All the Pretty Bones by Camela Thompson takes place in Seattle, Washington and though I’ve never been there, I felt the raw reality of this city due to Thompson’s vivid writing style, from the impoverished drug ridden areas to the gorgeous mini-castles of urban royalty. All the Pretty Bones spotlights Olivia Kardos, a young woman diagnosed with terminal cancer, who decides she will kill her stalker, Mark Porter, in order to live the remainder of her days in peace and safety.
Thompson shares in the acknowledgements’ portion of her book her own unfortunate experience of being stalked. Ironically, without this major event in her life, I wonder if she would have been able to capture all of the many emotions that come along with it. From my own personal experience, it rings frighteningly true and frustrating.
Not only is Thompson’s writing style vivid, but it is also flexible and fluid. When she’s writing in the POV of her main characters (Olivia, Lucian, Mark, Sean) along with a string of supporting characters, there’s no character mix-up because she did a phenomenal job at breathing life into them and making them feel real and sound distinct. Even though I didn’t like all of the characters at times, (especially Sean, Olivia’s former ex-boyfriend, noble cop, father, and flawed husband) only solidified how well she formed her characters and structure her plot around them.
While reading this page-turning book you will enter a world where vampires are kept secret for a reason and how some are hiding in plain sight. Although I don’t necessarily love vampires, (even though I do write about them) I appreciate the mythos behind the blood-sucking monsters that just won’t stay uninvited from the human psyche. While reading this book, you will encounter a dark underworld where other creatures stalk the earth to hunt and be hunted. As the story progresses, you will grow to love Olivia as she courageously takes matters into her own hands, gains allies, and a gorgeous love interest who is so much more than a mere mortal man. Yum.
Thompson’s created paranormal vampire world is also quite extensive and she includes a helpful legend in the back of the book, which is complete with subspecies and foreign language guide. But, even without this compendium guide, the series still possesses enough mystery, thus stimulating questions and uncertainties in my reader’s mind. One question in particular is which may be answered in the second book is **(potential spoiler alert)**: why was Mark (being what he was) not afraid of Olivia (being what she is)? Didn’t he sense beneath her exterior that she was quite capable of ripping his throat out, stalker or not, simply because he exist?
I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading the next. Well done, Camela.
Monique L. Desir 