The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell

The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 26, 2016)

REVIEW BY PRISCILLA BETTIS

Amanda is mother to Ellie and a chaperone for her daughter’s sixth-grade field trip to New Orleans. Ellie and Sarah are classmates and best friends. Sarah disappears on the field trip. Amanda and the teacher panic—they have LOST Sarah! The story begins a little before Katrina and covers four years of the characters’ lives. The thought of a missing child terrifies me. I kept reading only because this is a Christian fiction book, and I knew there had to be some kind of light (Light) shining for the characters by the end of the story.

When I was halfway through the book and going about my daily life, I caught myself praying for Sarah’s parents. Palm to forehead, they are fictional parents that don’t require anyone’s prayers, but that’s how real Cantrell makes her characters.

Cantrell’s descriptions are immersive. Lyrical, too, with rhythm and consonance. Take this passage, for example, when the sixth graders were in New Orleans:

Tambourines and trumpets, tubas and trombones spout from out of nowhere, pulling a song and a story from every side street, every alleyway. Beneath scrolled-iron balconies, folks wave handkerchiefs … Just as the parade begins to wind away, a white split of lightning jags the dark divide. Thunder announces the downpour, and torrents begin to fall with force. The savory smells of roasted coffee and sugared treats are now replaced by the metallic scent of steam rising from rooftops. Mere feet away, the rain-speckled river rolls on.
-Julie Cantrell, The Feathered Bone

Readers learn exactly what happens to Sarah, and it’s dark. There are other dark subjects either occurring in the plot or talked about by the characters: domestic abuse, clinical depression, infidelity, suicide, loss of belief in God, dog fighting rings, prostitution, Katrina and its aftermath, divorce. Scenes never got too difficult for me—the hardest for me was Sarah’s disappearance, and that happens in the beginning—but sensitive readers might want to approach this book with caution.

Let’s discuss the faith element. Cantrell takes an ecumenical approach, bringing together characters from different denominations, including a touch of New Thought spiritualism. What surprised me (in a good way) is that the most sound doctrine came from one of the kids. Like the Good Book says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (NIV 1 Tim. 4:12). Everytime that young character was on the page, I was lifted.

I took off half a star for the detailed coverage of Katrina. I am old enough to remember that catastrophic event. I didn’t want to relive it through the characters’ eyes. (Albeit Gen Z readers might appreciate Cantrell’s portrayal of the historic weather event.)

Overall, an immersive, well-written, suspenseful story. 4.5 fish!

I purchased a Kindle version of The Feathered Bone.