Island of Bones is a stand-alone novel within the Haunted Florida novels by Gaby Triana.
Finished on: 14.9.2023

Plot:
Ellie’s grandmother just died, and Ellie decides to head to Key West – where her grandmother was from – to spread her ashes. But once Ellie arrives in Casa de los Cayos, her family home that is now a bed and breakfast that is close to falling apart, she discovers that there is more to her family history than she knew. The ghosts of the past are literally there and Ellie wants to figure them out.

Island of Bones is a fine read, but not one that really stayed with me – neither in a good or bad way. I enjoyed it while it lasted but I am not craving more of it.

As you can gather from the date of me posting this and the date that I finished the book, it’s been a while since I read it. And while I do have a couple of notes, I had to re-read the synopsis of the book just now to remind myself what it actually way about. This usually happens, when a story doesn’t really grip me or touch me (positively or negatively). I was able to jog my memory but it is rather indicative of my impression of the book in general.

It was a good read, fluently written and nice characters, though the main (present time) antagonist was a little too cartoonish for my taste. The story is a little tired, maybe, a little too close to the tropes we know of the genre to really feel fresh (probably also a reason why I had a hard time recalling it), but the tropes do work, and Triana does an especially good job connecting the timelines and including the historic parts in the current narrative.

There are two other Haunted Florida novels, though they do stand alone. I might pick one up in the future when I am looking for some nice horror but it is equally possible that I never think about any of the books again.

Summarizing: the bookish equivalent of fast food.