Skeletal

Skeletal is the kind of book that lets you loose a night of sleep because you just can't put it down once you start reading. I can hardly describe how good this book is.. After a few pages you have a feeling you just know Daina, you feel what she feels, and you cannot but feel sorry for her and admire her greath strength... even in death.

(A longer version of this review will be published on 10 March 2015 on Crimezone.nl)

I was given this book to review and I am sad to say under normal circumstances this would not be a book I would have picked up on my own and boy would I have missed out on one of the best books I have read in a long time.
This book grabs the reader from the start and you have no choice but to get enthralled with the main character's story. No young woman should go through what she went through in her short life and the fact that you are both hearing her story as she remembers it as a ghost and how people are testifying about it in the New Zealand's form of looking into and determining the cause of one's death makes this book all that more powerful.
There were places were I was trying to guess where the author was going to take the story and then something would happen and what would happen would totally disrail my thoughts and I would have to go back to square one and that is what I look for in a true suspense book.
Skeletal is an excellent book that I would highly recommend. I would even suggest it to someone who was not so sure about the book or the subject because as I said at the beginning normally this would not be my type of book but it was one of the best and more then worth the chance I took.

wow loved this book! Very good from the start and just seemed to get better and better, would defo recommend. Also this story has a very deeper meaning behind it and almost makes you feel for the character. I couldn't put it down :)

First upp...I could not stop reading this book. I had to eventually when it became so late that I had to go to bed. But the first thing I took upp the following morning was my Kindle to continue reding.

I felt for Daina tought about what it must feel to grow upp with a mother constantly drinking and partying. Not having enough to eat to be constantly afraid of the men your mom is taking home. But as if that´s not enough Daina gets bullied att school everery day. The friends she hopes having her back turn on her and it´s all a bad joke.

Enter: The Grey Man. Him I had problems with.... What roll did he play? I didn´t get it. What was he? Did he exists?

And the ending was inte what I had expected at all. Nobody gets punished.... I so wanted someone get punished. That was the only thing I didn´t like in the book.

I gave the book 4 solid stars and defenately recommend it to everyone who likes to read about mysteries.

This book had me hooked right from the beginning. It was a roller coaster of emotion, and the characters were vivid in their grotesque glory. The author had me guessing, and second-guessing my predictions the whole way through - right up until the end. I need to read it again.

I received this book via NetGalley to give an honest review.

I was pretty taken away by this story. We are told this story through Daina who has passed away and what led up to her dying.
Daina has had it tough and I do mean tough. She is fourteen, and has a alcoholic mother who doesn't take care of her daughter. Daina tries to keep to herself as she doesn't want to be taken to a group home because that is what would happen if anyone found out about her mother and how she is not properly taken care of.
So when Daina goes to a new school you can tell right away from the first character she meets that this person is going to cause her trouble. And trouble does it cause, this young girl has it out for Daina just because a teacher "showed" interest in her. The bullying escalates to the point that Daina is hurt not only physically but mentally my heart broke for her. Though out the story she seems a bit off the rocks at times and I couldn't pin point what was going on until the end and it clicked. Not only does she get bullied and railroaded by her classmates but adults as well. I couldn't stand the way she was treated at school, and for sure got very upset with how she was treated at home. We get a look into the present which is where the court is dealing with her death, the past leading up to her death and the distant past how this all became. The story is different and I didn't want to put it down because I wanted to find out what happened to her, who did this to her.
At the end it was a nice twist and I was like oh so that is what happened. It was a great mystery.
Through out the whole story I felt for Daina it was like she was still alive even though we already knew she was dead. It was just hard to read what she had to go through and she had no one to help her. We watch her pretty much waste away and it was sad no one seemed to notice.

Now the reason I am giving this book a 4 rating. Sometimes I was a bit confused but it all came together eventually. Second the way that an incident was handled at school. I honestly could not believe that it could be handled in that way, it was too unbelievable and this bothered me. Especially because it involved raped. And that is where I am going to leave that statement.

Overall a great crime mystery and I plan on reading more from this author.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1214180354?book_show_action=false

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1G01X7GN8JNE/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Amazon.co,uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R17WTQPV81Q31J/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Barnes and Noble (Autumn2): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/skeletal-katherine-hayton/1121079133?ean=9780473309268

Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/books/38288182/Skeletal/reviews/4739248

Booklikes: http://anauling.booklikes.com/post/1122679/skeletal

When I requested to read this book on Net Galley I didn't look at the authors name, only the blurb. When I was halfway through I looked at the name of the author realizing that I had read one of her books before and liked it. I then knew why my eyes took me to this one, sixth sense I think.

I just knew this was going to be good, but I didn't realize how dam good!

Daina Harrow is the main person in this story, she is young, she is bullied in life, bullied at school. Her Mother is nice to her when sober!! But she's never been a Mom to cook, clean and make sure her child is clothed, feed and watered. All her Mom wants to do is get drunk, men and drunken parties.

That life is the 'norm' for Daina, after all, she knows nothing else.

She does get befriended by some girls, but even that turns out a twist in the huge plot.

Yes there is violence in this story, but not enough to close your eyes and say "oh, that's graphic" its only disturbing because you feel for Daina.

Daina has some superb loyalty and morals that got her into trouble by doing the 'right' thing which came and literally bit her in the ass.

This has a scene of rape, its not blown out of proportion or glorified in any way, its a well thought out written scene. The plot takes over more than what has just happened to her [not that its unimportant, but it IS relevant to the story]

I was literally flicking through the pages of my kindle resenting any time I had to put it down to go cook supper for us all !! still glued to my Kindle whenever possible, I kid you not!

The ending was oh so heart breaking.

The setting for this book is Daina overlooking a Court case about her death, its way unique and unusual reading, fab, absolutely fab I thought. Its written as normal, but comes back to when someone is taking the stand and picks up the real story then through its pages. I LOVED it, can't you tell I loved it LOL

The ending, pay attention to the ending, we know from the blurb that the author says Daina died. Just read and pay attention to the last few chapters, its pulls it together so beautifully but oh so tragic.

I can't say enough, give this book a try. Its up to you if you like it as much as I did, but its well worth a read.

I love a good thriller. I love new authors that can write well, tell a story well, never loose their focus and reads just brilliantly oh and......takes me away from daily chores!!!

I would like to thank Katherine Hayton via Net Galley for my copy

I have recommended this to so many of my fellow book friends they will think I'm on commission!!

I contacted the author to tell her how much I was loving this book.

If she needs any promotions done, I have a blog separate to help

Wow! I just loved this book! It drew me in from page 1. Such a page turner. I even caught myself holding my breath, waiting to see what was about to happen, a few times. It was a good, easy, fast read. A nice mystery to just get lost in and not have to think so hard about.

Each chapter would start with a flashback (the real story) from the main character, a ghost, Diana. Then it would have modern day courtroom witnesses tell their fabricated stories about her. I loved this set up and how it was written. Diana was a teenage girl with an alcoholic/druggie mom. She was constantly moving around. She thought she had finally made some friends at her new school. Then everything in her life started to unravel. Diana went missing. They didn't find her body for 10 years. When they did, her case was reopened. Now they are trying to determine a cause for her death.

I loved the ending, but I wish there was more, it just felt like it was so sudden. There needs to be more there

** A big thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book. **

I really enjoyed this book. I found this to be really interesting and I loved learning about Daina's life. The only negative thing I have with this book is that I got confused about the whole grey man thing.. I'm still not certain of it now.