09/07/2020
Blooms’s haunting and magical debut follows 10-year-old Misty and her family and neighbors through a summer of trauma in her Appalachian holler. Misty’s favorite companions are crawdads, who speak to her and her friend and neighbor William, a boy her age with whom she explores a barn owned by their landlord, Earl, who is rumored to have killed his wife. Misty is contacted by a strange voice she calls “the garden,” which tells her more about Earl’s crimes. Then, one night, William takes Misty to the barn and sexually assaults her. Misty’s sadness over William’s betrayal is unbearable to her, and she learns how to slip out of her skin. When she returns to her body, she’s accompanied by the “persistent ache of being born.” As Misty explores her relationship to her body and tries to get past her pain, she open herself to the voices around her and learns more about the fate of Earl’s wife. Blooms succeeds in building an enchanted world and teasing out the truth of what happened in Misty’s holler, as seen through an evocative child’s point of view. Blooms’s powerful tale makes for visceral, sometimes uncomfortable reading, and it’s well worth it. Agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House. (Aug.)
"Every Bone a Prayer evokes the magic of my favorite childhood stories — thrilling, but eerie — but it’s also a painful, beautiful, and necessary examination of trauma and autonomy." — Buzzfeed
"Every Bone A Prayer is a difficult, important, and beautifully rendered story of generational trauma, survival, and healing. The characters I met within its pages have stayed with me, their names and stories etched on my memory." — NPR
"A beautifully rendered coming-of-age tale for a wide range of readers." — Library Journal
"In this haunting debut novel, Blooms makes a mystical exploration of the hidden power that lies within and the strategies assault survivors can undertake to regain a feeling of ownership over body and mind." — Booklist
"This is the kind of book we need to set literary expectations for a new decade. It's so textured, so layered with love and so wonderfully terrifying, intimate and magical." — Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy: An American Memoir
"I have loved Every Bone a Prayer since I saw an early draft years ago, loved Misty, her family, her secret talents, and the way she sees the world around her, from the crawfish in muddy water to the ghostly trees she runs past in the night, to the trailer park where she and her family barely survive. This is a book and a writer I highly recommend." — Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard out of Carolina
"Haunting and healing, Every Bone A Prayer is a powerful debut that will leave its mark on readers' hearts." — Kim Michele Richardson, New York Times bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
"In this strange, magic-infused tale, Blooms breathes Misty’s story into being with beautiful prose, gracefully capturing the essence of nature and a child’s relationship to it" — Paperback Paris
"An essential novel, timely, composed with such care and lyricism that it took my breath away more than once. You will fall in love with Misty, and your heart will break. But with the patience and care of a crawdad creating its burrow, Ashley Blooms will heal your hurt and you will never forget this book." — Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
"Ashley Blooms sings in an authentic mountain voice that reminds me of another great coal-country elegist: whatever the family Bible may record, she and Hazel Dickens are surely the closest of kin. Like a hawk over a hollow, Blooms both soars and sees all." — Andy Duncan, author of An Agent of Utopia
"Ashley Blooms's debut novel, Every Bone a Prayer, is a brilliant and powerful book. Misty's story is full of magic and heartbreak, sorrow and strength. This is a vital story, beautifully written, and one I highly recommend." — Kat Howard, Alex Award-winning author of An Unkindness of Magicians
"I couldn’t stop reading Ashley Bloom’s raw-boned language that carried me on young Misty’s journey. While the weight on her skin threatened to take her under, the current of hope had me rooting for Misty to rise up. I can’t wait to see this book shoot into the stratosphere." — Leah Weiss, author of If the Creek Don’t Rise
"An exploration of faith that borders on fanaticism, belief in the unseen wonders of this world, the fear that lives deep in the heart of girls whose innocence is stolen from them, and the resilience built by refusing to be destroyed are all beautifully, heartbreakingly, and magically at work in the brilliant Every Bone a Prayer." — Seattle Book Review
"Searing and soothing, honest and elusive, Every Bone a Prayer is a gift. It's the pure truth, told slant." — Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January
"There's magic in this book—and pain, and beauty, and horror - but the magic is what will keep you glued to the page, and have your heart singing the whole way." — Sam J. Miller, Nebula-Award-winning author of Blackfish City
"Every Bone a Prayer is beautifully written and absolutely harrowing from first page to last. It's unlike anything you've ever read before, and you will be mesmerized by it. Misty is among the most endearing characters I've met on the written page in a long while and I won't forget her anytime soon. This haunting debut announces the arrival of one of the most original and exciting new voices in literature." — Silas House, author of Clay's Quilt and Southernmost
05/01/2020
DEBUT This glimmering, painfully honest first novel tells the story of ten-year-old Misty, who lives in an Appalachian holler with her feuding parents and an older sister to whom she is closely bonded. Misty's ability to talk with crayfish, birds, trees, and even inanimate objects proves her salvation. When strange sculptures suddenly sprout in their landlord Earl's barren garden and the boy next door becomes too familiar, Misty's story is touched by both magic and the sordid reality of sexual abuse. As she faces these troubles, Misty literally learns to separate from her skin—not as in a dissociative identity disorder, with different personalities, but as a physical separation that allows her to dwell in the world differently and more safely, at least for the time being. As she reaches out to the ghostly, troubling voice of the garden to understand what's happening in her world, she also comes to understand what happened earlier to a woman who once lived with Earl and learns how to protect—and finally to be—herself. VERDICT A beautifully rendered coming-of-age tale for a wide range of readers.—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
