All that remains of her family is her sister, who lives in the countryside, and her brother, who she believes is likely dead as she has not heard from him in many years. She comes from a family that was once noble but was exiled for treason when she was very young, which is how she has become a member of the servant class. This means she completes household tasks and errands for the department but also assists in investigations that involve female victims, as Confucian law dictates that men should not touch women to whom they are unrelated. This book follows Seol, a 16-year old living in the capital of Joseon (Korea) who works as an indentured servant to the police department in the year 1800.
And while the poetic prose is a definite selling point, the fact that The Silence of Bones is also an impeccably crafted mystery with amazing character work and an arc of profound hopefulness cemented its place in my heart as the best book I’ve read all year. Through reading (and loving) The Silence of Bones I’ve realized something about myself as a reader: I can tolerate a lot of dark, violent content in a book if the prose is pretty enough. I won’t get into it in too much gory detail in the review, but readers should be forewarned the subject matter is pretty heavy. This book includes state violence, religious violence, a main character in indentured servitude, family trauma, and multiple instances of moderately explicit interpersonal violence.
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