these troubles, Misty literally learns to separate from her skin--not as in a dissociative identity disorder, with different personalities, but as a physical separation that allows her to dwell in the world differently and more safely, at least for the time being. As she reaches out to the ghostly, troubling voice of the garden to understand what's happening in her world, she also comes to understand what happened earlier to a woman who once lived with Earl and learns how to protect--and finally to be--herself. VERDICT A beautifully rendered coming-of-age tale for a wide range of readers.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
