Pretty Bones

by Erin Lee

From the USA Today Bestselling author of The Ghosts who Raised Me comes the contemporary coming of age duet about growing up in a funeral home beginning with Pretty Bones. It's complicated. Marlow has always been fascinated with bones. To her, they're no big thing and everything. Bones are things that everybody has – even the dead. Yet, they're responsible for most of her problems.The daughter of a mortician, Marlow has spent enough time with the cold bodies in the funeral home to be comfortable with the dead. In fact, the stiffs in the viewing room downstairs are some of her awkwardly-mute best friends. She certainly doesn't have many of those at school. Not with her condition.But things are about to change.Tired of the daily scene at Kennedy High School, Marlow looks forward to her next bone density test where she'll finally get answers about her condition. There, she hopes to learn more about idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis and the strand of it she has. With the right answers, she just knows the dead can help her. They have to. It's not like they can object.It's simple. Marlow has a plan.What happens when the living and the dead collide?Will the pretty bones be enough to change a life?

200 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2019

About the author

Erin Lee is a USA TODAY bestselling multi genre author and therapist chasing a crazy dream one crazy story at a time. She also writes under the name EL George.

She is the author of Crazy Like Me, a novel published in 2015 by Savant Books and Publications, LLC,, Wave to Papa, 2015, by Limitless Publishing, LLC and Nine Lives (2016). She’s also author of Alters, Host, and Merge of the “Lola, Party of Eight Series,” When I’m Dead, 99 Bottles and too many other titles to count.

She penned the award-winning Freak, an LGBTQ awareness novella and Losing Faith, a novella with Black Rose Writing.

Lee has published numerous magazine articles, particularly on the topic of mental illness and works tirelessly to help end stigma around psychological conditions. She holds a master’s degree in psychology and works with at-risk families and as a court appointed special advocate. She often writes about real life people and situations she encounters in this work; which can be more horrific than any horror movie or documentary.

Lee is most well known as author of the DIARY OF A SERIAL KILLER SERIES with Zombie Cupcake Press and From Russia, With Love with Bella Tulip Publishing and many more.

She believes in supporting other authors and experimenting with new genres. Her passion is reaching people through their stories.

Reviews

[Paula Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things drove me to read this book, the first of course is that it is written by one of my favorites and the second one was the cool cover. Pretty Bones is a story told from the perspective of Marlow Harris. She has grown up living in a funeral home as it is has been in her family for generations Harris and Sons and when her parents retire, as her family had no other children - she is supposed to take it on but in a way, Marlow wants something different as people only see her two ways "the creepy death girl" and the "girl with the weird bones" as Marlow also has a terminal disease where her bones are brittle and the slightest thing could break them. People with this disease are known as "glass children". I have to admit one thing why I love Erin Lee's books is that often things she writes, I can relate to my life growing up. My mum suffered from brittle bones as part of her disease which was cystinosis, she couldn't do things like gardening as the slightest action would put her neck out and I remember one time, she tripped over a tiny step and fell forward while carrying the washing basket to the washing line and from that trip ended up with both legs in plaster as she had broken several bones in her ankle/legs. This book takes on two storylines of Marlow's life at school and tries to navigate friends, potential boyfriends, and college applications on the other hand we have her working at the funeral home and navigating through her duties and helping others with their grief including Owen whose great-aunt passes away. I am now looking forward to reading book #2 Boned which has an equally amazing cover to die for (funeral humor).

[Shelby W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was I suppose to get misty-eyed? Because I surely did. Marlow is a charming character and it was interesting to be able to follow her day-to-day activities. I wish this one was a little bit longer, but excited for the second book in the series.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love the originality of Erin Lee's books. Marlow Harris was another endearing and unique character that I instantly wanted to know more about.
The amount of research that went into this book was evident and it really blended with the story in a fabulous way.
I loved this story and its multiple layers. I am looking forward to the next book in this series.

[Casia Pickering · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty Bones is a novella that follows the life of a young woman named Marlow as she questions her meaning in life, whether or not she can truly live, and her rare bone disease. On the surface, I wasn't expecting to be so emotionally impacted by Pretty Bones. In fact, for the story itself, I'm not. It's the other content next to Marlow's own questions and life that had me thinking. I actually had to put the book down for a few days, maybe only reading a few pages at a time. It's because I was having panic attacks.To clarify, I understand that it is irrational and that having panic attacks over cold hard facts is almost too silly to comprehend. I recognize it. However, it doesn't change the fact that it happens. If anything, it only proved to me more that the aspect of dying . . . no, I mean the end result of death, scares me.Pretty Bones is written in a way where you get the facts behind a funeral home. At first glance, this can seem to push out the main part of the story, but when thinking how much the funeral world is so closely ingrained in Marlow, it begins to make sense. That said, it is the facts that had me. I could go into depth about my own personal issues and I probably will in a regular blog post, but not for the review. To see my own fears and life, just check out the blog.Anyways, as I mentioned before, the book is written with the bulk of the facts about the funeral business with small vignettes of Marlow's day to day life. I personally didn't have a problem with having that information in the narrative and in fact, it didn't bother me when I could set aside my emotional brain. That said, there were parts in the book itself I wish happened more.There is a person mentioned in the book. She's dead, but her manner of death is mentioned. I realize that we don't always get an answer and I have a feeling that is what Lee's intention was, it just bums me out that we don't get that resolution behind her death. There is also a moment where Marlow is invited to go to a teen safe space with a classmate. I would have liked to have seen that.I think, I would have liked to see Marlow's life more. That said, I recognize what was being done here. Erin Lee was trying to show how a "life" can take control of a person's "living". We all end up in the same place, but not everyone can say they truly lived. And I think that is what Erin Lee is getting at with Marlow's story.She is telling us that we need to stop worrying about death. Stop worrying about our day to day life and responsibilities. Instead, we need to find little adventures in our life and actually live. So, yeah, when you really sit down and think about it, the story means something more than just hard cold facts. Unless I'm reading too much into it. But, I like my thoughts on it. All in all, I would read more of Erin Lee's work. Final Rating: 3/5

[Tabitha Hartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would love to spend a day in Erin’s head, she comes up with the best characters and her ideas for her amazing books are never ending. Marlow is by far one of my new favorite characters, just her inner monologue had me in tears, love her!