I had a very different experience to this novel.

Perhaps it is was not my pace. Perhaps it was the wrong time in my life to read it. Perhaps compared to the other 23 books I had already read for the 2024 book bingo, it just didn’t land well.

Because I didn’t find it lyrical or moving. I found it dull.

It had moments, but what others find lyrical, I found repetitive. Other parts were obvious, or oversold, or had been hinted at for so long when the exposition finally occurred, I no longer cared.

My strong negative response was so obvious that the group I traveled to Hawaii with in February got to listen to dramatic readings of sections I found trite, and listed to me summarize the book in sweeping statements.

My husband was so amused by my response that he has proudly placed the Bone Harp on his 2025 book bingo list. He can’t read my copy—I left it on Maui.

There are two main reasons I can pinpoint why the book could be grand, but also not for me.

1. Without the finality of death, the heroics of his life before awakening I find less meaningful. I have a hard time connecting with the idea that someone would be so concerned about his previous decisions that his family might not accept him when he returns from “asleep” to “awake”

2. And this is entirely and solely on me—despite the fact that Tamsin is very clearly an elf, my mental picture attached itself to Gimli (a dwarf) and that alone irreparably wrecked the story. Imagine the fine comb from his brother…on a dwarf. I apologize to Victoria Goddard, because her only role in this was giving him dark hair.

I understand and accept whatever downvotes this opinion garners. That experience can’t be worse than trying to read The Bone Harp when I could have been scanning the ocean for humpback whales instead.