I have chosen to review Skeletal by Katherine Hayton.

Let’s start with the good sides. First of all, the idea of a dead girl telling us her real story while the scene unfolds is brilliant! It reminds me of the video game Murdered, where, as a ghost, you have to find your own killer. And it’s a great game, just like this novel. The book also offers different points of views and jumps from past to present with ease, leaving a few clues here and there, but never telling the whole thing. I simply loved how the mystery lingers, even though you get crumbs once in a while about what really happened. Moreover, I liked how the author wove the text so that we feel compassion for Daina, the poor bullied main character. Ms. Hayton writes the story in a way which makes us feel close to the character, as though she is directly speaking to us, telling us her story. It’s like she’s sharing a secret none else knows, and in a way, that’s the case for none knows the truth about her death but herself and the killer… I must admit this gave me chills down my spine and made me plunge deeper into the story. It was a very good and interesting idea to have her talk to us, readers. Plus, the author’s writing is fresh, making her characters stand out from each other and jump off the page. Lastly, the tale is a poignant one of bullying, and jumps from one shocking scene to another.

As for the bad sides… I didn’t really find ones besides some typos and mistakes. Perhaps an even more thorough proofreading job would be required as they appear often and somewhat confused me here and there.

Overall, this novel is a good and entertaining one, but mostly quite different from what I read so far (and I read a lot!). The lingering mystery and the manner with which the story is told (directly to us and from past to present and back and forth) are writing gems. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5 for its richness. It lost one point for the mistakes and typos. I will talk about this book and recommend it without a doubt! However, I strongly suggest a better proofreading job for it to be an even more pleasant read.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, so I could give an honest review.
( )

Let’s start with the good sides. First of all, the idea of a dead girl telling us her real story while the scene unfolds is brilliant! It reminds me of the video game Murdered, where, as a ghost, you have to find your own killer. And it’s a great game, just like this novel. The book also offers different points of views and jumps from past to present with ease, leaving a few clues here and there, but never telling the whole thing. I simply loved how the mystery lingers, even though you get crumbs once in a while about what really happened. Moreover, I liked how the author wove the text so that we feel compassion for Daina, the poor bullied main character. Ms. Hayton writes the story in a way which makes us feel close to the character, as though she is directly speaking to us, telling us her story. It’s like she’s sharing a secret none else knows, and in a way, that’s the case for none knows the truth about her death but herself and the killer… I must admit this gave me chills down my spine and made me plunge deeper into the story. It was a very good and interesting idea to have her talk to us, readers. Plus, the author’s writing is fresh, making her characters stand out from each other and jump off the page. Lastly, the tale is a poignant one of bullying, and jumps from one shocking scene to another.

As for the bad sides… I didn’t really find ones besides some typos and mistakes. Perhaps an even more thorough proofreading job would be required as they appear often and somewhat confused me here and there.

Overall, this novel is a good and entertaining one, but mostly quite different from what I read so far (and I read a lot!). The lingering mystery and the manner with which the story is told (directly to us and from past to present and back and forth) are writing gems. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5 for its richness. It lost one point for the mistakes and typos. I will talk about this book and recommend it without a doubt! However, I strongly suggest a better proofreading job for it to be an even more pleasant read.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, through Reading Deals, so I could give an honest review. ( )

Skeletal by Katherine Hayton is a deviously dark story of bullying and neglect narrated by the deceased victim. Hayton delivers another work which not only keeps you guessing about the outcome but also offers some serious food for thought about how people are often treated.

The story moves steadily along narrated by Daina, a 14 year old who is dead. The story is told along three timelines (1994, 2004 and 2014) and the movement between each timeline supplements the surrounding sections so that they flow smoothly.

I particularly liked one aspect of the story as a whole, namely that there are several ways to understand what has happened and how it has happened. I won't go into spoilers but I have a very specific way I think I prefer to understand the story, what parts are true and what parts are not. If anyone who has read the book would like to discuss this aspect I would welcome the chance to get some other input. Basically, how did you understand or read the ending and how it may have reflected back onto the story as told?

As an aside concerning some comments I have seen in other reviews, these types of events can and do happen in schools and communities in every country. No school or community is immune to these things, as much as we might like to think that school administrators always act appropriately when presented with accusations or visual clues. Many do but some don't and no country, state, province, city, etc is immune.

I would highly recommend this book to those who like thoughtful suspense with some heartbreaking (and at the same time infuriating) events. I also think those interested in books that serve as cautionary tales about bullying and neglect, or as insight into what to look for in such cases, will find a lot to like in this novel. ( )

Das Buch ist sehr spannend, wenn auch in einem Stil geschrieben, der mit hin und wieder Schwierigkeiten bereitet hat. Trotzdem fand ich die unerwarteten Wendungen anregend. Das Ende erscheint jedoch etws sehr konstruiert. Aber alles in allem ein Buch, das durchaus Potential hat. ( )

Skeletal begins with the discovery a dead body and then progresses through the tragic life of a New Zealand teen, Daina Harrow. Most of the story is told from Daina’s post mortem POV – although the author threw in the brief POV of a school administrator early on in the story.

Readers learn the unfortunate circumstances of Daina’s sad and short life. With no real father figure in her life, and an alcoholic and drug-addicted mother, Daina has bounced around from home to home and school to school. She’s bullied, beaten and raped, and her mother has no clue what’s going on. She’s too busy prostituting herself out of the family apartment and shooting heroin.

Skeletal is probably one of the strangest books I’ve read so far. Not just because it bounces from past to present throughout the book, but it’s difficult to truly decipher what exactly is really going on with/to Daina’s character. Without giving away any spoilers...halfway through the book I had some idea of where the author was going with the story and was satisfied with that, but then she added an entirely new subplot into the mix. A pharmaceutical cover-up was suddenly underway.

Then, to mix things up even more, the book went back even further to when Daina was just five or six years old. While it’s true that these flashbacks were added to ultimately explain the cover-up, I feel Katherine Hayton could have simplified things had she cut out a subplot or two and saved them for another book. The ending went on longer than I thought was necessary. By then I knew the outcome and just wanted to cut to the chase, but it seemed unnecessarily padded.

Skeletal isn’t listed as a YA, even though the main character is just fourteen at the beginning of the story – and that’s probably a good thing, since some of the subject matter is a little “rough” for youngsters (hence the 17+ warning in the book’s info section). Honestly, Daina’s vocabulary seemed unrealistically advanced for a fourteen-year-old anyway.

All things considered, I would say that Skeletal should appeal to readers who enjoy unique psychological thrillers and mysteries. ( )