The Family Bones

The Family Bones by Kimberly Raiser is a debut novel by an imaginative young author. The story follows a family that has just inherited property in a tiny little town in Pennsylvania. The Weavers can't wait to check out their new place, and are hoping for a quiet, simple small town life for themselves and their young kids. The property comes complete with the requisite weird/friendly caretaker and his oddly creepy son, along with lots of mysterious tunnels, hidden rooms and things that go bump in the night. Throughout the course of the book, we discover that all isn't what it seems even within the Weaver family. There are secrets there as well........ When I first started The Family Bones, I thought I was reading a spooky horror type show more novel. It quickly morphed into a straight mystery, with a touch of "mysterious shadowy group" thrown in. Then it changed once more into a SciFi thriller. I guess it could be called a Horror/SciFi/Conspiracy Murder mystery. And that is really sort of the biggest problem for this reader. Ms. Raiser is an inventive storyteller, and has simply packed a lot into this slim novel. I would have really enjoyed getting to know much more about the background story of many of the characters. Interesting, peculiar and eccentric folks fill this book, and much is mentioned in passing. I hope that the author is planning on fleshing out these people further. It would make the book much longer, but be so much more satisfying to this reader. The Family Bones has a lot of potential, the author does a superb job of setting the tone. Her descriptions of time and place are spot on, and she paints us a very good picture of the locations contained within her pages. I think if the character development is brought along, Kimberly Raiser has an interesting and productive future ahead of her. show less

I found this books to be entertaining, earnest, and full of unexpected twists.
It is about a family who lived with a secret. It was a secret than none of them were aware of until a death in the family brought them to an inherited homestead. There they found an old house, filled with secrets of its own.

On exploring their new home, peculiar things began to happen, and the family including the children became separated. The more time they spent there the more dangerous things became. Steven, the dad, began experiencing vicious, crippling headaches . The children began behaving oddly, particularly Sara the young daughter. They finally begin to find answers, but not the ones they had hoped.

This is a story that I believe would be most show more enjoyed by young adults who are interested in the paranormal. show less

Description:

Will they stay? Will they survive? The Weavers have inherited family property in Astral, Pennsylvania, a town so small that Mrs. Weaver can find no mention of it on the Internet, save for a tiny spot on Google Earth. Hoping for a simpler, small-town existence for their young family, Steven and Tara eagerly head to Astral to see what they hope will be their dream house. As they explore their potential new home, the Weavers begin to discover secret passageways, secret rooms, and long buried family truths; some difficult truths are revealed and no longer kept in the far reaches of the closet. There are reasons for everything, and sometimes the explanations are so simple. But sometimes, simple can also be horrifying.

Review:

The show more twist and turns in this debut novel by Kimberly Raiser is an "under the covers with a flashlight" story that will have you up all night to finish.

Readers will go under the covers with a flashlight with this debut novel by Kimberly Raiser, filled with twists and turns on almost every page.

The story and characters develop well in a relatively short book (174 pages.) The level of suspense changes through out the book to make you think you know where the story is headed, but then surprises you when it goes to a level of mystery you didn’t expect. It reminded me of the old TV shows “Outer Limits’ or “Twilight Zone” where you’re taken to a situation and allowed to observe what happens. Ms. Raiser mixes child abduction, tunnels, paranormal and old family history to create a story that will make you continue to think about it even after you finish reading it. The story isn’t overly scary or violent for a ‘thriller’ book, so kids of all ages would enjoy this book.

This "paranormal mystery thriller" will take hold of you from the first page and keeps you mesmerized until the very last page. show less

The book is about a family that receives a piece of property, 80 acres including a house, via a will from a deceased family member. Steven, his wife Tara, and their two kids, Charlie and Sara head out to check out the house in hopes of moving out of the suburbs. When they arrive, weird things begin to happen to each of them. There are secret passageways and rooms that each of them find themselves in. They each find each other and run away from the place to their safe, secure home in the city, only to find that the horror followed them. The family decides that they have let their imaginations run wild and decide to return to the house in hopes of satisfying their curiosity about the events of the previous visit. Needless to say, things show more get worse for them.

This is an easy book to read. The pages turn very quickly and I was pulled in right away. I enjoyed the beginning of the book much more than the ending. The book is a little of a roller coaster ride. The pages would turn quickly when I could not wait to find out what was happening to this family. Then, all of the sudden, it would slow up a little and give detail into things that I didn't feel really enhanced the story. But, then things would pick up again. What I was hoping to get out of the book was a little scare. I did not get the heart racing feeling that I had hoped for because during the troubling events that took place, there were funny things happening too. I described it as a little Martha Stewart within a horror story. It was a little odd to be talking about really good cookies in the same story as the events that were unfolding. To be completely fair, you must all know that the events of this story do not jive with my belief system. Therefore, it made the story a little silly! Not bad silly, just silly because these things that happened did not seem believable.

The story is well written and held my attention well. There are a few unanswered questions that the author never really came back to, and left me guessing whether I was correct in my initial reactions to people and events. I could have used a couple more chapters that tied up a few of the loose ends, but I can honestly say that I would like to read other books by this author. show less

This book was very weird. The writing was almost childlike in parts and I never developed any definite feelings about the characters. It had the potential to be a good story but the author consistently went off in bizarre directions with no real explanation. Characters appear and disappear, their behaviors are inconsistent, and generally I went from feeling sorry for them to hating them, and back again. I can't in good conscience recommend this book to anyone over twelve years of age.

Steven Weaver inherits the family house in the country and brings his family to see it. Wife, Tara, 8 year old Charlie and little Sara are enthusiastic about the visit but things begin to happen that are unexplainable.
The author has told this reviewer that she enjoyed the writings of Douglas Adams and studied the writing of Steven King and I see an influence in King's earlier writing, in particular "Firestarter."
Upon the second visit to the come, things become very suspenseful and the science fiction parts of the story arrive. Things that are unexplained but scarey. Steven learns that his parents were accused of murder by neighbors but when they died the issue was closed. There is an uncle, a former psychiatric doctor and others that show more are more than they seem but who is Steven and what is the issue with how his parents conceived him.
This is a finely done tale. Suspend your logical beliefs and let your imagination take you for a pleasant ride.
Recommended. show less

By Kimberly Raiser

"Will they stay? Will they survive? The Weavers have inherited family property in Astral, Pennsylvania, a town so small that Mrs. Weaver can find no mention of it on the Internet, save for a tiny spot on Google Earth. Hoping for a simpler, small-town existence for their young family, Steven and Tara eagerly head to Astral to see what they hope will be their dream house. As they explore their potential new home, the Weavers begin to discover secret passageways, secret rooms, and long buried family truths; some difficult truths are revealed and no longer kept in the far reaches of the closet. There are reasons for everything, and sometimes the explanations are so simple. But sometimes, simple can also be horrifying." show more (Barnes & Noble)

What can I say? This book was pure fun from start to finish. If you like the thriller, sci-fi genre then you'll love this book. There were twists and turns in this book that I NEVER saw coming. I read this book in one day because I just couldn't put it down.! Kimberly Raiser has written a wonderful book. I think another great point to make is that this book would also be appropriate for younger readers. There 's not gore, violence and sex in this book...just an out and out thrill ride. I'd recommend this to everyone. show less