Strong Bones

Cool update to a genre we didn’t know we needed. This one is like Goonies meets a more serious Scream movie, or maybe Stranger Things. It’s got the 80s vibes with lots of nostalgia. If you like any of those movies/shows, give it a try! Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book.
I loved the strong 80s vibe which was really nostalgic.
I highly recommend you read this if you love The Goonies or Stranger Things!
Thanks to the publishers for giving me a chance to read this book.

The writing was some of the most authentic/believable sounding that I've read in a long time. It can be hard getting the voices of kids and young people right, but the author pulled it off. Also, when writing a period piece, it can be easy to go ham on the pop culture references, and while there were certainly plenty here, they were appropriate and added to the reader's understanding of the characters.

The characters were all well-rounded and believable, from the abusive father/stepfather and the emotionally unavailable mother/stepmother to the ragtag band of kids. I particularly liked Lee, the little weirdo genius with the unending supply of compassion. And I appreciated Hiram's redemption arc. It was nice to see that particular sort of lateral bullying represented. It's not always the jocks picking on the nerds. As a kid, my worst bullies were girls just barely a step up the social ladder from me, so the fact that Hiram bullied Lee at first, despite them both being outcasts, rang very true to me.

The worldbuilding was complicated but consistent, very much inspired by early video games, but with some non-denominational magical ladies and a wee bit of the almost prerequisite Lovecraftian influence, as well. Happily, the author didn't lean into the ol' mythos too hard. It did all get a bit silly and over-the-top, but that was ok. The main character was a nerdy 10 year old, it makes sense.

I appreciated the underlying themes of peace, love and understanding, and the possibility of positive change. It was refreshing.
Overall, this was a very good book that I struggled to put down. It was a chunk, at close to 500 pages, and the pacing did lag a bit in the third quarter, but I still found myself picking it up at every opportunity, finishing it in two days. It was a good read.

I do want to mention a few things that stuck out in a bad way: anachronistic cultural norms and the overuse of "trypophobic" and words with trypophobia as a base. There's no way everyone would be so chill about LGBT stuff in 1989/90. I know, I know, why pick on that minor detail when the whole book is a fantasy requiring you to suspend your disbelief? I guess it served to emphasize the overarching theme of love, kindness and acceptance, but it did feel a little shoehorned.

And then the word frequency thing. I shouldn't be distracting, but it is. When a word that's rarely used in day-to-day speech is used, and I counted, 7 times in a novel of 215,000 words, it's... a lot. Also, the term trypophobia wasn't coined until 2005, so it was weird reading it in a diary written in 1990.

That was another thing, actually. It was hard to determine which Hiram was narrating during his sections, child Hiram or adult Hiram, who is sort of the main narrator? Yeah, so, the book is written from the perspective of each character in turn, but only Hiram's is in the first person. It was an interesting style choice, and it alllllmost worked? It could have been clearer.

I received a copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving a review. Thank you to the author for the opportunity.

Loved loved loved this. Brilliant story and lots of 80s nostalgia for me. Look forward to getting my son to read this one.

This was received as an ARC from Netgalley.


Hiram is a young boy with a single mother and a sister who are both worried about him. He often sleepwalking late at night, and he ends up far from their home. One night Hiram meets a man in what he thinks is his dream, but is it more?

Overall, the story this text portrays is very interesting and compelling you to keep reading. Every time you learn something new about the world Hiram an his friends live in, you're only left with more questions. However,  this book is considerably longer than it needed to be. A lot of the sections of the book repeat the exact same events from another character's perspective. While this does offer insight to the situation, it does feel redundant after a while. Another issue with this novel is when a character tells us, the reader, something, but immediately says, "more on that later." It is annoying and I wish they would just introduce topics when relevant.  Despite these issues, this is Overall a good read if only on the long side.

A very quick read which is drenched in 80s nostalgia - very Grady Hendrix esque and one I’ll be recommending for everyone who’s a fan of him!

Strong bones by Robert J. Peterson.
It’s 1989, and evil’s on the loose in the Smoky Mountains.
Now, only a brave group of friends can stop it, using their imaginations and a little bit of magic.
Okay … a lot of magic.
I loved this book. Great story and characters. I love magic and anything to do with it. 5*.

If you are looking for a book to read while you wait for Stanger Things to come out with a new season, then this is definitely a great book to pick up! This is fun mix of '80's fun and evil. Jump into the world of the Smokies, where evil is loose and a bunch of kids are trying to stop it. This was a fun read and I had a very hard time putting this one down!

I really enjoyed this novel. It was akin to an 80s nostalgia trip that was interesting and compelling to continue. The only issue i had is the multiple POVs focussing on the one event that can become daunting but it was a thoroughly good read.

Thank you to the publisher for this arc. This is a wonderful update to a blossoming genre built on nostalgia! I love the 80s energy.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free e-book ARC for me to read. This review is my honest opinion.

The cover of Strong Bones captured my attention, with it clearly being marketed as being similar in feeling to Stranger Things. I also liked that it was said to have pop culture references similar to Ready Player One. As I read the book, I was impressed by the author's ability to create a creepy atmosphere with the main character sleepwalking and having visions with the Plaid Man. I also enjoyed the mysterious element of having a serial killer on the loose. The community feeling of the characters added to my enjoyment of the story.

Even though I'm not part of the target audience for middle grade books, I still had a good time reading this one.

Interesting concept with a nice 80's vibe. Allowed me to reminisce a little back to some of the cult movies of the 80's and 90's.
I'm not much on Magic and fantasy things, but this was able to keep my attention enough.
I would have like to have seen it be a little darker.

It had my from the cover and synopsis...but boy did this book pack a wallop! It was a fun, fast-paced page-turner dripping with 80s nostalgia (which is everything I love in a book.). The blurbs didn't lie. Read this immediately!

As a child of the '80s and a huge fan of all things 80s-related, I absolutely loved this book!

It has been described by others as a combination of "The Goonies" and "Stranger Things," and I do not disagree with that, but I also feel like this book creates its own lane and delivers something truly great.

It's got action, characters that you will be cheering for to succeed, a story that has that classic underdog who is pitted against an evil adversary, and just a whole lot of heart and fun.

Such a great read that I can't wait to tell others about.

I was not sure what this book was about going in and coming out of it I’m still not 100% sure. This book gave me Stranger Things meets a Stephen King style horror book. It has all the 80’s vibes throughout from the setting and it did keep me interested throughout and it was an extremely fun book.
This follows Hiram and his group of friends discover that they possess the ability to use maps as magic. When Hiram and Macs mum moves them in with her new abusive husband everything starts to go wrong. Meanwhile there are two threats on the rise: Skelton a mass murderer and the Plaid Man: someone that lives in the other side. Together the group rises against the threat of evil using ancient magic in order to defeat the threats against them.
I loved the magic system in this. It was so intricately woven into the story and had so many aspects to it. However, at moments it did feel extremely complicated, and it lost me at moments. I also felt as though there was no system and no rules to the magic besides the very basics. It was extremely captivating to read about and I loved the unicorn!
The thing I loved the most about this was the found family aspect. Between Hiram, Mac, Dawn, Lee, Kaitlyn and Jason and even the adults. They were all so supportive of each other with everything going on in their lives. These kids have so much love for each other, and they are going through a lot. It was so beautiful to see these kids be there as a found family. The characters also went through so many stages of their lives such as Hirams redemption from his bullying of Lee to Jason’s and him figuring out there’s more to life.
Overall, I think this book was just too long. It could have easily been a hundred pages shorter and at points I felt so lost with what was going on especially in the action scenes as it went back and forward between people but also jumped back in scenes which was extremely confusing at points. There also seemed to be no end as the minute the threat seemed to have been defeated it came back again and again.
The atmosphere of this book, however, was amazing. The 80’s vibes with the toys and the clothing as well of some of the places in this book were so much fun. It worked so well within the setting and was not just used randomly to move the plot along. I felt like I was reading an episode of Stranger Things which I really enjoyed.
I ended up giving this three stars just because as much as I loved the characters and the atmosphere in this book I just found myself not wanting to pick it back up because of how long the book ended up being. I am interested in seeing what this author comes out with next.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!