Bone by Bone by Sanjida Kay

Laura loves her daughter more than anything in the world.

But nine-year-old daughter Autumn is being bullied. Laura feels helpless. 

When Autumn fails to return home from school one day, Laura goes looking for her. She finds a crowd of older children taunting her little girl. In the heat of the moment, Laura makes a terrible choice. 

A choice that will have devastating consequences for her and her daughter...

Bone by Bone is Sanjida Kay's first thriller and what a gripping and pacy read it is. The storyline follows nine year old Autumn who has not long been at her new school and she is being bullied and finally she confides in her mum Laura. Laura wants to do everything she can to protect her precious little girl and so when she goes looking for Autumn one day when she is late home from school and finds her surrounded by a group of children Laura approaches the group and makes a terrible mistake.

The book gets off to a dramatic start with the prologue which had me on alert already and as each chapter played out I found myself tense and eager to find out what events had occurred to lead up to the situation we read about in the prologue.

At times I felt so desperate for both Laura and Autumn and my heart really went out to them, the author really manages to portray how bullying effects both the victim and the parent and how suffocated and helpless it can make them feel. There were times where I felt frustrated with Laura with the way she dealt with things but this just helped to keep the tension running high.

The chapters alternated between both Laura and Autumns characters which I thought worked really well for this storyline as we get to see from both characters points of view especially seeing what Autumns thoughts were on the way her mum dealt with various parts of the bullying.

The author has such an easy flow to her writing I was surprised how quick I whizzed through this book but it was such a pacey and packed storyline there was no safe place to stop. My one little criticism would have to be I felt the ending was a little rushed and abrupt. This was a compelling read that shows a mothers desperation to protect her daughter and I will definitely be recommending this one to friends and family and I look forward to seeing what the authors delivers next.

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