An Amazon Charts bestseller.There’s more than one way to stoke the flames of revenge… exploited her tabloid-ready story for fame and profit—until Charlotte finally broke free from her ghoulish past and fled. Just when she thinks she has buried her personal hell forever, Charlotte is swept into a frightening new ordeal. Secretly dosed with an experimental drug, she’s endowed with a shocking new power—but pursued by a treacherous corporation desperate to control her.
Except from now on, if anybody is going to control Charlotte, it’s going to be Charlotte herself. She’s determined to use the extraordinary ability she now possesses to fight the kind of evil that shattered her life—by drawing a serial killer out from the shadows to face the righteous fury of a victim turned avenger.
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LOVED this book. So intense, with incredible characterization. It was terrifying at times, with amazing build-up. I loved Charlotte and Luke and hope we get more about them, but I also loved Cole and Dylan and deep down, I’m rooting for them to work out the many, MANY issues in their past. Overall this is a fascinating, compelling look at violence and how it affects us. Highly recommend!
3* Super Power Stars
This story revolves around Charlotte who had an unfortunate upbringing for the first 7 years of her life when a pair of serial killers killed her mother and then kidnapped her. After they are caught and arrested she is reunited with her father who then exploits her experiences with the kidnappers for his own gain through movie franchises and novels. She moves away and changes her name, hoping she is safe from a stalker and her father, and because she still has major trust issues she is treated by a psychologist named Dylan who unbeknown to her gives her an experimental drug which enables her to have incredible strength. She then uses this to her advantage by drawing a serial killer out from hiding.
This is a long book but I enjoyed that the chapters were quite short and this made the story flow well and at a fast pace. I loved the cover of the book.
If you are looking for a story that has the perfect blend of suspense, is thrilling and incorporates sci-fi then and has a light touch of romance to it then this book will delight you.
This is a story that boils down to a traumatized young woman regaining her confidence and (superhuman) strength and taking back her own life. Having said that it is a very unique story and a very entertaining book that is so realistic its scary.
Interesting Spin On Both Serial Killers And Superpowers. This book is an interesting blend of serial killer lore, Hollywood slasher films (particularly of the serial killer variant), and superpowers ala Limitless. Starts off slowish, but then begins building and increasing the tempo to the point that by the end the reader is nearly breathless with anticipation of exactly what will come next. Very much recommended.
It took me longer than usual to write my review. I’m not exactly sure why. I bought Bone Music a little more than a year ago but only read now. The main reason is my kilometers long TBR list. Anyway, what matters is that I’ve finally read it and I’m glad I have.
Bone Music is an amazing story, it has so many twists my head hurt. It’s still hard to write this review…
Charlotte Rowe spent her first seven years with her parents, having an isolated but happy childhood. Until one day the police arrived and teared Charlotte out of the hands of her mother. But the parents she knew weren’t her parents at all. Daniel and Abigail Banning murdered her mother but instead of killing baby Charlotte, they kept her and raised her in their own image. After she was rescued her life just turned into another nightmare. She was living with her father who instead of protecting her, used her. He used her to make money out of her misery, out of her seven years with the Bannings. So she fled her father to try to have a normal life. Even changed her name. Built up a normalish life for herself. Alone. Always alone. But her life changes again when someone from her past appears out of nowhere and to top that she is secretly dosed with an experimental drug. A drug that gives her some incredible powers, powers she will use against those that want to hurt and control her – like the man who dosed her and the company that is behind the drug – and even against a serial killer.
I’m giving 5 stars. It’s bloody, wild and violent and also fascinating. It is fascinating to watch what goes through Charlotte’s mind, how her past and present decisions form her.
Charlotte is a truly awesome woman, I raptly watched as she struggled with her newfound powers, her inner demons and her relationship with Dylan and Luke. She conquers her fear and fights back. Isn’t that what we all want? Conquer our fears and fight back and win?! And win she does.
Dylan is…well…narcissistic, a genius really but his selfishness and total lack of regard for human life made my blood boil.
Luke on the other hand is someone you would want on your side. He’s changed a lot, he was a bully in high school. His past behavior towards Charlotte is repulsive but I can not appreciate the way he acts in the present. He helps Charlotte, he apologizes, makes mistakes but recognizes them.
I will read the next two books for sure.
First chapter gave me hope of this being a good story, disturbing as it was. By chapter 3 I already figured things out. What a shame.
Can’t say how much I loved this book. So many twists and turns, you never know where it’s going to end up.
Book source ~ Kindle First
For the 1st seven years of her life Charlotte Rowe was raised by serial killers. When they slip up and are arrested, Charlotte (real name Trina Pierce) is reunited with her father. However, it’s only a happy reunion for him as he exploits her story for cold hard cash. As soon as she can, Charlotte leaves his ass and goes to live with her grandmother, finishes high school and tries to create a normal life for herself. Unfortunately, her unusual life is about to take another turn away from hard-won normal and the question that begs for an answer is: will she survive again?
The beginning of this book is different than most I read. I like the idea of taking someone who was raised by serial killers for several years and yet she didn’t know yet what they were and then having her rescued and returned to her father, only to be exploited by said father. Ugh! What a dick! She finally gets some normal life with her grandmother, but when her gran dies she changes her name and moves far away into the middle of nowhere to avoid the everlasting fame and the stalkers. And that’s when the story gets even more interesting.
Given an experimental drug without her knowledge freaks her right out. Not only does she have to deal with the effects, but once again she’s been betrayed. With no idea who is behind it, what is going on or what to do about it all, she calls the two people she trusts most in life. From there it’s trial and error and impossible decisions.
I was all in with story until the shadowy people showed up with boatloads of money and tech. It just seems so convenient and hokey. I also have a problem with the drug limitations. The timing of the doses is critical and seems like it is pretty worthless for what it was cooked up to do. I won’t say more because it could be considered spoilerish, but if you read the book I think you’ll get what I’m trying to point out. Maybe since the drug is in the early stages that’s something they will try to refine. Anyway, this is still a great read with lots of action and pretty cool “superpowers” to be had. I love Charlotte, so I’m inclined to continue with this series.
I would give more stars for the originality of this particular narrative. NOT at all what I expected. I admit to being a big fan of this author’s mother’s work. I read the sample and it landed me hook, line, and oh my this is very good storytelling. In some ways, this story is realistic, in that the characters are very believable and genuine. The plot is both reasonable in the reactions of the characters, and it has a very science-fiction type feel. I won’t reveal the plot or why it’s so enjoyable, you have to read it for yourself and be the judge. I would highly recommend this book if you are a fan of unpredictable, unique plots and characters.
This book took me over a month and a half to read. I had to stop at one point and read something else. The whole concept is pretty interesting and intriguing, but the first half (maybe more) seemed to drag. The characters are well developed and all add something to the story. The story really picks up the closer you get to the end. When Charlotte decides to go after the serial killer. My initial rating was going to be a 3 up until this part. The pace of the book picked up and held my interest better.
I thought this book was amazing! There were so many interesting plots/subplots that I needed to read it slower than usual but wanted to just keep going! I wasn’t sure how well I would enjoy this book before I started it. I like Sci-Fi but do not love it. This book fits under various genres. It was a surprise! Definitely a book I recommend you try.
I read this on Kindle and, at times, listened to it on Audible. I liked the narrator on this. It was easy going back and forth between the two formats. Go with what works for you.
Bone Music was bomb #2 of my three-month Kindle Unlimited experiment. The novel was cheesy and boring, there was no depth to the story, and the writing was bland. Surprisingly the grammar was decent, which is so rare in these days of indie publications, so props for that, but good grammar doesn’t make a book interesting, just palatable.
I’m usually all about sci-fi thrillers, especially books about badass women, but this one never connected with me. It may be because I was listening to the audio version and holy guacamole, what an unlikable narrator! Her voice, accents and pronunciations drove me batty, to the point where I hated the story when actually I was just hating her voice. Narration can make or break a novel, and that’s what happened here. It didn’t just break, it shattered into a million frustrating pieces.
In TV shows and films, casting agents look for chemistry, and I believe in audio books there should be chemistry too. Reading should be just like acting. Every author should strive to find the kind of chemistry John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton have as author and narrator. I often feel, as I did listening to Bone Music, that any old narrator was plucked out of the pool, chemistry be damned. Or did Christopher Rice lose a bet? Owe a family friend a favor? In this case, the narrator is so haughty sounding, I can’t imagine she’d have chemistry with *any* book. She and her over-enunciations certainly had anti-chemistry with this one.
It’s not her fault, but I am definitely putting Lauren Ezzo on my ‘never listen’ shelf, and that includes actually finishing Bone Music. I can’t. I just can’t.
I am the wimpiest of wimpy readers. I read the occasional thriller but I don’t read scary books and I rarely read about serial killers. But when I read a few friends’s rave reviews about Bone Music, I was intrigued. The daughter of serial killers gets super powers and decides to hunt down a serial killer?? I’m so glad I took a chance on this one! This was an impeccably plotted, well-paced page turner of a sci-fi thriller. It’s intense (hence, I had to read it in one day) and disturbing in places but more because of how Rice builds our dread than the actual content. Although, to be clear, characters do some messed up things too. I don’t want to say more than that because I think you’ll appreciate the storytelling so much more the less you know going in. The twists really elevated the story and I cannot wait to see how he develops this as a series.
4.5 stars since only books I read 2+ times get 5 stars
I picked this book up on a whim. Its praises and the blurb had me wanting to read it. I did shy away for a while though. I am not a sci-fi reader. They tend to not hold my attention. I like things to be a little more real in books.
I was hooked from the start of this book. I had no clue where it was going to take me. The blurb definitely did not give me a clue of what I was in store for. I was glad that the sci-fi part wasn’t such a overdone thing in this book, that is for sure.
The premise of this book isn’t so cut and dry. It starts out as one thing, then turns to another. The change in the plot is so gradual, you don’t even realize the author has completely shifted your focus to the real issue at hand.
I fell for every last character in this book, even when I shouldn’t have. The character building, along with the plot building, in this writing is so phenomenal, I felt like I was in the book, experiencing everything the characters were. I just couldn’t stop reading.
There were a few lulls in the book. There were a few parts that felt unnecessary, but didn’t really slow down the process of the book. They could have been left out, and nothing about the book would have changed.
Overall, this book had me on the edge of my seat, rooting for the good guys; whoever that might have been. (The lines tended to blur from time to time.) I am definitely anticipating the next book in this series when it releases.
I didn’t make the connection right away when starting to read this book that its author is Anne Rice’s son. I read all her books! I noticed very quickly that this book is not only very well written, but the storyline is so wonderfully woven, it’s impossible to put down. I’m so happy to have found a new author to whose books to get addicted!
A victim of a crime early in life who becomes a victim again in adulthood. What would you do if someone experimented on you without consent, but it gave you new abilities…? Become angry, become a hero, walk away…?
Christopher Rice is a really good writer, which is to be expected from the son of the author who gave readers Interview with a Vampire. Bone Music is an excellent first book in what should be a stunning new series.
Can’t wait until book 2 is out!
The book started out kind of slow but I’m glad I stuck with it. It was a very interesting read!