Review Detail

SILVER IN THE BONE is an epic YA fantasy about family, adventure, and community. Tamsin is a Hollower, part of a guild that seeks out magical artifacts for a price. Tamsin is a bit unusual, having been brought into the fold by her guardian despite the fact that she has no magical ability unlike most in the guild. She and her brother Cabell have been scraping by for the past seven years since their guardian left them to seek something unknown. Tamsin has closed her heart and focused her life on breaking her brother's curse and keeping him safe, something that would become much easier if she had additional means.

Therefore, when a sorceress offers her a shocking amount of money to track down a particular artifact, the servant's ring, she jumps on the chance, even when her competition is Hollower royalty and her nemesis, Emrys. Their journey will take them through Arthurian legends and the magic descended from it as they seek their dangerous prize, forging a tentative alliance. Together, and along with an aspiring sorceress, they will journey to unexpected and dangerous other lands which are dealing with their own, very real, enemies.

What I loved: This was quite the epic adventure with nary a dull moment. There is much happening right from the start with so many players and dangers along the way as they seek the ring and find even more than they expected. Magic and legend play a role in the story as it unfolds. Beyond the main mystery of the ring, there are many other mysterious plots that really keep the reader hooked, wanting to understand what happened to Tamsin and Cabell's guardian all those years before plus the curse on Cabell, Tamsin's own origins, and the corruption of the lands where they find themselves.

This is a deeper and darker story than I had initially anticipated, dealing in betrayals, death, grief, and loss, and the failings of humanity. There are many twists and turns in the story, told from the perspective of Tamsin, whose heart has been hardened by her life and the way people relate to her. She has frequently felt abandoned by her birth family and then by her guardian, and she has trouble with trusting others or seeing the reason to even bother to hope for the best. As she begins to form a group that she works with, her views on the world will be questioned and reevaluated with her feelings towards them, moving to a found family type of angle (though nothing so simple).

These themes around family and trust are central to Tamsin's story, but other themes around hope, desire, power, betrayal, abuse, and grief/loss were also really powerful in the story. Beyond Tamsin, other characters are also dealing with their own feelings around complicated family and tragedy, though the ways that they have transformed their challenges differs by the person. As the main character, readers will certainly find Tamsin compelling, but those she interacts with are also really consuming and intriguing. Emrys is a character that we begin to learn more about during the book, torn between his feelings towards his legacy and family and his own desires. His arc is just beginning. Others that they meet along the way are also compelling and complex, such as the aspiring sorceress and those that they meet in the other world, Avalon. It will definitely be interesting to see how they evolve in future books.

What left me wanting more: Based on the description, the connections with Arthurian legend were expected to be quite strong. These almost felt very background, with tenuous connections at best. It was more of a story told within the events of the book than a deeper tie to the legend. The length of the story felt fairly long in places, as there is a lot of intricate facts, events, and people to learn about. Overall, I enjoyed getting so much of the story in one book, but it does take a lot of mental energy to process.

As a small thing, the book ends with quite a few big cliffhangers that will leave readers gasping for the next book. Smaller mysteries are tied up by the end, but there are some really big ones that will have to wait - and it will be tough to do so!

Final verdict: SILVER IN THE BONE is a consuming epic YA fantasy that takes the reader for quite the intense ride. Recommend for fans of LORE, ONCE & FUTURE, and EVER THE HUNTED.