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The Children of Sarah #1
Bone Lines
A young woman walks alone through a barren landscape in a time before history, a time of cataclysmic natural change. She is cold, hungry and with child but not without hope or resources. A skilful hunter, she draws on her intuitive understanding of how to stay alive... and knows that she must survive.
In the present day, geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft wrestles with an ancient conundrum as she unravels the secrets of a momentous archaeological find. She is working at the forefront of contemporary science but is caught in the lonely time-lock of her own emotional past.
Bone Lines is the story of two women separated by millennia yet bound by the web of life. This intriguing tale of love and survival, of courage and the quest for wisdom also explores the nature of our species and asks what lies at the heart of being human.
Book 1 in The Children of Sarah series, look out also for The Fire In The Eyes...
In the present day, geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft wrestles with an ancient conundrum as she unravels the secrets of a momentous archaeological find. She is working at the forefront of contemporary science but is caught in the lonely time-lock of her own emotional past.
Bone Lines is the story of two women separated by millennia yet bound by the web of life. This intriguing tale of love and survival, of courage and the quest for wisdom also explores the nature of our species and asks what lies at the heart of being human.
Book 1 in The Children of Sarah series, look out also for The Fire In The Eyes...
257 pages, Paperback
Published September 19, 2018
93 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie Bretherton
6 books25 followersBorn in Hong Kong to a pair of Liverpudlians (and something of a nomad ever since), Stephanie is based in London but manages her sanity by escaping to any kind of coast. Before returning to her first love of writing fiction, Stephanie spent many years pursuing alternative forms of storytelling, from stage to screen and media to marketing. Meanwhile, an enduring love affair with words has led her down many a wormhole on the written page. Drawn to what connects rather than separates, Stephanie has channeled a lifelong curiosity for science, history and spirituality into her debut novel, Bone Lines, and into short stories, poems and various works in progress. This includes ideas for the continuation of the Children of Sarah series, of which Bone Lines is the first story.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
August 5, 2025
REVIEW
Anthropology has always fascinated me. During the early 1970's when I was in college, I focused on two subjects - ancient history and physical anthropology, so I was immediately drawn to the subject matter in Bone Lines. The finding of Sarah and the speculation that she might have been migrating back to Africa because of a natural occurring climate change event is the focal point of Bone Lines and really caught my interest (I surprised myself in that I actually understood the scientific portions of the tale after all these years - a testament to the descriptive ability of the author). It is a very well thought out tale full of surprises while at the same time giving the reader some interesting ideas and thoughts to ponder. I especially enjoyed Eloise's letters to Charles Darwin - lots of soul searching and mind expanding going on in those. All in all, an enjoyable read featuring two strong female protagonists; a speculative look at life on earth 74,000 years ago - an earth in the throes of a volcanic winter; and the emotional/mental turmoil of a gifted but troubled scientist.
5 stars
Anthropology has always fascinated me. During the early 1970's when I was in college, I focused on two subjects - ancient history and physical anthropology, so I was immediately drawn to the subject matter in Bone Lines. The finding of Sarah and the speculation that she might have been migrating back to Africa because of a natural occurring climate change event is the focal point of Bone Lines and really caught my interest (I surprised myself in that I actually understood the scientific portions of the tale after all these years - a testament to the descriptive ability of the author). It is a very well thought out tale full of surprises while at the same time giving the reader some interesting ideas and thoughts to ponder. I especially enjoyed Eloise's letters to Charles Darwin - lots of soul searching and mind expanding going on in those. All in all, an enjoyable read featuring two strong female protagonists; a speculative look at life on earth 74,000 years ago - an earth in the throes of a volcanic winter; and the emotional/mental turmoil of a gifted but troubled scientist.
5 stars
December 19, 2018
2.5★
“ As the alcohol went to work, they shifted from the depressing to the inspiring and spent the rest of the evening exploring themes from chaos and convergence to the possibility of a predictive pattern, and from the mathematics of morphogenesis to the seductive notion of a unifying scheme. New-found compatriots in the unbounded country of the mind, they indulged a shared infatuation for the magnificence of the genetic chronicle, from Precambrian bacteria through exponential speciation and on to Homo sapiens sapiens, emerging Venus-like from the tree of life. Eloise felt, at last, a stirring from her lengthy hibernation.”
Okay, enough. You get the idea. I’m sorry I didn’t find this flirtation in a pub stirring. This has been published by Unbound, a crowdfunded group which has produced the likes of The Wake, a novel that was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. This author can write, but I think the book needs a good editor.
This is a single piece of fiction that tries to do too many things. Science, chick lit romance, philosophy, religion, politics, history, conservation, the environment, activism, mostly passed off in dialogue (awkwardly placed) or occasionally as a speech (boring), and then there’s even a bit of a thriller thrown in.
Eloise Kluft is a scientist in London, excited to be working with some very old bones discovered by a climber who fell into a crevasse in the ice and spotted a skull. He marked the spot before being hauled to the surface. So far so good.
Then we cross to a prehistoric young woman, “Sarah”, pregnant and alone somewhere cold. “The mating that created this crisis was tender but temporary and they had parted with little pain.” She’s following stories her grandmother told her of a better place, but nobody has gone with her. The fellow went north, the fool.
Cut back to Eloise in her lab, who switches from long “pro-splaining” (my word) to us ignorant amateurs all about DNA, what it is, what she knows about it, how it works, plus the XY chromosomes and what she’s trying to study. Pages of it. Interesting perhaps to someone in the field, and something I might read in New Scientist (one of my favourite magazines), but completely out of place here written as it is. Large chunks are included as dialogue in odd places.
There are a LOT of information dumps, some very odd. Eloise sits down and writes letters to Charles Darwin (THE Charles Darwin) to explain to him what she’s doing and what’s happening in the world today. Lots of philosophising and she needs a sounding board.
She also reminisces at odd times and at length about different lovers and tells us about her new lab partner from America as he enters the story.
“Geek chic, she thought, wasn’t that what they called it in the magazines? Those Clark Kent-ish spectacles, the unruly black fringe that he had neither the time nor the forethought to trim before it flopped into his eyes. Cheekbones as sharp as his elegantly forensic mind (Eloise had done her research, read his published papers), a slender build and a disarming, off-centre smile.”
He’s supposed to provide the romantic tension. Or is it her ex? Or her other ex? I was never quite sure, nor was Eloise, I think.
Back to Sarah, who has become not only a new mother but a big game hunter as well! (And this isn’t the biggest beast she supposedly pulls down, either.) She skins things, makes things, and is a one-woman tribe with baby.
“Leaving the new shelter a while to venture deeper into the valley she follows a trail of fresh scat to make a shamefully easy kill, and the foraging this way is more fruitful. She will feed long from this good fortune. Sinew from the young buck’s carcass will make a strong sling for when the infant grows heavier.”
She also meditates, “trances”, as she calls it, and at one point imagines herself somewhere a bit like where Eloise is. She remembers all the ways of her people and SHE starts lecturing us about what life is like, what she learned from her grandmother – almost like a prehistoric culture Death by PowerPoint presentation.
I probably should have gone ahead and not finished it, as I kept threatening to do.
Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. #BoneLines #NetGalley
“ As the alcohol went to work, they shifted from the depressing to the inspiring and spent the rest of the evening exploring themes from chaos and convergence to the possibility of a predictive pattern, and from the mathematics of morphogenesis to the seductive notion of a unifying scheme. New-found compatriots in the unbounded country of the mind, they indulged a shared infatuation for the magnificence of the genetic chronicle, from Precambrian bacteria through exponential speciation and on to Homo sapiens sapiens, emerging Venus-like from the tree of life. Eloise felt, at last, a stirring from her lengthy hibernation.”
Okay, enough. You get the idea. I’m sorry I didn’t find this flirtation in a pub stirring. This has been published by Unbound, a crowdfunded group which has produced the likes of The Wake, a novel that was longlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. This author can write, but I think the book needs a good editor.
This is a single piece of fiction that tries to do too many things. Science, chick lit romance, philosophy, religion, politics, history, conservation, the environment, activism, mostly passed off in dialogue (awkwardly placed) or occasionally as a speech (boring), and then there’s even a bit of a thriller thrown in.
Eloise Kluft is a scientist in London, excited to be working with some very old bones discovered by a climber who fell into a crevasse in the ice and spotted a skull. He marked the spot before being hauled to the surface. So far so good.
Then we cross to a prehistoric young woman, “Sarah”, pregnant and alone somewhere cold. “The mating that created this crisis was tender but temporary and they had parted with little pain.” She’s following stories her grandmother told her of a better place, but nobody has gone with her. The fellow went north, the fool.
Cut back to Eloise in her lab, who switches from long “pro-splaining” (my word) to us ignorant amateurs all about DNA, what it is, what she knows about it, how it works, plus the XY chromosomes and what she’s trying to study. Pages of it. Interesting perhaps to someone in the field, and something I might read in New Scientist (one of my favourite magazines), but completely out of place here written as it is. Large chunks are included as dialogue in odd places.
There are a LOT of information dumps, some very odd. Eloise sits down and writes letters to Charles Darwin (THE Charles Darwin) to explain to him what she’s doing and what’s happening in the world today. Lots of philosophising and she needs a sounding board.
She also reminisces at odd times and at length about different lovers and tells us about her new lab partner from America as he enters the story.
“Geek chic, she thought, wasn’t that what they called it in the magazines? Those Clark Kent-ish spectacles, the unruly black fringe that he had neither the time nor the forethought to trim before it flopped into his eyes. Cheekbones as sharp as his elegantly forensic mind (Eloise had done her research, read his published papers), a slender build and a disarming, off-centre smile.”
He’s supposed to provide the romantic tension. Or is it her ex? Or her other ex? I was never quite sure, nor was Eloise, I think.
Back to Sarah, who has become not only a new mother but a big game hunter as well! (And this isn’t the biggest beast she supposedly pulls down, either.) She skins things, makes things, and is a one-woman tribe with baby.
“Leaving the new shelter a while to venture deeper into the valley she follows a trail of fresh scat to make a shamefully easy kill, and the foraging this way is more fruitful. She will feed long from this good fortune. Sinew from the young buck’s carcass will make a strong sling for when the infant grows heavier.”
She also meditates, “trances”, as she calls it, and at one point imagines herself somewhere a bit like where Eloise is. She remembers all the ways of her people and SHE starts lecturing us about what life is like, what she learned from her grandmother – almost like a prehistoric culture Death by PowerPoint presentation.
I probably should have gone ahead and not finished it, as I kept threatening to do.
Thanks to NetGalley and Unbound for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. #BoneLines #NetGalley
September 3, 2018
The plot (in a spoiler-free nutshell): A woman is making a journey, precarious but driven by visions, through the wild landscape, and alone except for her young child and endless dangers. Simultaneously, 74000 years later, geneticist Eloise is trying to work out who that woman was from her partial skeleton, whilst contemplating life’s big questions, writing letters to Charles Darwin, being a bit rubbish with men, and spending time with her cat, perfectly named Newton.
Type of book: ‘Ambitious and brave yet effortlessly pulled off’
The author: Stephanie Bretherton, debut novelist who has written Bone Lines as a stand-alone novel but also is planned as part of a series ‘The Children of Sarah’ - which is very nearly a most wonderful name.
What appealed to me: I love natural history and the author described Bone Lines as ‘genre fluid’ (and it really is, or perhaps she has managed to create a new genre?)
It’s a bit like...the essence of Sapiens (a little known book by Yuval Noah Harari), seen through the eyes of two fierce and admirable women.
You’ll want to read this if...you like your stories with a bit of mystery (Who was the person whose skeleton is found? What is the meaning of life? Why doesn’t Eloise tell Darius to piss off?)
You shouldn’t read it if...you don’t really like thinking much
The wonderful stuff...Eloise is fierce and compassionate, and demonstrates that a woman need not be a mother or a partner to do and enjoy wonderful things in life. She has a way of looking at things objectively in a biological sense that is so refreshingly rational, and seeks answers through scientific reasoning to things such as childlessness and suicide, even tears and sexual desire but also considers alternative arguments to theories that underpin her work, the novel being a brief overview of the conflicts between science and religion. Whilst Eloise is thinking big, the dual narrative of her life in London and that of hunter gatherer Sarah is rather poignant, and, whether intentional or not, as a reader I found myself thinking about human progress and who out of the two women has the ‘better’ life. For all that Eloise comes to discover about Sarah, there is a sense that the things that really mattered in Sarah’s life are things that Eloise can never, will never, know. Yet, it’s awesome that a novel delves into biology and all the interesting questions it raises that can be addressed, and I’ve not come across many novels that are so unashamedly sciencey, yet doesn’t alter life beyond recognition that sci fi, long being the only option for geeks, often does. Hurrah, my A Level in Biology finally came in handy.
The not as good stuff...Eloise contemplates pretty much every one of the big questions in life, but neglects a troubling one: jam first or cream first on scones? (Perhaps Eloise will consider this in the second novel, for there is only so much a woman can muse over in one book) Eloise does get a bit too contemplative at times and I was sometimes a bit lost, the kind of lost where you don’t know where you are but still think the scenery is pretty. Also, thank God - oops, don’t tell Eloise - I was reading on a Kindle, as I’ve never needed the built in dictionary so much as with this novel (says more about my reading age than the author’s writing style though, to be fair)
‘Social Housing, she mused...How much fun, how much freedom could any creature (human or canine) have here?’...As a child in the 90s who grew up in social housing, I can confirm that much fun was had and the freedom of safety greatly enjoyed - I don’t think the same could be said of canines however. Or felines. Or equines.
The best way to enjoy this book: With a coffee and a brownie in the Natural History Museum’s cafe, hopefully after you’ve bought the novel in their shop and also hopefully without a woman in a red beret watching you.
Most surprising nugget of wisdom from Bone Lines: ‘In the unexpected encounter between a camera case and a shin bone, the shin will come off considerably worse.’
Rating 5/5
Final thoughts: Bone Lines is a novel that can be appreciated in so many different ways and on numerous levels. It appeals to the geek in me, it had me rooting for these two incredible women, and kept me curious right through to the more than satisfying end with it’s subtle plot. I’ve highlighted enough scientific terms to keep me Googling for a week, keen to spend longer exploring Eloise’s trails of thought. Opening up new worlds is what powerful fiction does best, and with courageous women at its heart, it’s a brilliant read.
Bone Lines is published on 19th September 2018 by Unbound. Thank you to Stephanie Bertherton for the ARC
Type of book: ‘Ambitious and brave yet effortlessly pulled off’
The author: Stephanie Bretherton, debut novelist who has written Bone Lines as a stand-alone novel but also is planned as part of a series ‘The Children of Sarah’ - which is very nearly a most wonderful name.
What appealed to me: I love natural history and the author described Bone Lines as ‘genre fluid’ (and it really is, or perhaps she has managed to create a new genre?)
It’s a bit like...the essence of Sapiens (a little known book by Yuval Noah Harari), seen through the eyes of two fierce and admirable women.
You’ll want to read this if...you like your stories with a bit of mystery (Who was the person whose skeleton is found? What is the meaning of life? Why doesn’t Eloise tell Darius to piss off?)
You shouldn’t read it if...you don’t really like thinking much
The wonderful stuff...Eloise is fierce and compassionate, and demonstrates that a woman need not be a mother or a partner to do and enjoy wonderful things in life. She has a way of looking at things objectively in a biological sense that is so refreshingly rational, and seeks answers through scientific reasoning to things such as childlessness and suicide, even tears and sexual desire but also considers alternative arguments to theories that underpin her work, the novel being a brief overview of the conflicts between science and religion. Whilst Eloise is thinking big, the dual narrative of her life in London and that of hunter gatherer Sarah is rather poignant, and, whether intentional or not, as a reader I found myself thinking about human progress and who out of the two women has the ‘better’ life. For all that Eloise comes to discover about Sarah, there is a sense that the things that really mattered in Sarah’s life are things that Eloise can never, will never, know. Yet, it’s awesome that a novel delves into biology and all the interesting questions it raises that can be addressed, and I’ve not come across many novels that are so unashamedly sciencey, yet doesn’t alter life beyond recognition that sci fi, long being the only option for geeks, often does. Hurrah, my A Level in Biology finally came in handy.
The not as good stuff...Eloise contemplates pretty much every one of the big questions in life, but neglects a troubling one: jam first or cream first on scones? (Perhaps Eloise will consider this in the second novel, for there is only so much a woman can muse over in one book) Eloise does get a bit too contemplative at times and I was sometimes a bit lost, the kind of lost where you don’t know where you are but still think the scenery is pretty. Also, thank God - oops, don’t tell Eloise - I was reading on a Kindle, as I’ve never needed the built in dictionary so much as with this novel (says more about my reading age than the author’s writing style though, to be fair)
‘Social Housing, she mused...How much fun, how much freedom could any creature (human or canine) have here?’...As a child in the 90s who grew up in social housing, I can confirm that much fun was had and the freedom of safety greatly enjoyed - I don’t think the same could be said of canines however. Or felines. Or equines.
The best way to enjoy this book: With a coffee and a brownie in the Natural History Museum’s cafe, hopefully after you’ve bought the novel in their shop and also hopefully without a woman in a red beret watching you.
Most surprising nugget of wisdom from Bone Lines: ‘In the unexpected encounter between a camera case and a shin bone, the shin will come off considerably worse.’
Rating 5/5
Final thoughts: Bone Lines is a novel that can be appreciated in so many different ways and on numerous levels. It appeals to the geek in me, it had me rooting for these two incredible women, and kept me curious right through to the more than satisfying end with it’s subtle plot. I’ve highlighted enough scientific terms to keep me Googling for a week, keen to spend longer exploring Eloise’s trails of thought. Opening up new worlds is what powerful fiction does best, and with courageous women at its heart, it’s a brilliant read.
Bone Lines is published on 19th September 2018 by Unbound. Thank you to Stephanie Bertherton for the ARC
October 22, 2018
Deeply researched and written with precision, an accomplished a debut novel you could read.
August 28, 2019
Apparently Bone Lines is the author’s first novel. You’d never know. It’s a literary triumph.
The story, interweaving the scientific quest of Dr Eloise Kluft to discover the truth behind the bones in her lab, and the prehistoric struggle for survival of the shamanic woman - ‘Sarah’ - to whom they belonged, is beautifully crafted and elegantly written.
And the themes of love, loss, longing/belonging, evolution, cultural difference, social alienation, climate change etc. are explored with a balanced and insightful intelligence, clearly informed by rigorous research.
As an agnostic pulled towards mysticism (but sympathetic to atheism) with a lifelong interest in science and spirituality, I was instantly drawn to it.
The complex, time-shifting narrative, and continual ‘interior monologue’ questioning of its principal characters as they search for meaning and motive make for a challenging read at times. But the book is infused with an engaging love of humanity - the human family bound together by the golden thread of the genome - and the achievements of science, and the story quickly develops into an Agatha Christie-style mystery, proving impossible to put down.
Picking up the point about science, I really loved the device of Eloise’s ‘love letter’ to Darwin - a great way to make abstract and difficult ideas more accessible - and the intriguing scenes in the Natural History Museum. But I strongly related to her scientific scepticism too - the nagging doubts about the capacity of ‘materialistic’ evolutionary theory to explain the mysteries of consciousness, altruism, creativity etc. Even the origin of the DNA, the source code of life, itself.
One small niggle (criticism is too strong) - whilst all the characters in the book are deftly drawn, I wasn’t entirely convinced by mature, middle-class Eloise’s relationship with young, working class Tom (almost a modern reworking of Lady Chatterley’s Lover) but accept this probably offered an important insight into her emotional psyche that awaits further development and resolution. A classic ying/yang tension of opposites (rationalism vs. romanticism etc.) perhaps.
And this certainly didn’t detract from the enormous pleasure of reading such an accomplished novel - so well written in fact that I frequently found myself rereading passages for the sheer joy of witnessing a wordsmith at work.
Similarly, I loved the inspired wit behind the many cultural references such as Eloise/The Damned; KC/KFC (unless I’m reading too much into the latter ;).
How all this creativity can pour from a writer’s pen is anyone’s guess.
Must be in her DNA.
The story, interweaving the scientific quest of Dr Eloise Kluft to discover the truth behind the bones in her lab, and the prehistoric struggle for survival of the shamanic woman - ‘Sarah’ - to whom they belonged, is beautifully crafted and elegantly written.
And the themes of love, loss, longing/belonging, evolution, cultural difference, social alienation, climate change etc. are explored with a balanced and insightful intelligence, clearly informed by rigorous research.
As an agnostic pulled towards mysticism (but sympathetic to atheism) with a lifelong interest in science and spirituality, I was instantly drawn to it.
The complex, time-shifting narrative, and continual ‘interior monologue’ questioning of its principal characters as they search for meaning and motive make for a challenging read at times. But the book is infused with an engaging love of humanity - the human family bound together by the golden thread of the genome - and the achievements of science, and the story quickly develops into an Agatha Christie-style mystery, proving impossible to put down.
Picking up the point about science, I really loved the device of Eloise’s ‘love letter’ to Darwin - a great way to make abstract and difficult ideas more accessible - and the intriguing scenes in the Natural History Museum. But I strongly related to her scientific scepticism too - the nagging doubts about the capacity of ‘materialistic’ evolutionary theory to explain the mysteries of consciousness, altruism, creativity etc. Even the origin of the DNA, the source code of life, itself.
One small niggle (criticism is too strong) - whilst all the characters in the book are deftly drawn, I wasn’t entirely convinced by mature, middle-class Eloise’s relationship with young, working class Tom (almost a modern reworking of Lady Chatterley’s Lover) but accept this probably offered an important insight into her emotional psyche that awaits further development and resolution. A classic ying/yang tension of opposites (rationalism vs. romanticism etc.) perhaps.
And this certainly didn’t detract from the enormous pleasure of reading such an accomplished novel - so well written in fact that I frequently found myself rereading passages for the sheer joy of witnessing a wordsmith at work.
Similarly, I loved the inspired wit behind the many cultural references such as Eloise/The Damned; KC/KFC (unless I’m reading too much into the latter ;).
How all this creativity can pour from a writer’s pen is anyone’s guess.
Must be in her DNA.
December 14, 2018
When I received the tour invite from Anne Cater for this one I was immediately drawn in by the description. I'm a sucker for dual timeline stories and was fascinated by the premise of a present-day scientist studying a woman that lived tens of thousands of years ago and how their lives intersect. You get the best of both worlds - the past and the present! This also pulled on my love for archaeology and anthropology. It is evident that the author also has a passion for it and her knowledge shown through in the book. I don't think I've ever highlighted so many passages in a book before. I was completely intrigued!
As with most dual timeline novels that I read I preferred Sarah's story. Could you imagine trudging through freezing cold and snow, delivering a baby on your own, and then keeping that baby and yourself alive in the most dangerous environment possible, while you forage and hunt for food and attempt to not freeze to death!? When it was Sarah's time in the story, I was gripped! So much so that I devoured the last hundred pages to see what happened to Sarah and her baby.
This is Bretherton's first novel and you bet I will be following her now to see what else she writes. I really enjoyed her writing and she definitely knows her research.
Philosophy, human nature, history, and science combine in Bone Lines to make for one captivating and thought provoking read!
As with most dual timeline novels that I read I preferred Sarah's story. Could you imagine trudging through freezing cold and snow, delivering a baby on your own, and then keeping that baby and yourself alive in the most dangerous environment possible, while you forage and hunt for food and attempt to not freeze to death!? When it was Sarah's time in the story, I was gripped! So much so that I devoured the last hundred pages to see what happened to Sarah and her baby.
This is Bretherton's first novel and you bet I will be following her now to see what else she writes. I really enjoyed her writing and she definitely knows her research.
Philosophy, human nature, history, and science combine in Bone Lines to make for one captivating and thought provoking read!
September 8, 2018
4,5 out of 5
The author of the book approached me with an offer to read her book and write an honest review about it. The expected publication date is September 19th, so it’s very fresh. Somehow Stephanie’s letter touched me (maybe because of the personalised letter) and I squeezed her book in my ever growing to-be-read pile. I’m very happy that I had this chance.
A short summary:
Bone Lines is a story about two very strong women tenth of thousands of years apart. Eloise is a geneticist. Her latest project is Sarah – 74.000 years old remains of a woman. And then we have Sarah, who, driven by an inner feeling of upcoming danger, took on a dangerous journey alone with her newborn daughter to find a new tribe. She was right to do so, by the way.
You can read my full review, including why I liked this book so much, on my blog here: http://www.notesofabookdragon.com/201...
The author of the book approached me with an offer to read her book and write an honest review about it. The expected publication date is September 19th, so it’s very fresh. Somehow Stephanie’s letter touched me (maybe because of the personalised letter) and I squeezed her book in my ever growing to-be-read pile. I’m very happy that I had this chance.
A short summary:
Bone Lines is a story about two very strong women tenth of thousands of years apart. Eloise is a geneticist. Her latest project is Sarah – 74.000 years old remains of a woman. And then we have Sarah, who, driven by an inner feeling of upcoming danger, took on a dangerous journey alone with her newborn daughter to find a new tribe. She was right to do so, by the way.
You can read my full review, including why I liked this book so much, on my blog here: http://www.notesofabookdragon.com/201...
December 27, 2018
This book is a fascinating study of science, philosophy, religion, gender, morality, history, all bound up in the fascinating story of two women living 74,000 years apart. It is the story of Eloise, a scientist in the present day who is presented with the bones of a prehistoric woman to study, and of ‘Sarah’ that prehistoric woman, battling for survival and to protect her child in an extreme environment. As Eloise studies the skeleton and tries to learn all she can about the woman they belonged to, she is also finding out about herself, and about all of us and how we got to where we are now, what we have found and what we may have lost along the way.
This book presents the reader with so much to think about, so much to contemplate and leaves them with more questions than it does answers, which is a marvellous gift for us to be given. Eloise is a thoroughly modern woman, dealing with dilemmas facing many professional women in the modern day, especially in traditionally male-dominated sectors. She is confronted with the decisions and sacrifices she has made to get where she is, whether they have been worth it and what her contribution as a person and as a woman means for her. She is tussling with so many conflicts – personal, philosophical, moral, religious – some of these she attempts to work out by writing letters to Darwin which could seem a bit gimmicky when described so baldly but actually it worked really well within the context of the book to help set out and work through some of the issues Eloise is faced with.
Alongside Eloise’s story in the present day, we are alternately following the story of Sarah, battling with a hostile climate 74,000 years ago. For me, her story was perhaps the more compelling part of the book as we contemplate what she had to go through to survive back then and what was driving her to do the things she did. Some of them are things that have been lost to us in the modern day, buried under the external support we now have in our every day lives, that innate instinct to survive, listening to our gift as it tells us what we need to do to survive. Sarah relies heavily on something within herself telling her what to do, and it is this inbred, internal voice that compels her to leave her tribe and head away to where she believes at the very core of herself she will be safe. Is this something genetic? Is is something that has carried down through the generations by those who listened to it and as a result, survived to pass on their genes down the generations to the modern day? Is this something we could all still tap in to if we let ourselves and stop over-thinking everything? This is something I have contemplated myself previously and this book has just given me even more food for thought. Some of the things are motives that still drive us today – self-preservation, bloody mindedness, the desire to protect our offspring and, therefore, our genetic legacy, and … love. There are perhaps more parallels between Eloise and Sarah than there are differences.
This book requires focus, attention and thought to get the most from it but it is one that is really worth the effort. It is not dry and dull, despite the complex issues addressed, but a really fascinating treatise on our origins and the evolution of our species from then to now, how we got here, what our ancestors needed to do to survive, what they passed down to us, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of that history and what people are doing to explain it, to get to the truth of where we come from and how those origins have influenced who we have become. A very ambitious and intelligent book, meticulously researched, that the writer has pulled off beautifully and I look forward to seeing what comes next.
This book presents the reader with so much to think about, so much to contemplate and leaves them with more questions than it does answers, which is a marvellous gift for us to be given. Eloise is a thoroughly modern woman, dealing with dilemmas facing many professional women in the modern day, especially in traditionally male-dominated sectors. She is confronted with the decisions and sacrifices she has made to get where she is, whether they have been worth it and what her contribution as a person and as a woman means for her. She is tussling with so many conflicts – personal, philosophical, moral, religious – some of these she attempts to work out by writing letters to Darwin which could seem a bit gimmicky when described so baldly but actually it worked really well within the context of the book to help set out and work through some of the issues Eloise is faced with.
Alongside Eloise’s story in the present day, we are alternately following the story of Sarah, battling with a hostile climate 74,000 years ago. For me, her story was perhaps the more compelling part of the book as we contemplate what she had to go through to survive back then and what was driving her to do the things she did. Some of them are things that have been lost to us in the modern day, buried under the external support we now have in our every day lives, that innate instinct to survive, listening to our gift as it tells us what we need to do to survive. Sarah relies heavily on something within herself telling her what to do, and it is this inbred, internal voice that compels her to leave her tribe and head away to where she believes at the very core of herself she will be safe. Is this something genetic? Is is something that has carried down through the generations by those who listened to it and as a result, survived to pass on their genes down the generations to the modern day? Is this something we could all still tap in to if we let ourselves and stop over-thinking everything? This is something I have contemplated myself previously and this book has just given me even more food for thought. Some of the things are motives that still drive us today – self-preservation, bloody mindedness, the desire to protect our offspring and, therefore, our genetic legacy, and … love. There are perhaps more parallels between Eloise and Sarah than there are differences.
This book requires focus, attention and thought to get the most from it but it is one that is really worth the effort. It is not dry and dull, despite the complex issues addressed, but a really fascinating treatise on our origins and the evolution of our species from then to now, how we got here, what our ancestors needed to do to survive, what they passed down to us, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of that history and what people are doing to explain it, to get to the truth of where we come from and how those origins have influenced who we have become. A very ambitious and intelligent book, meticulously researched, that the writer has pulled off beautifully and I look forward to seeing what comes next.
September 14, 2018
Many will know that I really enjoy debut authors and following their writing journey’s. I am so thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for the debut novel Bone Lines by Stephanie Bretherton and published by Unbound who are rapidly becoming a favourite publisher with the outstanding quality of the authors and writing.
This is a novel set over two periods in facts thousands of years apart. Dr Eloise Kluft is a geneticist working on her new project which are the remains of ‘Sarah’ who was alive 74,000 years before. Then we have ‘Sarah’ who with her new born baby they are alone in a landscape that is unknown but there is danger and it is not too far away.
London is the base for Eloise as she starts to piece together the remains of ‘Sarah’ from the incredible archaeological find. The story of Bone Lines is a story of two very strong willed women separated by time but the story could well be the same. Both women alone. For Eloise she is reminded of her own emotions and her past. For ‘Sarah’ she is alone and facing the hazard of migration but why is ‘Sarah’ alone with her child and were are the others.
The story is so beautifully written and told as the reader alternated between modern day London and a time 74,000 years before. Eloise is extremely dedicated to her work so much so that her personal life just seems to have been put to one side as she dedicates her life to her profession. She is missing out and she knows it.
One aspect I did like was the letters she was writing to Charles Darwin this fascinated me as Eloise uses this aspect to come up with solutions and ideas. For someone like me who studied Darwin many years previous this was an eye opener. Clever to use this in a novel.
Two incredibly strong willed women who struggle with their own day to day life for different reason, whether to stay alive or to come to terms with the past as shape the future. A story that may take a little while to appreciate but when you do, it comes together brilliantly. The research by Stephanie for Bone Lines is outstanding and deserves credit. Highly Recommended.
My copy was provided by the publisher for review.
272 Pages.
This is a novel set over two periods in facts thousands of years apart. Dr Eloise Kluft is a geneticist working on her new project which are the remains of ‘Sarah’ who was alive 74,000 years before. Then we have ‘Sarah’ who with her new born baby they are alone in a landscape that is unknown but there is danger and it is not too far away.
London is the base for Eloise as she starts to piece together the remains of ‘Sarah’ from the incredible archaeological find. The story of Bone Lines is a story of two very strong willed women separated by time but the story could well be the same. Both women alone. For Eloise she is reminded of her own emotions and her past. For ‘Sarah’ she is alone and facing the hazard of migration but why is ‘Sarah’ alone with her child and were are the others.
The story is so beautifully written and told as the reader alternated between modern day London and a time 74,000 years before. Eloise is extremely dedicated to her work so much so that her personal life just seems to have been put to one side as she dedicates her life to her profession. She is missing out and she knows it.
One aspect I did like was the letters she was writing to Charles Darwin this fascinated me as Eloise uses this aspect to come up with solutions and ideas. For someone like me who studied Darwin many years previous this was an eye opener. Clever to use this in a novel.
Two incredibly strong willed women who struggle with their own day to day life for different reason, whether to stay alive or to come to terms with the past as shape the future. A story that may take a little while to appreciate but when you do, it comes together brilliantly. The research by Stephanie for Bone Lines is outstanding and deserves credit. Highly Recommended.
My copy was provided by the publisher for review.
272 Pages.
October 14, 2018
This is an intriguing book, mixing two terrific stories 70,000 years apart whilst also giving us the latest advances in genetics. I enjoyed reading the story set in the deep past and then learning that the behaviours described are now confirmed through our knowledge of genetics. Various plot lines (in both time frames) are started but not completely resolved so we can look forward to book two and maybe a whole series. I am all in favour of any book that raises people’s understanding of science and Stephanie is such a good storyteller that I’m sure her audience will enjoy the ride, even if they start with no scientific knowledge.
October 24, 2018
Time works in two ways in this exciting and vivid thriller. It’s smart writing, bring to mind Jean Auel and Michael Crichton — while carving out its own niche.
September 5, 2018
This debut novel by Stephanie Bretherton is another Unbound publication, the publisher which continues to take a risk on the more unusual suspects, when selecting their authors and projects.
Bone Lines deals both with a scientist investigating some prehistoric remains in the present day and the story of the person who left those remains behind. Stephanie creates two believable and well-rounded heroines in separate and entirely convincing worlds. They are both strong and complex women of their time and this reader was thoroughly engaged by them. No regrets at all about picking up Ms Bretherton’s novel with its intriguing premise.
Some may feel the device of Eloise’s letters to Darwin a little contrived, but in fact it works well in explaining and exploring some of the difficult ethical, scientific and philosophical concepts touched on by this book.
Without banging the reader over the head with polemic, this novel explains beautifully some of the compromises, dilemmas and injustices encountered by women in the scientific (and let’s face it, almost any other) field.
Perhaps I’ve made Bone Fields sound a little dry: I assure you it’s anything but. Give it a try, it really is a book less ordinary and I for one am looking forward to the sequel.
December 7, 2018
This novel wears it's scientific heart with pride and is all the better for it.
Fiercely intelligent and wonderfully written this story is woven from two completely different humans journeys. Dr Eloise Kluft a scientific Indiana Jones, the lab is her temple and the human genome is her mystery to solve.
And the pre-historic young woman who is only looking to survive each day as it comes. The more technical ideas in this book aren't always the easiest to follow, but the powerful narrative more than makes up for the occasionally needed google search.
A beautifully researched novel, that is brimming with ideas, ripe for Book Club chats. Highly recommend for readers looking for something a bit different.
Fiercely intelligent and wonderfully written this story is woven from two completely different humans journeys. Dr Eloise Kluft a scientific Indiana Jones, the lab is her temple and the human genome is her mystery to solve.
And the pre-historic young woman who is only looking to survive each day as it comes. The more technical ideas in this book aren't always the easiest to follow, but the powerful narrative more than makes up for the occasionally needed google search.
A beautifully researched novel, that is brimming with ideas, ripe for Book Club chats. Highly recommend for readers looking for something a bit different.
September 13, 2018
This is planned as the first in a series called The Children of Sarah, and it absolutely can be read as a standalone book. It fits into quite a few categories when it comes to genre. It is historical fiction, and yet it is also evolutionary, philosophical and features genetics, migration and climate change.
On a side note, I would just like to say that although I enjoyed the way the author goes from past to present with the living Sarah in the past and the bones of Sarah with Eloise in the present, I think the story of Sarah in the past is compelling and strong enough to succeed alone without the storyline of Eloise.
I felt myself drawn more towards Sarah, perhaps because of her determination and strength, despite the fact the two women share those traits, Sarah’s battle was the element of the story that drew me in completely.
We follow the journey of a young woman many thousands of years ago, a woman who possesses gifts of an intuitive nature, passed down from her ancestors. She separates from her tribe and sets out on her own path of migration, because her instincts are telling her that survival lies elsewhere. Her journey, which may be recognisable to some, as she encounters different terrains, wildlife and natural resources, takes place over a few years.
It’s a fascinating read from the perspective of migration, especially when you take into consideration which tribes we are linked to and everywhere they have melded into the story of our evolutionary path. I also enjoyed reading about a possible predisposition of specific genetics, which are or were perhaps a more accurate determinant of survival, as opposed to survival of the fittest.
The focus is on evolution, migration and genetics, but the author does due diligence by including the religious theory of creationism, albeit to disprove and show how improbable it is. It is a physical, genetic and scientifically proven impossibility. Having faith and believing in a higher divinity to comfort yourself is one thing, disregarding factual evidence to support your comfort blanket is quite another. My thoughts, and not those of the writer by the way.
The author invites her readers to discover the journey of our ancestors. To reach far into the past and live through their struggles, determination and watch them influence our future. To take Sarah’s hand as she searches for sustenance, protects herself from the environment and the danger she is surrounded by, and to help her as she searches for the place she believes will make her feel safe.
Bretherton has clearly researched the topics in the story meticulously and presents them in layman’s terms. Combining facts with fiction to create an intriguing read, which is simultaneously also an educational experience. It’s a story that leaves you with food for thought, and those are my favourite kind of books.
I am genuinely looking forward to reading the next part in this series. It has a lot of potential, and has a Jean Auel feel to it, which is combined with the forensic obsession of a Kathy Reichs novel, but without a crime element to the story. It is a tale of survival, pain and the search for a place to establish roots. The story of our footprints in the sand, our scent in the wind and our genetic material morphing and mutating as it moves throughout the years.
*I received a copy courtesy of the publisher*
On a side note, I would just like to say that although I enjoyed the way the author goes from past to present with the living Sarah in the past and the bones of Sarah with Eloise in the present, I think the story of Sarah in the past is compelling and strong enough to succeed alone without the storyline of Eloise.
I felt myself drawn more towards Sarah, perhaps because of her determination and strength, despite the fact the two women share those traits, Sarah’s battle was the element of the story that drew me in completely.
We follow the journey of a young woman many thousands of years ago, a woman who possesses gifts of an intuitive nature, passed down from her ancestors. She separates from her tribe and sets out on her own path of migration, because her instincts are telling her that survival lies elsewhere. Her journey, which may be recognisable to some, as she encounters different terrains, wildlife and natural resources, takes place over a few years.
It’s a fascinating read from the perspective of migration, especially when you take into consideration which tribes we are linked to and everywhere they have melded into the story of our evolutionary path. I also enjoyed reading about a possible predisposition of specific genetics, which are or were perhaps a more accurate determinant of survival, as opposed to survival of the fittest.
The focus is on evolution, migration and genetics, but the author does due diligence by including the religious theory of creationism, albeit to disprove and show how improbable it is. It is a physical, genetic and scientifically proven impossibility. Having faith and believing in a higher divinity to comfort yourself is one thing, disregarding factual evidence to support your comfort blanket is quite another. My thoughts, and not those of the writer by the way.
The author invites her readers to discover the journey of our ancestors. To reach far into the past and live through their struggles, determination and watch them influence our future. To take Sarah’s hand as she searches for sustenance, protects herself from the environment and the danger she is surrounded by, and to help her as she searches for the place she believes will make her feel safe.
Bretherton has clearly researched the topics in the story meticulously and presents them in layman’s terms. Combining facts with fiction to create an intriguing read, which is simultaneously also an educational experience. It’s a story that leaves you with food for thought, and those are my favourite kind of books.
I am genuinely looking forward to reading the next part in this series. It has a lot of potential, and has a Jean Auel feel to it, which is combined with the forensic obsession of a Kathy Reichs novel, but without a crime element to the story. It is a tale of survival, pain and the search for a place to establish roots. The story of our footprints in the sand, our scent in the wind and our genetic material morphing and mutating as it moves throughout the years.
*I received a copy courtesy of the publisher*
October 21, 2018
Stephanie Bretherton's novel, Bone Lines, follows twin narratives of two strong female characters. Eloise is a successful archaeological anthropologist. She's excitedly studying the skeletal remains of an ancient African. The parallel storyline is that of this woman 70 000 years ago. Struggling with a newborn baby, in a region desperately affected by a climatic event that has killed most of the animals and people, she travels through the wasting land in search of greener pastures.
Both women struggle with the events surrounding them. Eloise has relationship issues, some of which relate to worries about getting old. Then there are the first world problems of being a modern academic scientist: worries relating to funding, professional rivalries and office politics. Getting mugged doesn't help either.
Eloise's subject has the daily search to find food and she is constantly on watch to avoid predators, and other hominids, who might do them harm. Whilst this part of the story necessitated an invented Africa, it reads utterly believably. There were no moments where I even wondered, 'is that actually what it would have been like?'. This is particularly strong, as the ancient protagonist is wandering a landscape where various human species are present at the same time, and when she encounters new people, there is the question of both what their tribe or clan is like and also what their species is like. Absolutely intriguing. It made me wonder what, for example, your pet cat would make of a meeting with a lion.
The stories develop nicely, leading to sound and rounded conclusions for both women. As a scientist myself, I found a real delight in the intellectual strength of the writing. It was intriguing, with a disparate range of scientific ideas woven together really well.
Even Eloise’s various men friends came across as both believable and interesting. And I say ‘even’, not because it surprises me that Bretherton could pull this off, but because I normally find the human relationship aspects of novels a real turn off. For me, the story has a great balance of scientific/plot interest against the human interest side of things.
I loved this book.
Both women struggle with the events surrounding them. Eloise has relationship issues, some of which relate to worries about getting old. Then there are the first world problems of being a modern academic scientist: worries relating to funding, professional rivalries and office politics. Getting mugged doesn't help either.
Eloise's subject has the daily search to find food and she is constantly on watch to avoid predators, and other hominids, who might do them harm. Whilst this part of the story necessitated an invented Africa, it reads utterly believably. There were no moments where I even wondered, 'is that actually what it would have been like?'. This is particularly strong, as the ancient protagonist is wandering a landscape where various human species are present at the same time, and when she encounters new people, there is the question of both what their tribe or clan is like and also what their species is like. Absolutely intriguing. It made me wonder what, for example, your pet cat would make of a meeting with a lion.
The stories develop nicely, leading to sound and rounded conclusions for both women. As a scientist myself, I found a real delight in the intellectual strength of the writing. It was intriguing, with a disparate range of scientific ideas woven together really well.
Even Eloise’s various men friends came across as both believable and interesting. And I say ‘even’, not because it surprises me that Bretherton could pull this off, but because I normally find the human relationship aspects of novels a real turn off. For me, the story has a great balance of scientific/plot interest against the human interest side of things.
I loved this book.
November 7, 2018
Stephanie Bretherton's Bone Lines (Unbound, 2018) is built around two brilliant intertwined stories. In one, our common ancestress flees the desolate wastes of the north, leaving her clan and lover as ‘bones under snow’ in the fallout from a super-volcano eruption in Sumatra 75,000 years ago. This is the gentle, piercing, plausible tale of her long and dangerous slog, a growing daughter on her back, to safety in what would one day become East Africa. In the other, her bones have been discovered and she has been named Sarah after Barack Obama’s granny, while her DNA is being extracted, sequenced and interpreted by scientists in London. Eloise is the leader of the research team, and as she muses about her own life and the meaning of her work, she offers pithy thoughts on the modern world. The quest for decent sex and rewarding partnerships by single, professional women is a recurrent theme - resolved near the end - but on the way there are useful, intelligent and, as far as I can see as an ecologist and primatologist, accurate observations on human evolution, medical genetics, climate change, consciousness, perception, anthropology, biogeography, and genocide, while she also puts the boot into Brexit, Trump, misogyny and fascism. All this is great! Meanwhile there is a conspiracy of religious nuts haunting the modern story, just as there were cannibals stalking the ancient one, who are satisfyingly defeated by medical compassion and lethal bear claws respectively. And the book ends with the kind of hair-standing-on-end sentence that one half-expected but didn’t dare hope for. Faced with such a thoughtful, modern and often very beautiful read, all I can say is: go get it!
January 23, 2019
As with any of my reviews, I won't provide a synopsis of the plot - I will give my thoughts on the novel itself.
There are a great many strengths being showcased in Bone Lines: the quality of the writing is excellent; the thoughtfulness that has gone into character development is exceptional; the research undertaken is admirable; and the ending ties everything together very well and in a slightly unexpected way. Bone Lines is enormously rewarding in many respects and an accomplished debut novel.
I did, however, on a personal level, have issues with it. Bone Lines is ruminative in a way that I generally appreciate in modern novels (e.g. Ian McEwan), but the nature of the thought processes confused me at times. Our protagonist is a strong female with a big brain, yet I felt she was being pulled back by episodic perambulations through her love life. She also has a habit of plonking big info drops in very awkward places (in the middle of conversations, for instance) and so I wasn't her biggest fan. She also felt very safe in a liberal, middle-class way that bordered on patronising, at times, and this irritated me. I can see that Bone Lines is the first in a series, and I would like to see her change as her journey goes on.
Bone Lines left me with mixed feelings. Where there is so much that works well there is just as much that didn't quite do it for me. Nonetheless, it is a striking debut and I want to see how the author's career progresses.
There are a great many strengths being showcased in Bone Lines: the quality of the writing is excellent; the thoughtfulness that has gone into character development is exceptional; the research undertaken is admirable; and the ending ties everything together very well and in a slightly unexpected way. Bone Lines is enormously rewarding in many respects and an accomplished debut novel.
I did, however, on a personal level, have issues with it. Bone Lines is ruminative in a way that I generally appreciate in modern novels (e.g. Ian McEwan), but the nature of the thought processes confused me at times. Our protagonist is a strong female with a big brain, yet I felt she was being pulled back by episodic perambulations through her love life. She also has a habit of plonking big info drops in very awkward places (in the middle of conversations, for instance) and so I wasn't her biggest fan. She also felt very safe in a liberal, middle-class way that bordered on patronising, at times, and this irritated me. I can see that Bone Lines is the first in a series, and I would like to see her change as her journey goes on.
Bone Lines left me with mixed feelings. Where there is so much that works well there is just as much that didn't quite do it for me. Nonetheless, it is a striking debut and I want to see how the author's career progresses.
January 21, 2019
By any criteria, Bone Lines is a striking debut. Bretherton succeeds in fusing an engaging contemporary narrative with a gripping pre-historical odyssey. Each of the parallel narratives features a redoubtable and sympathetic heroine. Any thinking female reader will readily identify with both protagonists.
In the present day, eminent scientist, Dr Eloise Kluft, is presented with an intriguing and critically significant archaeological project. Without wishing to give away too much of the plot, we also, via more or less alternate chapters, follow the journey, millennia earlier, of ‘Sarah’, a pregnant female, struggling to survive against the odds.
It is testament to Bretherton’s lightness of touch, that I, personally, found both stories equally compelling, and felt myself vociferously urging both women on, in their respective quests for survival. Primordial and instinctual, in Sarah’s case; professional and emotional for Eloise.
The writing is shot through with often surprising and delightful lyricism: ‘a flock of metal cranes bowed their heads and prayed quietly…’ while the occasionally complex scientific explication was never too dense that this Luddite reader was unable both to follow and to digest.
Along the way, Bretherton manages to intelligently examine, sometimes skewing, an entire range of contemporary shibboleths, from the labour overload on the modern woman to the mystical cult of motherhood. Perhaps an unintended corollary of these parallel tales is an unblinking examination of maternity in all its forms: from the frustrations, yearnings and frequent ambivalence of childless Eloise to the visceral and intuitive reflexes of Sarah, as she contemplates her new baby daughter.
In the present day, eminent scientist, Dr Eloise Kluft, is presented with an intriguing and critically significant archaeological project. Without wishing to give away too much of the plot, we also, via more or less alternate chapters, follow the journey, millennia earlier, of ‘Sarah’, a pregnant female, struggling to survive against the odds.
It is testament to Bretherton’s lightness of touch, that I, personally, found both stories equally compelling, and felt myself vociferously urging both women on, in their respective quests for survival. Primordial and instinctual, in Sarah’s case; professional and emotional for Eloise.
The writing is shot through with often surprising and delightful lyricism: ‘a flock of metal cranes bowed their heads and prayed quietly…’ while the occasionally complex scientific explication was never too dense that this Luddite reader was unable both to follow and to digest.
Along the way, Bretherton manages to intelligently examine, sometimes skewing, an entire range of contemporary shibboleths, from the labour overload on the modern woman to the mystical cult of motherhood. Perhaps an unintended corollary of these parallel tales is an unblinking examination of maternity in all its forms: from the frustrations, yearnings and frequent ambivalence of childless Eloise to the visceral and intuitive reflexes of Sarah, as she contemplates her new baby daughter.
December 21, 2018
Bone Lines is set in two time lines. Eloise is geneticist in present day London and is going to be working on a skull that has been found, it’s a major archeological find and she knows this is going to be such important work. The novel also follows a woman 74,000 years ago. We see her give birth out in the open and then her struggles to keep herself and her child alive and well. The skull that Eloise is working with is named Sarah, and it’s apparent that this is the woman from the past.
I’ll be honest and say that initially I did find this novel a little hard to get into, I wasn’t sure where it was going and it’s so different from anything else that I’ve read in quite a while. A few chapters in though I felt it all began to make sense to me and I could see parallels between modern woman and the woman 74,000 years ago. At this point this book became compelling for me and I struggled to put it down.
Sarah clearly has a very difficult life, she is separated from her family and is unsure where exactly she is and whether she will ever encounter people she can join with again. She is terrified of anything happening to her child and is very protective. I felt such an emotional connection to Sarah. The way she honours the dead from her family, and the way she remembers her mother and longs for her after her child is born was incredibly moving. It really got to me in a way that I wasn’t expecting, I ignorantly assumed I wouldn’t really understand a woman who lived so long ago but this novel really made me think about how longing for our mothers, needing their support and protection at various times in our lives is such a universal human emotion. The book leaves you wondering if this innate feeling is genetic, or if it’s entirely just an emotional connection to the past.
Eloise is struggling with the issues that come with being a professional woman – ideas around having children, not having a husband etc that people often want to know about. She’s also working hard to discover if there’s a genetic link to suicide. She looks for answers about everything within science and is sure there are answers to be found. When she’s really finding it tough she starts writing letters to Charles Darwin, and while this might sound like a gimmick it actually really works within the book. It gave more insight into how Eloise thinks and feels and shows her ambition and why she strives in the way she does.
The further you get into the novel the more you see the parallels between the two women. The way they are both searching for a place to belong, a place where they fit in and feel safe. Sarah ponders on finding another group she can settle with, and Eloise seems to be looking for something that’s missing in her own life. It really opened my eyes to the universality of what humans are seeking, in spite of the circumstances of their life.
This is a beautifully written novel that explores science, evolution and emotion. It’s such an enjoyable read whilst also giving you something to think about. I’m so glad that I got the chance to read this, it feels like a book that will really stay with me. It’s made me want to read more about the period that Sarah was living and to understand how we got from there to here. I’m delighted to see that while this book stands on its own that a sequel is planned, I will definitely pre-order this book when it’s available!
A powerful, moving and fascinating novel!
This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com
I’ll be honest and say that initially I did find this novel a little hard to get into, I wasn’t sure where it was going and it’s so different from anything else that I’ve read in quite a while. A few chapters in though I felt it all began to make sense to me and I could see parallels between modern woman and the woman 74,000 years ago. At this point this book became compelling for me and I struggled to put it down.
Sarah clearly has a very difficult life, she is separated from her family and is unsure where exactly she is and whether she will ever encounter people she can join with again. She is terrified of anything happening to her child and is very protective. I felt such an emotional connection to Sarah. The way she honours the dead from her family, and the way she remembers her mother and longs for her after her child is born was incredibly moving. It really got to me in a way that I wasn’t expecting, I ignorantly assumed I wouldn’t really understand a woman who lived so long ago but this novel really made me think about how longing for our mothers, needing their support and protection at various times in our lives is such a universal human emotion. The book leaves you wondering if this innate feeling is genetic, or if it’s entirely just an emotional connection to the past.
Eloise is struggling with the issues that come with being a professional woman – ideas around having children, not having a husband etc that people often want to know about. She’s also working hard to discover if there’s a genetic link to suicide. She looks for answers about everything within science and is sure there are answers to be found. When she’s really finding it tough she starts writing letters to Charles Darwin, and while this might sound like a gimmick it actually really works within the book. It gave more insight into how Eloise thinks and feels and shows her ambition and why she strives in the way she does.
The further you get into the novel the more you see the parallels between the two women. The way they are both searching for a place to belong, a place where they fit in and feel safe. Sarah ponders on finding another group she can settle with, and Eloise seems to be looking for something that’s missing in her own life. It really opened my eyes to the universality of what humans are seeking, in spite of the circumstances of their life.
This is a beautifully written novel that explores science, evolution and emotion. It’s such an enjoyable read whilst also giving you something to think about. I’m so glad that I got the chance to read this, it feels like a book that will really stay with me. It’s made me want to read more about the period that Sarah was living and to understand how we got from there to here. I’m delighted to see that while this book stands on its own that a sequel is planned, I will definitely pre-order this book when it’s available!
A powerful, moving and fascinating novel!
This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com
December 11, 2018
Bone Lines is a dual narrative story that follows two women separated by thousands of years yet still connected through common themes which unite all of humanity. Eloise is a geneticist who is desperately eager to uncover the secrets of a 74,000-year-old female skeleton discovered by happy accident on Mount Kenya. The skeleton is given a media-friendly name, Sarah after Barack Obama's Kenyan grandmother and readers are taken back to ancient times when this extraordinary woman was forced into a nomadic existence following the Sumatran super-volcano eruption which left her alone and pregnant. Her story is one of desperate survival as she travels with her infant daughter, barely finding sustenance to support them both in the desolate, devastated lands she must pass through as she searches for a new place to call home. She risks almost constant danger as she must face the triple threat of the cold, hunger and other predators but her humanity is never in any doubt and far from being a primitive hunter, she is shown to be empathetic, loving and fiercely protective of her baby daughter. She may have lived thousands of years ago but it struck me that Sarah is not very different from the women who are still forced to migrate from their homes and withstand terrible hardships in order to protect their children today.
Eloise's struggles are more instantly recognisable to modern readers as she considers the moral, philosophical and religious complexities of her research even when driven by the desire for knowledge in her professional life. She ably contends with office politics, professional rivalries and religious fanaticism but acknowledges her personal affairs are rather less successful. She's perhaps not the easiest woman to understand initially and it took me a little while to feel as much affinity with her as I did with Sarah but as the story progresses I grew to really like her introspective nature and wry sense of humour. Both women are determined and courageous individuals but they are united by loss and regret as much as by what motivates them to keep going. They have lost their families and left behind lovers and though their circumstances are very different, there is a sense of loneliness which haunts them both. Bone Lines is unashamedly scientific with a focus on evolution, genetics and climate change and is written to be entirely plausible yet still accessible for the layperson. This is an intelligent, educational and thought-provoking novel which led me to consider just how medical genetics may shape the future of mankind.
However, for all the theorising, Bones Lines is a beautifully written, even occasionally wryly humorous book which at its heart is about love and how it continues to drive and inspire us. That our genetic material has adapted over time and yet still connects us to humans who walked upon the Earth thousands of years ago is both fascinating and humbling. At a time when our political landscape arguably sees us more divided than ever, I found this to be a rather soothing, thoughtful and necessary reminder that we all far more similar than we are different.
Eloise's struggles are more instantly recognisable to modern readers as she considers the moral, philosophical and religious complexities of her research even when driven by the desire for knowledge in her professional life. She ably contends with office politics, professional rivalries and religious fanaticism but acknowledges her personal affairs are rather less successful. She's perhaps not the easiest woman to understand initially and it took me a little while to feel as much affinity with her as I did with Sarah but as the story progresses I grew to really like her introspective nature and wry sense of humour. Both women are determined and courageous individuals but they are united by loss and regret as much as by what motivates them to keep going. They have lost their families and left behind lovers and though their circumstances are very different, there is a sense of loneliness which haunts them both. Bone Lines is unashamedly scientific with a focus on evolution, genetics and climate change and is written to be entirely plausible yet still accessible for the layperson. This is an intelligent, educational and thought-provoking novel which led me to consider just how medical genetics may shape the future of mankind.
However, for all the theorising, Bones Lines is a beautifully written, even occasionally wryly humorous book which at its heart is about love and how it continues to drive and inspire us. That our genetic material has adapted over time and yet still connects us to humans who walked upon the Earth thousands of years ago is both fascinating and humbling. At a time when our political landscape arguably sees us more divided than ever, I found this to be a rather soothing, thoughtful and necessary reminder that we all far more similar than we are different.
December 27, 2018
I received an ARC of this from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Initially when I requested this book, I thought the cover and the description were intriguing. I happened to read some of the reviews before actually diving in and it was a bit of a mixed bag. What I did notice, was that people who had an interest or a background in anthropology or archaeology generally really enjoyed this book while others that did not have a bit of a background, tended to not like it or not finish it. So my advice to any reader is to read this if you have an interest in the field since it is very heavy on information in that regard.
The book primarily focuses on the remains of a woman found in the ice. The hunt is on to analyze her DNA to determine what characteristics she displays in comparison to what is already known about Homo Sapiens. Dr. Eloise Kluft lands the project and she is assisted by an American scientist who also has an interest in the project. What follows is a dive into human genetics, religion, cults, lost love, and trying to find the keys to unlock some of the characteristics of our species.
Running parallel to Eloise's story, is the story of the woman in the ice herself and her long journey with her baby. Trying to survive after a volcanic eruption which wiped out her clan, she must migrate across Africa in order to survive.
I'm a bit of a geek this way and I enjoyed it. However, if you're interested in just the story aspect and not so much the information, I'd leave this one for later. It's heavy on the info, light on the story. Overall though, neat concept.
Initially when I requested this book, I thought the cover and the description were intriguing. I happened to read some of the reviews before actually diving in and it was a bit of a mixed bag. What I did notice, was that people who had an interest or a background in anthropology or archaeology generally really enjoyed this book while others that did not have a bit of a background, tended to not like it or not finish it. So my advice to any reader is to read this if you have an interest in the field since it is very heavy on information in that regard.
The book primarily focuses on the remains of a woman found in the ice. The hunt is on to analyze her DNA to determine what characteristics she displays in comparison to what is already known about Homo Sapiens. Dr. Eloise Kluft lands the project and she is assisted by an American scientist who also has an interest in the project. What follows is a dive into human genetics, religion, cults, lost love, and trying to find the keys to unlock some of the characteristics of our species.
Running parallel to Eloise's story, is the story of the woman in the ice herself and her long journey with her baby. Trying to survive after a volcanic eruption which wiped out her clan, she must migrate across Africa in order to survive.
I'm a bit of a geek this way and I enjoyed it. However, if you're interested in just the story aspect and not so much the information, I'd leave this one for later. It's heavy on the info, light on the story. Overall though, neat concept.
November 1, 2018
The story of Dr Eloise Kluft, a talented but troubled geneticist, who is unravelling the mystery of the skeletal remains of a prehistoric woman, is beautifully told alongside the parallel tale of Sarah that very woman from 74,000 years ago, who is struggling to bring her baby to safety during a catastrophic climate change event.
I really enjoyed the concept of a dual tale of two strong women set so many years apart and how the challenges of these intriguing women overlap, but I was particularly drawn to the story of the prehistoric Sarah, which I found very moving as well as fresh and original. I was also impressed by the author's ability to paint a picture of what life on earth would be like as I found it very convincing, poetic even.
Science was my least favourite subject at school, but the science that is woven through this book did not put me off, though I would say that as the novel deals with some very complex issues on the evolution of our species - and much more besides - it requires some focused and thoughtful reading.
Overall it is an elegantly written book and very accomplished in its breadth of subject matter for a first-time author - indeed for any author. In many works of fiction it is possible to anticipate the ending, but I did not foresee the outcomes of either of the heroines in Bone Lines.
I really enjoyed the concept of a dual tale of two strong women set so many years apart and how the challenges of these intriguing women overlap, but I was particularly drawn to the story of the prehistoric Sarah, which I found very moving as well as fresh and original. I was also impressed by the author's ability to paint a picture of what life on earth would be like as I found it very convincing, poetic even.
Science was my least favourite subject at school, but the science that is woven through this book did not put me off, though I would say that as the novel deals with some very complex issues on the evolution of our species - and much more besides - it requires some focused and thoughtful reading.
Overall it is an elegantly written book and very accomplished in its breadth of subject matter for a first-time author - indeed for any author. In many works of fiction it is possible to anticipate the ending, but I did not foresee the outcomes of either of the heroines in Bone Lines.
November 7, 2018
I understand that Bone Lines is the first in a series and I am very much looking forward to the next one.
The dual narratives and time lines are done exceptionally well and flow seamlessly, Eloise is a geneticist and is studying the bones of "Sarah" who lived thousands of years ago. The two women have a lot in common, strength of character, determination and a natural curiosity. Eloise takes us on a journey through the ethical minefield of genetic research, Sarah sets out on an epic trek to find a safe haven after a massive catastrophe has made her home uninhabitable.
A fascinating and thought provoking read with exceptional characterisation, I was eager to finish the story but also I didn't want it to end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stephanie Bretherton for a wonderful and engrossing read.
The dual narratives and time lines are done exceptionally well and flow seamlessly, Eloise is a geneticist and is studying the bones of "Sarah" who lived thousands of years ago. The two women have a lot in common, strength of character, determination and a natural curiosity. Eloise takes us on a journey through the ethical minefield of genetic research, Sarah sets out on an epic trek to find a safe haven after a massive catastrophe has made her home uninhabitable.
A fascinating and thought provoking read with exceptional characterisation, I was eager to finish the story but also I didn't want it to end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Stephanie Bretherton for a wonderful and engrossing read.
December 29, 2018
Thankyou to NetGalley, Unbound, Unbound Digital and the author, Stephanie Bretherton, for the opportunity to read a copy of Bone Lines in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion
Well, this is a debut novel. With some authors, you can tell it is their first foray into fiction writing. They hone their talent over subsequent publications, and it is magical to watch them grow as a writer. The readers reap the rewards of their talent. Not with this book/author though..
Ms Bretherton has delivered an amazing novel from the outset. I could not read it fast enough. I loved how seamless she has written the timeline changes and the engaging characters. The premise of the storyline offers the reader so much and what was promised was delivered. I, for one, want more. If this is a debut novel, I cannot wait for her future novels.
Definitely well worth a read.
Well, this is a debut novel. With some authors, you can tell it is their first foray into fiction writing. They hone their talent over subsequent publications, and it is magical to watch them grow as a writer. The readers reap the rewards of their talent. Not with this book/author though..
Ms Bretherton has delivered an amazing novel from the outset. I could not read it fast enough. I loved how seamless she has written the timeline changes and the engaging characters. The premise of the storyline offers the reader so much and what was promised was delivered. I, for one, want more. If this is a debut novel, I cannot wait for her future novels.
Definitely well worth a read.
March 5, 2019
I’d like to say that I recently took a module while studying in forensic anthropology, Stephanie did not, that being said I was super impressed at all the nitty gritty details that she sewed into the fabric of this book, acknowledging the ‘Out of Africa’ theory and DNA. For me, authenticity is always a plus, it also shows that Stephanie has taken the time to properly research the themes and subjects included in Bone Lines.
Now that I’ve covered that, more about the storyline. The narrative is split into a dual storyline; past and present, present is Dr Eloise Kluft who is investigating an anthropological archaeological find. Kluft delves into the investigation to identify the individual whose bones tell a story of ancient proportions. As well as her job, Eloise has her life to concentrate on and her emotional past. The past is a hunter gatherer mother, who we come to know as Sarah. I would say that she’s the most developed of the ancient ancestors. She is lonely and mated with someone who I assume was a Neanderthal, an enemy that she was meant to kill until he turned around and that was the end of that love story. We see the story through Sarah’s POV after she’s given birth and that maternal instinct kicks in, she will live for her daughter and she will die her as they travel from the colder climate in the far north towards the warmth of the equator; Africa. I also loved that the main characters were both female, girl power!
The narratives, I think are used to compare past and contemporary life, as well as how life impacts you to a biologically level; genetically and physically. I thought the whole story was put together brilliantly, with the dual narratives complimenting one another whenever they crossed paths. The storyline wasn’t forced of filled with unnecessary information, it was great, pure and simple. ‘Bone Lines’ isn’t just a run of the mill novel, it’s makes you think about how we got here, as humans; our ancient ancestors and their tribulations of survival and courage. I also enjoyed that Charles Darwin was included in the story development, especially as he is one of the most famous contributors towards evolutionary research, including ‘survival of the fittest‘.
This review probably makes no sense, it may be disjointed and a load of gobble – dee – gook BUT I completely fell in love with this book, with Sarah and Eloise as characters. Stephanie got it all spot on for me and for that I will be keeping my ear to the ground aka eyes on Twitter for any news of her next book. Since graduating I’ve also been procrastinating about reading about anything like this BUT now I have my taste for it back, there is no stopping me.
Now that I’ve covered that, more about the storyline. The narrative is split into a dual storyline; past and present, present is Dr Eloise Kluft who is investigating an anthropological archaeological find. Kluft delves into the investigation to identify the individual whose bones tell a story of ancient proportions. As well as her job, Eloise has her life to concentrate on and her emotional past. The past is a hunter gatherer mother, who we come to know as Sarah. I would say that she’s the most developed of the ancient ancestors. She is lonely and mated with someone who I assume was a Neanderthal, an enemy that she was meant to kill until he turned around and that was the end of that love story. We see the story through Sarah’s POV after she’s given birth and that maternal instinct kicks in, she will live for her daughter and she will die her as they travel from the colder climate in the far north towards the warmth of the equator; Africa. I also loved that the main characters were both female, girl power!
The narratives, I think are used to compare past and contemporary life, as well as how life impacts you to a biologically level; genetically and physically. I thought the whole story was put together brilliantly, with the dual narratives complimenting one another whenever they crossed paths. The storyline wasn’t forced of filled with unnecessary information, it was great, pure and simple. ‘Bone Lines’ isn’t just a run of the mill novel, it’s makes you think about how we got here, as humans; our ancient ancestors and their tribulations of survival and courage. I also enjoyed that Charles Darwin was included in the story development, especially as he is one of the most famous contributors towards evolutionary research, including ‘survival of the fittest‘.
This review probably makes no sense, it may be disjointed and a load of gobble – dee – gook BUT I completely fell in love with this book, with Sarah and Eloise as characters. Stephanie got it all spot on for me and for that I will be keeping my ear to the ground aka eyes on Twitter for any news of her next book. Since graduating I’ve also been procrastinating about reading about anything like this BUT now I have my taste for it back, there is no stopping me.
October 14, 2018
Horribly bored by this I don't think I can manage anymore.
November 25, 2018
This book was sadly a DNF for me, I only reached 22%.
This book had such an interesting premise. We follow a geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft in the present day and a young woman in a time before history had written about, a time of cataclysmic natural change. Having just given birth she is trying to survive, to find shelter and food and trying to keep her baby alive. When remains are sent to Eloise in the present day these two women’s stories come together.
From that alone I was intrigued and it is clear that the authors writing style is beautifully descriptive and emotive. However there is something lost in translation with this story. The character Eloise really let this story down. The writing for this character is matter of fact, we just follow her day and interactions without a true sense of who she is. The flash between the woman trying to survive is understandably matter of fact. But the character is of more interest, reading about her time, the struggles and hearing her thoughts is jarring at times which brings a connection. Unfortunately it couldn’t carry the story and meant that it fell flat.
I decided to put the book down when I realised that unfortunately I wasn’t connecting with the characters. The intrigue in regards to the plot was lost as it wasn’t driven by the premise. Still I decided to give this book 2 stars as I really did like the writing style in parts.
This book had such an interesting premise. We follow a geneticist Dr Eloise Kluft in the present day and a young woman in a time before history had written about, a time of cataclysmic natural change. Having just given birth she is trying to survive, to find shelter and food and trying to keep her baby alive. When remains are sent to Eloise in the present day these two women’s stories come together.
From that alone I was intrigued and it is clear that the authors writing style is beautifully descriptive and emotive. However there is something lost in translation with this story. The character Eloise really let this story down. The writing for this character is matter of fact, we just follow her day and interactions without a true sense of who she is. The flash between the woman trying to survive is understandably matter of fact. But the character is of more interest, reading about her time, the struggles and hearing her thoughts is jarring at times which brings a connection. Unfortunately it couldn’t carry the story and meant that it fell flat.
I decided to put the book down when I realised that unfortunately I wasn’t connecting with the characters. The intrigue in regards to the plot was lost as it wasn’t driven by the premise. Still I decided to give this book 2 stars as I really did like the writing style in parts.
December 27, 2018
This is definitely a book of two parts, one set in the present day and one set very firmly in pre-historical times. The link between the two is a set of bones, those of the historical character, being examined by the modern character.
Dr Eloise Kluft has managed to acquire the right to conduct research on the bones and DNA of the remains. There is ongoing competition for access to the bones and also opposition for all the work that is being done on genes in general. I kept getting the impression that something was going to happen, but as I don't want to put any spoiler into my review, I won't give any more information on that.
There were areas where the modern character droned on a bit, I got used to it after a while and did manage to read my way through it all. My favourite bits were where the historical character is front and centre, thinking through her options and ensuring the survival of herself and her child. She is not afraid to take life by the scruff of the neck and wring it out, if it means that they will eat, be safe, move on.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I would like to see how the story of Eloise continues, more so on the exploration of the environment that the bones were discovered in, than her personal life though.
Dr Eloise Kluft has managed to acquire the right to conduct research on the bones and DNA of the remains. There is ongoing competition for access to the bones and also opposition for all the work that is being done on genes in general. I kept getting the impression that something was going to happen, but as I don't want to put any spoiler into my review, I won't give any more information on that.
There were areas where the modern character droned on a bit, I got used to it after a while and did manage to read my way through it all. My favourite bits were where the historical character is front and centre, thinking through her options and ensuring the survival of herself and her child. She is not afraid to take life by the scruff of the neck and wring it out, if it means that they will eat, be safe, move on.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I would like to see how the story of Eloise continues, more so on the exploration of the environment that the bones were discovered in, than her personal life though.
November 15, 2018
The premise of this novel was interesting: two women, one ancient, one modern, whose stories come together when the modern woman is asked to study the bones of the ancient. The narrative moves back and forth between them, mostly parallel, as the author details the daily concerns and struggles both face. However, neither woman is very interesting, and their characters are flat and dull, which makes for some stultifying reading. In addition, the modern woman, who is primarily occupied by her sex life and potential partners, comes off as unprofessional and far more interested in the dynamics of her relationship with a co-worker and former lovers than anything else. While it's undoubtedly fascinating to her, for readers it's a lot of repetitive navel-gazing. The ancient woman gives birth alone, must fight and kill a bear, and searches for a sustainable life. Her trek is only mildly more interesting that that of the modern woman, and the writing about both is riddled with cliches and stereotyping. Finally, the author apparently felt the need to educate her readers, which she attempts to do through a series of incredibly asinine and pedantic letters the modern woman writes to Charles Dickens in a one-sided conversation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2018
There are good ideas at the core of this book. You spend most of the novel inside the main character’s head, and she frequently grapples with big issues such as evolution and religion. I personally did not enjoy this book, because I did not like the main character and I don’t feel that these big ideas were seamlessly integrated into the story. They came up in contrived circumstances, especially with Eloise’s “love letters” to Darwin. I think some readers would find these quirky and endearing, but I personally did not.
My biggest issue with Eloise is that she feels like everyone’s idea of a scientist rather than a real person. Despite (or maybe because of) all that time spent in her head, she never felt real to me. With that said, I feel like the book ended on a good note, even if it wasn’t what I expected at the beginning.
This is a very ambitious debut, but it just wasn’t for me personally.
My biggest issue with Eloise is that she feels like everyone’s idea of a scientist rather than a real person. Despite (or maybe because of) all that time spent in her head, she never felt real to me. With that said, I feel like the book ended on a good note, even if it wasn’t what I expected at the beginning.
This is a very ambitious debut, but it just wasn’t for me personally.
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