I haven't given this book a chance - only read 10 pages. Already I guess there's a lot of metaphor here with identical twins, one of them genetically engineered (so not identical twins after all) and the city of Paradon definitely standing in for something. The author kept 'telling' me things instead of 'showing' them and I am impatient with this. The hardcover book is beautifully produced and the texture of the cover feels lovely to hold but I'll move it on the the Oxfam shop and maybe somebody else will enjoy it better.

http://tamaranth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/201439-cooking-with-bones-jess-richards.... ( )

Didn't finish. ( )

Average

I wanted to like this book but had several issues with it that detracted from my enjoyment. The book is told from 3 different POV characters, Amber – a difficult and rebellious child, Maya - her sister who is a “formwanderer” (she subconsciously determines the desires of everyone she meets and then fulfils them as best she can) and Kip a child whose job it is to collect the “Fair”, a tithe given to “Old Kelp” the witch of the village Kip lives in and where the story is mostly set. The same Old Kelp alternatively blesses and curses the small seaside village with cake based spells which Kip collects when dropping off the Fair.

Amber & Maya start the book living in the future utopian(?) society of Paradon and when they are assigned jobs which will split them up they decide to run away. They come to live in a cottage that seems to be waiting for them and Amber settles into the role of baking cakes using bone implements, that is how she becomes Old Kelp. This was a bit of head scratcher for me, and is never satisfactorily explained. Old Kelp existed before the sisters arrive, the sisters arrive and Amber becomes Old Kelp. The villagers notice no break in continuity. There is a scene where Amber finds graves, of previous Old Kelps, going back hundreds of years but the villagers stories of Old Kelp only go back to the grandparents of Kip’s parents. Time here is uncertain.

I never got a grip on the setting either, some sort of post collapse society? Kip’s village is within walking distance of a modern utopia (which has genetic engineering, nanotechnology and climate control), a utopia that some people leave for reasons that aren’t really explored (as well as the sisters there are a few other characters from Paradon in the village). The small village where the action takes place in has holiday homes to let, Kip’s mother looks after but are never let during the events of the story. There are telephones and cars, doctors and police and Paradon has its own climate control (causing Maya to spend a whole chapter trying to work out what weather is for) but there doesn’t seem to be any computer network and the society of the village seems more rural medieval.

I didn’t really get the whole concept of formwanderer either, Amber’s desire is for a twin so to her Maya is a twin, one of the villagers has always wanted a pet Grizzly bear so to him she’s a pet grizzly bear. OK so far so Red Dwarf Polymorph but Maya is a person, grown in a vat perhaps, but a living person created from Amber’s parents donated sperm & egg. It’s explained at the beginning, in a clumsy piece of exposition – Amber is watching a TV report on Formwanderers and seems to find the information a surprise, although she’s been living with one for an unknown period of time (but long enough for them to go to school together for some years it seems). The presentation says Our initial intention in genetically engineering these humans, using nanotechnology, was to enhance the development of their mirror neuron pathways and make them deeply empathic. With nanotechnology also causing their skin cells to be reflective, technically speaking they are astounding creations, able to mirror desired behaviours and appearances

Maya’s voice is unique also, often “jumbling” when anxious, her character and language are not fixed - Mysister grabbed my hand and said stop it, satellites send the sun in. They’re too strongThe sun shone into my eyes. I was dazzle blind. Our shrinking silhouettes danced with my laughing sound; clang clang! I brimmed yellow-joy. Every reflection that lives in infinityland was blanked out HAHAHAHA! and considering she is one of only 3 narrators it’s a little off putting.

When the book starts the sisters seem child-like and then they are removed from school and given jobs, causing them to run away. Later Amber remembers a distant past where she was treated badly by former lovers in Paradon, this didn’t really fit my perception of the character at the beginning of the book where I’d thought they were early teens. Nothing to say that early teens can’t be sexually precocious but it seemed like an inconsistency in character. I can only think the inconsistencies are deliberate, jumbling like Maya, the book formwandering itself. However the effect is such that the shifting sands are subliminal and make the story untrustworthy.

Throughout there are recipes to make different cakes which are also spells and whilst this is a potentially cool idea the outcome of any of these spells is never explicit, nor who they work upon (although sometimes hinted it is the villagers). However every day Amber leaves out the same old honey cakes for the villagers, who gladly take them, regardless of what the recipe says in her chapters.

Is Richards deliberately obfuscating or is she just poor at getting her meaning across? I really can’t tell. Is it SF? Fantasy? Magic realism? Modern fairy tale? Well yes it wanders back and forth from one to another of these creating an unhealthy chimera of all of them.

Overall – Very interesting but problematical, I never really got it YMMV ( )

Amber and Maya run away from the artificial “perfection” of life in the city of Paradon and settle in an apparently empty cottage in a small seaside village. Here they find an old recipe book and a set of bone spoons.

Maya is a “formwanderer” – she intuits and tries to fulfil the desires of anyone who sees her – which means that she has to be kept away from people, partly because she finds it confusing and frightening to be around too many people at once, but mostly for fear that she will act on an unspoken but sinister wish.

We also meet Kip, resident of the village. Kip’s job is to collect the “fair” – a sort of tithe provided by the village people and delivered to “Old Kelp” in the cottage; in return he collects honey cakes baked overnight by Amber and distributes them to everyone in the village. Kip glimpses something terrible at the cottage, but is forced by fear and by tradition to keep it a secret.

Amber immediately feels that she belongs, and sets about cooking the recipes from the book using the bone spoons. But these are no ordinary recipes and Amber no ordinary cook and her cakes have mysterious effects on those who eat them.

I loved this book! I love the magical realism, and the sinister feel to it – an up to date, adult fairy tale! As good fantasy should, it uses magical situations to explore themes relevant to all our lives – truth and lies, identity, and hope. The rather weird setting, and the unusual prose style serves to bump the reader out of their usual “comfort zone” and make them receptive to the messages Richards wants to explore.

I found this book poetic, compelling and disturbing all at the same time! A very unusual read, and highly recommended. ( )