All the Murmuring Bones

For fans of Naomie Novik and Katherine Arden, a dark gothic fairy tale from award-winning author Angela Slatter.

'Harrowing and beautiful, this is the grim, fairy-tale gothic you've been waiting for' CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN, New York Times bestselling author of Ararat

Long ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom.

A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea; of strong women and the men who seek to control them.


Genre: Fantasy

"Two uncanny houses, Hob’s Hallow and Blackwater, bookend Angela Slatter’s new novel like grim sentinels. Whether they are cursed or enchanted, majestic or moldering, refuge or prison, only reading to the end will tell. Meanwhile, the landscape stretching between these gothic structures abounds with corpsewights, kelpies, ghosts, rusalki, werewolves, clockwork mechanicals, and—most alarmingly—actors. And across this treacherous terrain walks Miren O’Malley, scarred, furious, and growing in power. All the Murmuring Bones is brutal and beautiful throughout, with moments of tenderness hard-won and harder-kept, and, pervading all, an atmosphere of inescapable threat like the taste of salt wind and the sound of silver bells ringing in the deep." - C S E Cooney

"Harrowing and beautiful, this is the grim, fairy-tale gothic you’ve been waiting for. All the Murmuring Bones is Slatter at her darkest—and finest. Don’t miss it!" - Christopher Golden

"A story as gorgeously gothic as its title. This is a novel of blood and bones, of salt and silver, of an absolutely haunting richness. I was compelled from the very beginning and held rapt to the end." - Kat Howard

"Like the sea at its heart, Slatter’s haunting story is treacherous and lovely in all its dark depths." - Heather Kassner

"All the Murmuring Bones is fairy-tale gothic at its finest and then some. Luscious, richly infused with Slatter’s gift for creating place; this is a world that invites travel along all of its dark roads and secret paths. Long after you’re done with the book, you’ll sit there drenched still in its magic, wondering how you might find your way back." - Cassandra Khaw

"Like J.R.R. Tolkien, Slatter’s taken her personal invented mythos and crafted a world around it that is at once familiar and deeply strange. Lush and chilling, eerie and exquisite, brutal and elegant… I defy anyone to stop turning pages until they’ve come to the end." - Ellen Kushner

"A. G. Slatter is a born storyteller. Her work is as beautiful and dangerous as the best fairy tales and All the Murmuring Bones is entirely enchanting. A magical read!" - Alison Littlewood

"A beautiful gothic monstrosity (monstrosity being a good thing), one of those rare books you don’t just want to read but want to live inside of." - Mike Mignola