I waffled between three and four stars and finally decided on four because it was a good book, even if I had one or two quibbles with it. The Silence of Bones has such atmosphere the author does a good job of setting the scene of 1800 Joseon (Korea). Her protagonist Seol is well written as well, her life is a hard one to read about because of her low status and indentured servitude she is considered as less then nothing by everyone around her.
She is physically and emotionally abused multiple times. This is a clever murder mystery as well. I changed my mind about who committed the murder several times. My quibbles with the book was that although atmospheric it was also very very very slow plus I felt the there was a plot point at the end I didn’t understand why the author chose go that way with the story but YMMV. The narrator did okay with Seol but seemed to have a hard time with the other character’s voices, to the point where it took me out of the story a few times.
This is my first book by June Hur, but it most definitely will not be my last. The tapestry she wove was intricate, informative, and addictive. I did not want to stop my listen, and would extend my time with this tale every time I listened. A planned one hour listen often became two hours, that is how much I love this story. The narration was fabulous. It is not every performer who can make every character sound different and unique, regardless of gender, but Greta Jung did just that. A fantastic job by both author and performer.
