Sam is doing everything he can to try and forget.
His dad isn’t coming home. Ever.
He said it was going to be his last tour to Afghanistan and he was right. Sam’s not sure if he can forgive him for going back, so with the funeral looming, Sam chooses to party instead.
He’s glad he went, even with all his friends looking at him strangely, but too scared to say anything. Then there is Oona. She’s new and intriguing and completely intoxicating. She’s kind too, just when he needs someone’s arms around him.
Sam’s memories of his dad flood his mind, pulling him into the hills where the giant chalk horse lays in the grass. This is a place of myth and legend, where Dad told Sam and his younger sister Beth stories of gods and magic. This is where he finds a stone. Silver flecked and round like a small ball, the stone takes him places within strange visions. There are two small girls, dancing on the hill – young witches.
Despite the confusing things he sees, Sam keeps the stone with him, soon realising it gives him courage and strength, but also a deep rage that will not be tamed. The courage is welcome but the trouble the stone brings is not.
As he gets to know Oona, he learns that she has been taught the skill of reading Tarot cards, understanding his visions and knowing exactly what the stone is. It once belonged to witches…
Oona is a wonderful distraction from the things his mum and sister want him to face. They beg him to talk to them and share what is eating him up. When something happens involving police and paramedics, he finally concedes to talking to a professional. It’s not just the loss of his dad, but what happened before he died.
With Oona at his side, and a new unlikely friend in support, Sam must face the visions of his dad everywhere, the dancing witches, and Odin and his wolves. He must say goodbye properly to the man he adored. Oona believes the stone and the night of Samhain (Sa win / Halloween) will finally help him to let go.
A touching and beautiful novel by the author of Witch. Sam’s grief after losing his dad in Afghanistan is raw on the page. His mind is spinning with grief and guilt and unimagined loss. As I learned about his father I too began to feel the loss of this wonderful husband and father.
Stone is not only about grief and loss, but about love, new friendships and making the most of what we have, even as we mourn what we have lost. The magic, myth and legend is effortlessly woven through Sam’s story through memories, visions and dreams, all while being grounded in the present with a worried mum and sister, a best friend not sure how to help and a relentless bully intent on payback.
Throughout the novel are pictures of Tarot cards, animals and birds. Feathers float across pages and leaves lay at random. They add so much to this novel, bringing nature, other worldly magic and mysticism into the narrative.
Finbar Hawkins is a beautiful writer and talented artist. I look forward to anything he gives us in the future.
Author / Illustrator – Finbar Hawkins
Age – 12+
Read a review of Finbar Hawkin’s first book WITCH (Click on the Cover)
(2022, Grief, Father, Dad, Soldier, Loss, Guilt, Family, New Girl, Friendship, Bully, Magic, Gods, Odin, Wolves, Chalk Horse, Stories, Myths, Legends, Memories, Witch Stone, Animals, Historical, Mystery, Bullies, Love)