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"Amazing: a tour de force." Bruce Mcallister.
Brilliantly done." DB Reviews
"There is something deeply moving about a boy taken from one life and raised in another, growing between worlds that both claim him and yet struggle to make space for who he truly is. His story holds the tenderness of childhood, the pain of conflict, and the beauty of a spirit shaped by two very different truths. The bond between Enoch and the Spirit of Raven feels almost sacred. It speaks to identity, ancestry, and the invisible threads that guide a person through transformation. Watching him grow alongside the Chiricahuas, then attempt to return to the white world only to face walls built by prejudice and policy, is the kind of emotional journey that lingers with a reader long after the last page. This is not just a novel. It is a powerful reflection on belonging and on the cost of survival when caught between cultures. It honors Native history with sensitivity and heart, and it recognizes the quiet resilience of people striving to find their place in a world that keeps shifting beneath them. Readers who value historical fiction rooted in humanity and truth will connect deeply to Enoch's struggles and triumphs. His journey reminds us that sometimes home is not a single place, but a series of moments, relationships, and choices that shape who we become. And the presence of Raven at the end feels like a blessing, a reminder that the spirit world walks with us through every transition." Aurelia Maya
THE SETH STRUMMAR SERIES: TO THE BONE.
Kirkus Book Review
TO THE BONE
by Elizabeth Fackler
A good story in which the author keeps things moving and dishes up surprises aplenty.
A stormy extended-family saga set in the Arizona Territory in 1911. The novel opens with the Strummar property in Tejoe having been bequeathed to Sky Strummar, 11, by his late father, Seth Strummar. Sky's sister Elena is bitterly suspicious and resentful. All the siblings live in the long, almost mythic shadow of their late father, who spent years in prison, returned to Tejoe a reformed man, and then quit the kids, slipping off to California. (To be a Strummar means unresolved longing, guilt, and resentment.) Just when Sky is beginning to convince them—especially Elena—that he does not intend to claim their father's estate, he is the target of a botched kidnapping and robbery masterminded by his half-brother, Lobo Madera, who then hits the trail and turns up at his stepfather's ranch in Colorado for a new beginning. Lobo is the most interesting of Seth's progeny: He's always looking for trouble, but his schemes, like the kidnapping of Sky, are usually doomed. He struggles being the son of a local legend. Can he break the hold his father's ghost has on him? The author is a very prolific writer: there are six books in the Seth Strummar series alone. She tells a good story, keeps things moving, and dishes up surprises aplenty. What's more, To the Bone offers psychological complexity not usually found in run-of-the-mill Westerns.