My enormous thanks to Mikka at Everything With Words for a copy of The Silver Bones of Frances Winter by Fiona Goggin. It’s my very great pleasure to share my review today.

The Silver Bones of Frances Winter is published by Everything With Words on 24th September 2026 and is available for purchase through the links here.

The Silver Bones of Frances Winter

‘I swear I can hear the creak and crack of my bones growing in the night. The weight of them, a whale washed up on the shore, the rusting carcass of a ship. My growth is an unstoppable force, impossible to contain. Where will it end? That is forever my question.’

At eight years old, Frances is almost the same height as her father; by sixteen, she is over six feet tall.

As she continues to grow to an extraordinary height, Frances seeks a way to reduce her size and struggles not to lose herself in the process; desperate to remain hidden, while longing to be seen, and loved for who she is, all of her. But the streets of Victorian London are not an easy place to be a woman – least of all one as striking as Frances. Wooed by the showman of a questionable ‘theatre troupe,’ taken in by shrewd spiritualists and charmed by a collection of hedonistic Pre-Raphaelites, Frances must reckon with what it means to inhabit a body that does not conform; grappling with how the world sees her versus who she is discovering herself to be.

My Review of The Silver Bones of Frances Winter 

Frances Winter cannot stop growing.

The Silver Bones of Frances Winter is utterly glorious and I loved it.

Fiona Goggins doesn’t just write about the past; rather, she immerses the reader in it so that they live and breathe the streets of 1850s London, the ale houses, the quackery, the food, the poverty and riches, the charlatans, the art and the general society. The writing is beautiful, scenic, brutal, realistic and so vivid. Frances’s first person account feels equally compelling, being intimate and enthralling. It is a real privilege to be allowed a glimpse into her life and personal thoughts. 

Frances is wonderful. Unable to stop growing she is treated as a freak; at best an inconvenience to her father and as a curiosity to others, and frequently as an object of fear and ridicule to many who encounter her. As a result, it is impossible not to take her to your heart. Her relationship with her sister Emily is beautifully depicted. The mixture of love and jealousy Frances feels towards the conventionally beautiful and feminine Emily is so realistic. There are moments when her pain is almost unbearable to witness. Fiona Goggins’s skill in writing deep emotion is superb. 

Consequently, given such sensitive insight by Fiona Goggin into Frances’s mind and emotions as she struggles to come to terms with her increasing height, is impossible not to feel every hurt, every embarrassment and every pain with her. Frances truly is an unforgettable character. Her story might be set in a wonderfully described historical era, but her struggle with body image, her desire to conform to perceived societal perfection and her desperation, both literally and metaphorically, to fit in, feel modern and universal. The Silver Bones of Frances Winter is simultaneously comprehensive and unique.

It is utterly heartbreaking to witness how Frances is treated and used by others. The title of the book couldn’t be more apt. Inside, Frances has a character that should shine bright like silver but her spirit has been dulled and tarnished by the treatment she has received, as externally her giant stature means she is treated as a commodity for others to manipulate and exploit to suit their own purposes. Even those with more altruistic motives use Frances to inspire their work or to make them feel better about themselves regardless of the effect on Frances. The Silver Bones of Frances Winter put me in mind of Judas’s pieces of silver because Frances is so betrayed, and this story is equally as impactful. 

There are captivating adventures in the plot for Frances that make for great reading, but essentially it is the journey of self discovery that is so affecting. Themes of trust, betrayal, and familial love weave into the plot and the moments when Frances realises she has also been self-deceptive are profound and moving. 

The end of The Silver Bones of Frances Winter is superb. It draws together all the threads without sentimentality so that the feeling of having encountered a real person in Frances is intensified. I thought The Silver Bones of Frances Winter was absolutely brilliant. It’s definitely written with compelling and convincing skill, but above all else it is written with compassion and understanding. I adored it. Do not let The Bones of Frances Winter be a quiet book that passes you by. Read it! 

About Fiona Goggin

Fiona Goggin was inspired to write based on a lifelong love of Victorian gothic novels. She completed the Curtis Brown Creative Three-Month Novel-Writing course in 2021. Fiona has two young children and works as a library assistant in a local public library in Kent. She loves spending her days talking to readers, young and old and everything in between.

For further information, find Fiona on Instagram.