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instalovewithbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
I picked this book up for Indie Bookstore Day and it didn't disappoint. I was looking for a book that was different, and that would transport me.
I really loved the premise, the atmosphere mixed with realism/fantasy/horror and the growth with the characters. I feel like I would definitely need to read this again at a later time because I did find the ending a bit confusing which brought it down to a 4 ⭐ review then a 5 ⭐.
Pedyr, Wyatt, and James were interesting characters and I wasn't 100% sure of the ending but it was open ended and I would love to see more of this world and place and characters
Not for everyone, but it is what I was craving.
I really loved the premise, the atmosphere mixed with realism/fantasy/horror and the growth with the characters. I feel like I would definitely need to read this again at a later time because I did find the ending a bit confusing which brought it down to a 4 ⭐ review then a 5 ⭐.
Pedyr, Wyatt, and James were interesting characters and I wasn't 100% sure of the ending but it was open ended and I would love to see more of this world and place and characters
Not for everyone, but it is what I was craving.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Medical content, Violence, and Torture
cjdbooks1's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Body horror, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Grief, Child death, Torture, Cursing, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
tnemelce's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Murder, and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Torture
Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
alatedbibliophile's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
arc disclosure
I received an advanced copy of this book to give my honest review. Everything in this review is written in my own words for no other compensation than the e-copy of this book. For more information on my review policy, click here.
I received an advanced copy of this book to give my honest review. Everything in this review is written in my own words for no other compensation than the e-copy of this book. For more information on my review policy, click here.
intro
This was my first read by Kelly Andrew. I have to admit, the cover immediately drew me in, and then I read the blurb and knew I had to read it. Fantasy? Check. Creepy aesthetic? Check. Friends-to-enemies-to-lovers vibes? Check, check, check!
This was my first read by Kelly Andrew. I have to admit, the cover immediately drew me in, and then I read the blurb and knew I had to read it. Fantasy? Check. Creepy aesthetic? Check. Friends-to-enemies-to-lovers vibes? Check, check, check!
So, did this book live up to the hype I built up in my head?
thoughts
This book was [mostly] a pleasant surprise. It was wonderfully written with some lovely prose that I greatly enjoyed reading. I love fantasy and paranormal, so the premise of this story was right up my alley.
This book was [mostly] a pleasant surprise. It was wonderfully written with some lovely prose that I greatly enjoyed reading. I love fantasy and paranormal, so the premise of this story was right up my alley.
I’m not really sure what my final thoughts are on this book. I enjoyed it, but it had a few issues. For one, just like some other reviewers have said, I felt like it was too long for the amount of story that was included. I also wish the past and present timelines were a little more clear, because jumping between the two was incredibly confusing.
Peter’s story line was super intriguing, but I wish it’d been more fleshed out. The only answers we got for sure were that he was an immortal and it was because of a deal his dad made. And he was somehow from among the stars, but we have no context of his homeland nor do we understand why his dad made this deal in the first place other than they were starving. But why were they starving? What happened to this “home among the stars?” I think this may be alluding to a super loose inspiration from Peter Pan, but I wish we had a little more answers and some more details so we could understand the motivation better.
bullet points
- the monsters in this book were genuinely creepy and a couple times what I was reading gave me a chill I wasn’t expecting!
- Peter was a walking red flag and I loved it.
- since I didn’t read the first book Kelly wrote, I had no prior attachments to or expectations for Wyatt’s friends and the way they were introduced to this book was kind of jarring. They were just all of the sudden there. Maybe if I’d read the other book, it wouldn’t have felt so out of the blue, I’m not sure.
- this has no merit to the story whatsoever, but this is absolutely one of my favorite covers ever. It’s gorgeous!
final thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed this book as a whole, but I’ve gotta admit…the ending almost ruined it for me. Oftentimes the ending will either make or break a book, and this one kind of broke the book in my opinion. This will not be a re-read. Honestly, if I’d known how the book was going to end, I probably wouldn’t have ever picked it up to begin with. If you have book ending anxiety, I have a spoiler tag below that you can click on. Otherwise, that’s all I’m going to say about it. (I took the spoilers out of this review. If you want to read them, feel free to visit my blog)
Overall, I enjoyed this book as a whole, but I’ve gotta admit…the ending almost ruined it for me. Oftentimes the ending will either make or break a book, and this one kind of broke the book in my opinion. This will not be a re-read. Honestly, if I’d known how the book was going to end, I probably wouldn’t have ever picked it up to begin with. If you have book ending anxiety, I have a spoiler tag below that you can click on. Otherwise, that’s all I’m going to say about it. (I took the spoilers out of this review. If you want to read them, feel free to visit my blog)
The first half of this book was absolutely worth the read and I don’t regret it. The angst, the first love, the will-they/won’t-they, the sort of love-to-hate-back-to-love emotions, the creepy atmosphere, the crazy powers…all of that was great and based on that, I would have thought this book was going to become one of my favorite reads of the year.
Unfortunately…
I keep going between 3 stars or a little higher…because if I were basing my rating purely on the ending, I would’ve given it a 1. This is the kind of ending I hate and avoid like the plague. However, in the end I decided to rate this book as 3 stars, maybe even 3.5, because I did think it was beautifully written, the story as a whole was great, and I hope the author continues to write many more books in the future.
And as always, if this book sounds appealing to you, please do not hesitate to pick it up and read it for yourself. This is simply my own authentic opinion 🙂
Thank you, NetGalley and Kelly Andrew for the e-ARC of this book!
final rating
3/5
3/5
Read my original review here: https://alatedbibliophile.com/arc-review-your-blood-my-bones-by-kelly-andrew/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Slavery, Abandonment, Animal death, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Bullying
sol_journal's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
**Thank you so much Scholastic Press and Kelly Andrew for the arc! All words and thoughts in this review are my own honest opinion!**
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph
Posted on: 27 April 2024
3.7 (rounded up to4) out of 5 stars.
Phew, okay this took me much too long to get to and even longer still to finish. I feel like if this book had been with me more consistently, I may have been less critical of it? And I say this lightly because it still got 4 stars based off my rating scale, but I have a lot of thoughts floating around about it.
To start, this isn’t my first Kelly Andrew book. I got a copy of ‘The Whispering Dark’ when it first released (I received it through Illumicrate and my sister through OwlCrate so we buddy read it). It was never finished though, and this was before I knew about DNF’ing, book slumps, reading slumps- all that jazz. So when I saw this title and read the bio, I was a little worried about trying another Kelly Andrew book since I hadn’t finished the first one. I’m really glad I read this though, because while I have my qualms about it, it was a really lovely read!
On a more critical note, the characters sometimes had annoying habits. There were also times where they fell a little flat to me or just lacked a little something that would’ve made their role in the story hit *more*.
Another thing was that I think I got lost a bit in the plot? Some things happened that kind of felt awkwardly placed or solutions just given for the sake of finding an out??
Again, it took me longer to read this book than usual, so I feel like I’ll have different opinions on this when I go back to read it and actually finish it in my usual reading time (a week, give or take. Not a whole month..)
What I *loved* about this book was the writing in some places. It was pretty, it was meaningful, it added a little depth to the flatness I found. I saved a lot of quotes from this because there was just *something* about the rotting, about the decay, and how Andrew describes it. The writing style wasn’t one of my favorites, but the things being written were- does that make sense?
Overall, it was a nice read! I did enjoy it, and I did decide to keep my OwlCrate copy of it. I think the magic used was also interesting to me, but at the heart of it, the struggles and the growth of the main cast had me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Torture, and Death
Minor: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement
There’s also mention of spiders but mildly so for anybody with arachnophobia. It’s nothing terribly explicit, I’d say?? But there is a big spider mentioned in one or two chapters towards the end of the middle half.dani_reis's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Blood, Slavery, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Torture, Confinement, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Animal death
Animal death is non pet and super minor.kourteb's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
5.0
I’m almost speechless at this story. The characters are so special to me. You will love them and scream at them and want to defend them from all the hurt endured. Kelly has such a beautiful way of writing and her story telling constantly has you asking for more while simultaneously reeling from the last hint dropped. I don’t know how to describe the feeling of reading Kelly’s works. A yearning and longing and ache and excitement and love all rolled into one. I already miss them and cannot wait to reread her debut novel, The Whispering Dark, which is just as good!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Torture
takarakei's review
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
“There’s a Welsh word I learned in school,” said James. “Hiraeth. There’s no direct translation for it in the English language, but it means a deep longing for a home you can never return to.”
- Gothic
- Scary forests
- nature emotion magic
- Childhood friendships
- Angst
- the price of immortality
- Adult men on power trips 🙄
Kelly Andrew is the queen of writing YA fantasy that will leave you in a puddle on the floor. Her writing is descriptive and beautiful (even when describing gross things). Endlessly quotable and I highlighted so many parts!! The reveals keep you reading and engaged. Even though the ending is foreshadowed you still have to see how it plays out. The one downside is the magic isn’t explained super well so you just gotta go on vibes. I found myself a bit confused at some parts but also reading an eARC formatted weirdly might have been a contributing factor. I will definitely be rereading this once I can get my hands on a physical final copy 🙌
Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic for the eARC.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death
Moderate: Confinement, Animal death, Body horror, and Torture
Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
Animal death: mentions of hunting and cleaning animals.roseleebooks's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I'm very glad I picked this up as it surprised me in a good way. I knew it was going to be at least partly a horror and the writing and integration of that part of the story is outstanding. The tension really builds for the first portion of the book when Wyatt is trying to fix the farm that is falling apart around her. I won't give away the plot by talking too much about the other characters, but will say that the interpersonal dynamics and flashbacks are handled very well in building the story.
I did think that some of the plot elements felt a little rushed at the end, however thinking more about it after finishing the book I appreciated the direction it went in.
Overall this was the horror with heart at it's center that I didn't know I wanted to read. It is a story of loss, love, and hope with all the supernatural horror that I could ask for. There are no easy solutions in the world Kelly Andrew has created and I am glad that the story embraces that element.
Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic books for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.
I did think that some of the plot elements felt a little rushed at the end, however thinking more about it after finishing the book I appreciated the direction it went in.
Overall this was the horror with heart at it's center that I didn't know I wanted to read. It is a story of loss, love, and hope with all the supernatural horror that I could ask for. There are no easy solutions in the world Kelly Andrew has created and I am glad that the story embraces that element.
Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic books for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Medical content, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Abandonment, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Child death, Confinement, Death, Torture, and Violence
This is a horror novel with some romantic elements, I would not characterize this as a romance centric book.maeceybee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This book was an absolute gem! It had so many vibes that I was not expecting at all, and I absolutely loved this.
It is a gothic enemies to lovers story that follows Wyatt as she goes back to her childhood farm after the death of her father, with the sole purpose of burning the place to the ground. Things aren’t quiet as they seem; however, when she finds Peter, her childhood best friend, strung up in the basement.
The first 30 pages of this book had me hooked, and it was easy to read and exciting the whole way through (especially with that heart wrenching ending). The pacing of the book was done very well, and the entire story flowed smoothly. It had me gasping, crying, and needing more of these characters. It is definitely character driven, with a dual POV between Peter and Wyatt which I absolutely loved. The romantic relationship in this story developed like fine wine, and Andrew did an amazing job of developing her characters by slowly revealing their backstories and what happened in the past to drive them apart. Further, this book is written so well, and the descriptions that Andrew used helped create an atmosphere that set a creepy tone for the rest of the book.
The only thing I wish I got to see more of was a “backstory” or explanation of the magic system and how Wyatt’s family learned about it, as well as the whole plot involving the cult; I feel like these two were a little confusing and Andrew could have spent a bit more time explaining them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Animal death
Minor: Torture