Prequel to Nina Kiriki Hoffman’s previous books, Red Heart of Memories and Past the Size of Dreaming, A Stir of Bones can be read as a stand-alone with no problems at all.
The year is 1981, and 14 year old Susan Backstrom’s life is seemingly perfect on the outside. She’s beautiful, well-mannered, well-educated and intelligent, and her family is well-to-do and attentive. But all of that masks her father’s dark intensity bordering on obsession. Susan’s life is not her own, and any free time she has is hard won and jealously guarded. When she overhears a friend of hers, Julio, talking with several other kids about a secret place they can go and be alone, Susan convinces them to let her join in. That’s how they they meet House, an abandoned building that thrives with a life all its own, and Nathan, a ghost who’s been dead for decades. That’s how Susan makes the friends that could live a lifetime. And with a safe place and people she trusts, she can finally explore the mysterious abilities that have always been hers to command: to sense the life around her, to communicate with the inanimate, and, it seems, to touch the dead. As Susan’s confidence and power grows, her inner shell begins to crack, threatening to release things she’s kept inside all her life. But does she have what it takes to change her life for the better, or will she take the easy route out and end up like Nathan, dead but still among the living?
A Stir of Bones mixes the darkness of personal secrets with the light of hope and friendship, offering up a thoughtful look at all too common problems. The topics tackled may be a bit on the mature side, but they need to be addressed. Hoffman, with her ability to pointedly mix magic and reality seamlessly, is able to take an ordinary story and infuse it with a unique sort of beauty and wonder that few authors can match. Susan’s struggle and personal growth, and the aid of her friends, provide a fascinating, provocative look into the dark corners that exist in even the brightest homes. Hoffman never disappoints, but this is better than usual even for her.