Published By: Michael Joseph
Pages: 528
Released On: 07/05/2026
When Hop awakens in an ancient labyrinth, he has no memory of his life before, or how he got here. He does not recognise the mysterious girl trapped with him. And he certainly cannot identify the shadowy figure stalking him, whispering terrible things . . .
But there is one thing he is certain of.
He must escape.
The only way out of the labyrinth is through The Bone Door. But it lies behind a series of other locked doors hidden across an array of strange realms. To open the way, Hop must complete impossible tasks before his time runs out.
As Hop travels deeper, he discovers that he and his companions may be more connected to the place and its horrors than he could ever imagine.
Unless Hop is able to unravel the true mystery of the labyrinth, including his own role within it, the Bone Door and any hope of escape will be lost forever.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I will admit now that I didn’t get on with Voyage of the Damned, but I do still have it on my Kindle to get back to. I could appreciate her storytelling but I just don’t think it was the right time for me to read. But I will definitely be going back to it now I’ve read this.
This will be a shorter review than my normal ones because it’s hard to review without spoilers, and this should be a book you go into fresh.
Firstly let me just say the cover is wonderful!
My ideal book length is about 300-400, sometimes 450 in some circumstances. So at over 500, that was already ringing alarm bells for me. I don’t think long books are inherently bad, it’s just in my experience, I find long books rarely need to be that long. So yes I was worried. But the pacing went slow and quick in this so the length never felt like too much of an issue.
There is no quiet introduction here; we are straight into the fire, as it were.
It reminded me of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in terms of style; oddly, I didn’t particularly like Piranesi but this was much better.
Even though I’ve just said it reminded me of another book, I felt it was very unique and fresh and unique in many ways. It’s a fantasy yes, there’s monsters and creatures and scary spaces, but at its heart it’s about love, loss, grief, friendships, family, trauma, and empathy. It’s got a lot more to it than I was expecting.
I’ll be honest here and say I didn’t always know what was going on. But in a bizarre way, that didn’t really matter. The writing was so good, the characters and the atmosphere she’s created is so good, that you are just as engrossed in it.
There are so many characters, human and otherwise, and they are all going through their own battle and looking for their own healing. Some are more likeable than others, and some are very much the villains. But overall I found myself liking them all (even the villains) because they’re so well written with great characterisation and story arcs.
My one qualm I suppose was the audience. It was very dark and frightening in parts which suggests an adult book – as does the page count and overall themes. But the protagonists are both children (doesn’t mean you can’t have kids in an adult book) and so that makes the dialogue a bit juvenile, obviously, because they’re kids. And at times I felt that was a bit at odds with the story it was telling. It’s not a huge issue, it didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of it, but I’ve got to be honest in this review.
It’s mystery and fantasy and thriller; it’s dark and frightening and weird, but wonderfully addictive.
Books By Your Bedside 