This book has 384 pages. The fact that I sped through it in less than half a day should let you know it is a totally involving thriller, with a family dysfunctional enough to put the fear of god into even a dedicated Coronation St watcher. Add a strong female journalist, suffering from PTSD after covering news in Aleppo and the story gets good confusing and I couldn’t put it down until the last mystery was solved. An excellent excellent read, if slightly over the top in places- but a good ride all along. Highly recommended! ( )

I loved this book! It should have at least been nominated for a Goodreads award. The book was full of twists and turns that surprised me. I could not put it down. I loved the surprises. Kate and Sally were characters that were hard to like. Paul was the only sympathetic character in the book.....
The characters eventually become more understandable. That is part of what makes this a good book. The author develops the characters in surprising ways. ( )

I started My Sister's Bones one lazy Sunday afternoon and could not go to sleep that same night until I had finished it. The book was glued to my hand from start to finish and, although I might have had suspicions about certain people, I certainly wasn't expecting the story to take the direction that it did.

Kate is a war reporter who was on assignment in Syria when her mother died. She didn't make it home for the funeral, leaving her sister Sally to make the arrangements with the help of her husband, Paul. When Kate returns home, she finds Sally drinking herself into oblivion leaving Paul at the end of his tether. Sally has an awful lot to cope with so I can understand her turning to alcohol to numb her pain. Sally was a teenage mum, giving birth to her daughter, Hannah, but after a drunken argument, Hannah left home at 16 never to be seen again.

Kate moves into her family home and it becomes clear quite quickly that she is suffering from PTSD. She has flashbacks and nightmares of her time in Syria, so when she hears a young boy crying in the night she is determined to rescue him. Kate tackles her neighbour, Fida, about the boy but Fida claims that there aren't any children living in the house. Then Kate spots a young boy in her garden during the night and follows him into next door's shed only for him to disappear. With insights into the cause of her PTSD, the reader is naturally drawn to the conclusion that Kate is hallucinating. But is she? When one day she wakes up with blood on her hands and no memory of how it got there, I really didn't know what to believe.

Absolutely impossible to put down, My Sister's Bones will have you questioning every single sentence that you read. It is an exceptional debut and an impressive psychological thriller that really gets inside your head, making it impossible to tell fact from fiction. There are a multitude of threads to follow and untangle and I felt like I had held my breath until the very last page was turned. I could write so much more about this book but writing any more than I've written would spoil some of the surprises. I have no doubt that My Sister's Bones is going to be a massive hit when it is released in 2017. Make sure you look out for it as you really don't want to miss this one!

I received this book from the publisher, Viking, in exchange for an honest review. ( )

My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood slowly builds into a suspense-laden mystery with very unexpected twists and turns.

War correspondent Kate Rafter's return to her childhood home following her mother's death contributes to her increasingly fragile mental state. Her recent experiences in Syria are horrific and the events leading up to her last assignment play a fairly large role in her declining emotional stability. Kate is suffering from extensive post traumatic stress disorder which makes her an increasingly unreliable narrator when she begins seeing and hearing things that cannot be corroborated by anyone else. Much of her story is revealed through her sessions with Dr. Shaw and no one is quite sure what to believe about Kate's recounting of extremely traumatic events that have recently occurred.

Kate's narration comes to an abrupt and shocking end and the perspective then switches to that of her younger sister, Sally, who is a raging alcoholic. Their relationship is badly fractured but Kate make a valiant effort to get through to her sister on her visit home. Sally consumes copious amounts of wine and spends her days in a drunken stupor as she laments the rift with her daughter, Hannah, whom she has not seen in several years. Her husband, Paul Cheverell is incredibly patient with her but their marriage is definitely breathing its last gasp. After a surprise visitor appears on her doorstep, Sally finally sobers up long enough to remember a desperate request from Kate. Will she then uncover the truth about whether or not Kate's experiences at their childhood home are real or imagined?

A dark, twisted and incredibly atmospheric tale, My Sister's Bones is an intriguing mystery that is initially somewhat slow-paced but dramatically hurtles to a twist-filled and shocking conclusion. Nuala Ellwood's extensive research and subsequent portrayal of the devastating effects of PTSD are hard-hitting and incredibly realistic. Kate is a sympathetic character whose intentions to expose the damages of war are noble and eventually take a horrific toll on her psyche.It is impossible to predict what direction the storyline is going until the absolutely jaw-dropping plot twist. From that point, the novel moves at a breakneck speed in the aftermath of stunning revelations. An outstanding debut that I highly recommend to fans of the genre.
( )

"ARC; A riveting psychological thriller. Kate and Sally grew up in an abusive household with an alcoholic father and ineffective mother. Kate escaped as a war journalist in Syria, and Sally to an empty home in the suburbs, drowning her losses in a bottle.
When Kate is home after her mother's death, and estranged from her sister, she thinks she sees a boy in her garden & thinks she hears the boy at night. But, jumping back and forth, is it PTSD, hallucinations or real?" ( )

It took me several attempts to get into this story and I'm still not quite sure why. I enjoyed the premise, the storytelling, the characters, the settings, and the writing but my initial attempts to read this resulted in my setting it aside after one or two chapters. After setting the book aside for almost a year, I picked it back up and read through to the end. Although the story didn't wow me, it was definitely an intriguing story and one I'd recommend to readers of psychological suspense-thrillers. ( )

This review is from: My Sister's Bones (Hardcover) Customer review from the Amazon Vine Programme

I am reviewing the book My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood. Here are my thoughts:

^^ The story line has a similar Gone Girl/Girl on the Train theme, but with that added punch of characters dealing with the psychological fallout of the trauma of reporting in dangerous conflict zones around the world, highlighting the chaos of war and the bravery of all those involved.

^^ The book starts with Kate being questioned by the police, for a cri
me that we only understand as we read through the book. It alternates this with gradually revealing the events of a week earlier leading up to the reason why Kate is being questioned, making me eager to race through the book for answers. In fact, I read "My Sister's Bones" in under two days and thoroughly enjoyed it.
^^ Written in first the person point of view initially and then splits into three parts; the first being the main character, Kate, then her sister Sally, and finally the gripping conclusion is handed back to Kate again as all is revealed.

^^ I found splitting the book up in this way (like a three plot structure) was great idea as it provided the ability to really get inside the minds of each character, allowing Sally to provide a few answers brought up from Kate's side of the story, and vice versa.

^^ This has to be one of my favourite reads this year, and I will look out for more work from author, Nuala Ellwood.

Overall: A gripp
ing book with everything I love in a story; fully rounded characters facing realistic challenges, an engrossing back story, and a surprising twist at the end that I did not see coming. ( )

Real Housewives meets Days of Our Lives. There's just so much victimization and women self-hating that can be included in a book before it becomes nauseating. Ellwood puts that much in then adds a dollop or two more to make sure we get the point. Women are easily fooled and have no ability to control their desire to self-destruct. I won't be reading anything else by her. ( )

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed most of this dark, psychological thriller. I felt that it had more substance than your typical thriller. Then I got to the end and felt very let down by the way this was tied up. Overall, it was a good read and I look forward to reading more from this author. ( )

I truly liked this story as I rapidly read along. I was sympathetic to Kate's struggle with the Syrian war memories as I can not imagine all the horrors of man's inhumanity toward war she had seen. When a little Syrian boy next door haunts her dreams, and then one night she saw him in the garden below her window, she called 911 but when the police showed up he was gone. I liked that Kate could not the incident go but was determined to find the truth of if she was crazy or not. What is true and what is not? ( )

Nuala Ellwood's twisty psychological thriller My Sister's Bones is a difficult book to review without giving away more than I'd want to. I'll just say it didn't develop the way I expected, and kept surprising me all the way through. Can't say I found the sisters -- Kate and Sally -- particularly sympathetic, but the relationship was intriguing and their story haunting and compelling. And for a relatively long book, it was actually a pretty quick read. I'd definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a good suspenseful story. ( )

Well written book. Fast read for me as I got really caught up in what was going to happen. The further I got into the book I knew there was going to be a twist in the plot but it wasn't a huge shock there were subtle things leading up to it. Going to look for more by this author and would recommend this one. ( )

This is a very dark and disturbing thriller. Kate and Sally's stories are heartbreaking and gripping and at times very hard to read. There was no shortage of twists and turns in this incredible psychological thriller from Ellwood. After reading this debut, I look forward to reading whatever she has in store for her next novel! ( )

This is a great book for fans of the thriller genre! Exceptionally layered story with fleshed out characters and locations. I really liked how Ellwood played with the unreliable narrator trope.

Received for free through Early Reviewer Program. ( )

The main character is a reporter who spends a great deal of time covering war in places like Syria, resulting in PTSD and other psychological wounds. She returns to her hometown and discovers that all is not how it should be with her various family members. There are some interesting twists and insights making this an enjoyable read. ( )

Nuala Ellwood's debut novel is My Sister's Bones.

Kate Rafter returns home for the first time in many, many years for her mother's funeral. She and her sister Sally had a traumatic upbringing - Kate made her own escape and Sally escaped into a liquor bottle. They have never really reconciled their differences and not much seems to have changed now, even with their mother's death.

Ellwood puts her own spin on the 'unreliable narrator' that very often populates psychological suspense novels. Her lead character, Kate, is a seasoned war reporter suffering from PTSD - post traumatic stress disorder. She has seen many horrific events over the course of her fifteen year career. Those memories are intruding on her present, making her question her own actions, thoughts and what she is even seeing. For you see, Kate is sure there is a little boy in the house next door. He's out late at night and Kate is concerned about him. But when she confronts the neighbour, she is told there are no children in the house......

I enjoyed the uncertainty of what was going on with Kate, trying to guess what was real and what was her hallucinations. I started out firmly on Kate's side, but found some of her decisions a bit off putting as the story progressed. There is no gray area around Sally - she is definitely a bitter, broken woman - but one I found hard to sympathize with. She is given a voice with part two being her narrative. Sally's husband Paul I found decidedly smarmy (I love this descriptor!) and couldn't understand why Kate would spend so much time with him.

I was pulled into the story and certainly wanted to know where Ellwood would take her tale. The last few chapters are quite busy, with actions and answers rapidly appearing. I had my suspicions along the way and was somewhat right in my guesses. But, I have to say that I found the final twist and resolution somewhat tawdry. There were some plot actions at this point that I found a bit far fetched and questioned the veracity of them actually happening.

Ellwood's inclusion of PTSD, the horrors of war torn countries and the people trapped in those situations, brings a sobering dose of reality to this fictional tale. Ellwood's research and depiction of the aforementioned is very well done - and thought provoking. ( )

My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood is a 2017 William Morrow Paperbacks publication.

Bleak, atmospheric, somber-

Psychological thrillers are not all created equal. They can come in all shapes, sizes and forms and still solidly fall within the specifications applied to this genre, but with various degrees of success.

While this book adheres to the standard requirements, the author turns the genre on its ear by producing a multi-layered literary piece told from the first -person perspectives of two sisters, both of whom are dealing with immense loss, psychological demons, and emotional scars, but unable to find comfort in each other.

Kate is a journalist who has spent the past several years covering the atrocities in Syria. After her mother’s death, she returns home to put her affairs in order. It soon becomes obvious that being back in her childhood home is bringing back torturous memories, on top of being haunted by the images of war, topped off by her sister, Sally’s, alcoholism. The stress manifests itself with vivid nightmares and hallucinations.

Sally’s alcohol issues multiplied after her teenage daughter, Hannah disappears. Now, after the death of her mother, she crawled inside the bottle, not even bothering to hide it or fight it.

The only sane person in this shadowy land of illusion is Sally’s husband, Paul. He takes care of both sisters and they work their way through childhood abuses, PTSD, and their broken relationship with each other.

The imagery is Aleppo is haunting, reminding us that journalists are out there in the crossfire, and can suffer the same ill effects of war as soldiers, and even lose their lives on occasion. What happens to Kate in Syria easily explains her PTSD, and how she ends up in the shape she does.

The subject matter is heart wrenching, harsh, and cruel- so if scenes of psychological and physical abuse, or the depictions of war- be aware of these possible triggers- most of which occur in the first half of the book.

Sally holds deep resentments toward Kate, who she believes was her mother’s favorite child, and while Kate wishes to help her, Sally resist to the point where Kate feels helpless and hopeless, especially under the circumstances.

While all this is very interesting and is an absorbing character study, there are some odd occurrences thrown in that makes us question our narrator. The author planted seeds of doubt, making me wonder just what is real and what is deceptive. I was very caught up in the story, but the deeper I tread, the more I began to wonder where on earth all this was leading. Wasn’t this supposed to be a thriller?

As a matter of fact, yes, it is, and I’m glad I was patient, because when the twist came, it hit me hard, right in the gut, and I could have kicked myself for not seeing it sooner.

Once the bottom drops out, it’s a harrowing, white knuckled fight that held me enthralled and made me a little jumpy, while totally screwing with my head.

At the end of the day, I was mentally exhausted and stunned emotionally by this moody, melancholy, but exceptional novel. I am impressed with the author’s style, the way she layered the events so I was kept off guard, using a powerful prose to slowly entice me into her web.

This is a novel with much more going for it than most standard thrillers. This book examines thorny issues, made me think, forced me to work at solving the puzzle, and packed an emotional wallop that left me shell shocked.

While the story is very dark, and rarely offers a moment of reprieve, the ending did show much improvement and even a ray of hope for those who live to tell the tale.

This is one of the very best psychological thrillers I’ve read this year. So, if you are a fan of this genre, I highly recommend it!! ( )

My Sister's Bones is a dark and disturbing novel set in the present day chaotic, violent Hell-hole of war torn Aleppo, and the scenic predictable, mundane coastline of Britain's Herne Bay in Kent.

Kate Rafter has returned home prematurely from her latest assignment as a female foreign war correspondent after the recent death of her mother, and thrust back into the fractured relationship with her resentful alcoholic sister Sally.

In the opening scene we meet Kate as she is being detained and questioned by, who appears to be, a police psychologist after displaying some very erratic behaviour and making accusations about a neighbour. She is being tormented by voices, visions and flashbacks and it is apparent that Kate is suffering from PTSD after several assignments reporting and witnessing violence, and the unrelenting devastation of war.

It is during these flashbacks, and heartbreaking revelations of a childhood tragedy, parental violence, and abuse that we find out eventually how much is real or imagined as she struggles to, keep hidden but at the same time, face the demons coming at her from all angles. It is also a fascinating examination of how memories are formed, of how reliable they may be after years have passed, and of how individuals remember events very differently, and how using different coping mechanisms for survival have affected them. I loved the author's in-depth perceptiveness and understanding of the human condition and of how life's experiences can mould a persons character and personality.

However, as much as I loved 'My Sisters Bones' I didn't feel the domestic crime element of the mysterious neighbour added value or substance to the storyline, even so Nuala Ellwood has written a superior, powerful thought provoking mystery thriller that, for me, only just fell short of a 5 star rating.

Highly recommended for fans of twisty-turny, creepy psychological thrillers with unreliable female protagonists, and untrustworthy supporting characters such as in, 'The Girl On The Train', 'Gone Girl', and 'The Widow'.

I am very excited about this author's debut and looking forward to reading her next novel. ( )

My Sister's Bones by Nuala Ellwood is a very highly recommended psychological thriller. This is an excellent, compelling, unforgettable novel that will keep you guessing.

Kate Rafter, who has been a war correspondent for fifteen years, has returned back to the U. K. from coverage in Aleppo, Syria. While she was out of the country her beloved mother died and Kate was unable to attend her funeral thanks to her alcoholic sister, Sally, who did not contacting her in time. Now Kate has returned to her childhood home in Herne Bay, Kent, to sign some documents and view her mother's will. But after covering wars for years, Kate is also suffering from nightmares and hallucinations. She hears the cries for help and voices of those people she encountered.

Feeling under siege is not a new feeling for Kate, though, as her father was an abusive alcoholic who regularly beat her mother. As she stays in her childhood home, all the memories of abuse come rushing back along with Kate's regular visions and nightmares from the wars she has covered. But this time Kate is convinced that she is not seeing things when she hears a boy crying for his mother and sees him in her garden. She is convinced that the woman next door, an Iraqi refugee, is hiding abuse by her husband and that the boy in in danger. The woman claims, however, that she has no son and that her husband is away.

In between chapters of Kate's experiences in part one of My Sister's Bones are excerpts of a psychiatrist interviewing Kate. We know Kate has been arrested for something, possible related to her hallucinations and hearing voices, and she is being held while her mental health is evaluated. How reliable of a narrator is Kate? Is she imagining things?

Kate is a fully realized character draw with skill and depth. Yes, she is flawed and we know she is suffering from her years of war coverage, but she still inspires empathy and support while you are reading. Her sister, Sally, is an unsympathetic character who is vividly described and desperately flawed. It seems that both sisters are so damaged from their dysfunctional childhood that normalcy or recovery may not be an option.

The writing in My Sister's Bones is exceptional and the plot is compelling and clever. This novel was impossible to put down. I devoured this book almost effortlessly - the pages just flew by - and was surprised at the twists the novel took. Ellwood has several shocking surprises that I never saw coming. She also skillfully covers domestic violence and the violence in a war-torn country, with insight and sensitivity as she draws comparisons in her narrative between the effects of both violent situations on the victims. Admirable, excellent, remarkable - I liked everything about this novel.

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from HarperCollins
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2059367557
on 7/18/17 - http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/ ( )

This book knocked my socks off. It was one of those thrillers that leaves the reader wanting more. It was crafty, brillinat and mezmorizing. I found myself fully engaged and I also could not believe that I reads it in one day! It was that hard to put down because it was paced so well. I feel like this is what makes me so excited to read debut authors...they have fresh, new stories and are just starting out! This is a perfect raed for the summer... ( )

I received a free uncorrected proof of My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood from Library Thing in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild ride! A psychological thriller interweaving a woman’s traumatic childhood, her dysfunctional family relations, and her traumatic experiences as an award-winning journalist covering the human consequences of war.
Kate grew up in Herne Bay, a quiet town in Kent. Her father was a violent man who drank and regularly beat her mother; when Kate intervened she was beaten herself. Her younger sister Sally, in Kate’s mind, was a bystander who chose not to see what was going on. When she was old enough to leave home, Kate escaped to London and for 15 years worked as a prize-winning war correspondent in high risk areas where she wrote of the suffering of innocent civilians. Her last assignment was harrowing- she became emotionally involved with a small Syrian boy, who was blown up by a bomb. Kate blames herself for not saving him. She has nightmares, hears voices, and becomes addicted to sleeping pills and powerful anti-psychotic drugs. She won’t admit she is suffering from PTSD and needs treatment.

The story opens with Kate returned home to Herne Bay for her mother’s funeral. She is being questioned by a police psychologist. A complaint has been lodged, and the police must determine whether Kate is a danger to herself and others and needs to be committed. As the story unfolds, we jump back and forth in time- back to Kate’s childhood and dysfunctional family, her traumatic experience in Syria, a devastating experience with her married lover; and a mystery- a possible crime in the present. All this is told from the point of view of a woman under the influence of alcohol and powerful drugs- we don’t know what is real, what is imaginary; she doesn’t know either.

The twisty road to the powerful and emotional conclusion of the novel when the strands of Kate’s life and that of her sister Sally come together, earns this novel a four-star rating. Highly recommended. ( )

OMG! What an addictive and captivating story! I absolutely LOVED My Sister's Bones. It was chock full of twists and turns that let me on the edge of my seat. Could not put this book down for anything!! A definite must-read for fans of suspense-thrillers!! ( )

- "a psychological thriller about a war reporter who returns to her childhood home after her mother's death and becomes convinced that all is not well in the house next door - but is what she's seeing real or a symptom of the trauma she suffered in Syria?"

A very well written debut novel filled with twists and turns - some predictable, some not. An interesting read all the way through, but when you get towards the end it becomes a crazy, twisted, spine-tingling, can't put down, need to find out how it ends kind of book!

Thank you, LibraryThing for the opportunity to read this advanced copy. ( )

MY SISTER'S BONES is a gloomy, dark psychological thriller set in both Herne Bay in the UK and Aleppo, Syria. The author does a brilliant job writing a politically relevant story; it's incredibly well-researched. The story itself, however, is not political. At heart, it's a run of the mill psychological thriller that solidly incorporates Syria, the ramifications of domestic violence, and mental illnesses.

Kate has been covering the Syrian conflict as a field journalist in Aleppo, and comes back to her hometown of Herne Bay suffering from PTSD. Her mother has just passed away and her sister is an alcoholic. While staying at her mother's old house and battling her own psychological demons, she notices that something is off about the house next door -- but could it just be her PTSD-induced hallucinations and paranoia? ( )

This was an excellent thriller with lots of unexpected twists and turns. There are two sisters coming from the same background. Sally becomes an alcoholic and Kate has a career as a journalist. When their mother passes, Kate returns to put some of her family affairs in order.

Kate has seen many horrible things in her career as a journalist in Syria. As she begins suspecting/seeing things she and others begin to question her sanity. Her sister seems to be past hope as her daughter has disappeared and Sally continues to drink herself into oblivion. There are many unexpected events that bring their paths together and make this a wonderful read.

Reader received a complimentary copy from Library Thing Early reviewers. ( )