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lenar3ad's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.5
Finished in one couple-hour sitting as I didn't want to put it down. The mythology/folklore was captivating and I was adequately spooked by the bone houses. I'll be buying for my shelf to reread when I want a mystical, undead adventure.
May be a little tough for anyone experiencing grief from losing a parent or finds corpse descriptions hard, all at a YA level.
May be a little tough for anyone experiencing grief from losing a parent or finds corpse descriptions hard, all at a YA level.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Grief, and Gore
Moderate: Murder, Kidnapping, Violence, and War
Minor: Addiction, Bullying, and Sexual content
abby_can_read's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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
5.0
March 2024-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖
I had so much re-reading this. It was better than I remembered. The characters were good and their relationships were solid. I liked the worldbuilding. The plot was good, though a little predictable, and the pacing was alright. With the pacing, I felt it was off in a few places, but not many complaints.
September 2022-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📱
This was good. I loved the goat.
📖
I had so much re-reading this. It was better than I remembered. The characters were good and their relationships were solid. I liked the worldbuilding. The plot was good, though a little predictable, and the pacing was alright. With the pacing, I felt it was off in a few places, but not many complaints.
September 2022-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📱
This was good. I loved the goat.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Animal death
Moderate: Gore, Body horror, Grief, and Violence
Minor: Vomit
lennybiird's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Gore, Death of parent, and Body horror
ash_ton's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book really reminded me of Among the Beasts & Briars. The Bone Houses was written first, but I read Among the Beasts & Briars first lol. Both good books!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Blood
Minor: Child death and Classism
luckylulureads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Chronic illness, Medical content, Death, Grief, Body horror, and Blood
willardpilled's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? No
4.75
A beautifully written book with a nice mix of fantasy elements and, in a way, the popular zombie apocalypse genre. I feel like the fantastical lore and history could have been better explained, but that might just be me and my inability to fully grasp onto fantasy concepts in books.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I also feel like the romance was a bit forced and cliche. The plot twist blew my mind, regardless of the fact that I kind of guessed it ahead of time. It was pretty well done!
Regardless, I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely loved the little goat companion. Ryn's relationship with her father is very touching, and I am not embarrassed to admit that it made me cry a bit. There were certain scenes that were so tense I genuinely felt anxious reading them. It's safe to say that I got pretty emotionally invested in this book. I also want to say I love the way Ryn treats the dead. She is very matter of fact with her actions toward them, but she also respects them.
I actually found myself feeling the need to annotate a book for the first time EVER because I Desperately needed my thoughts to be in my copy Forever. Also, I gave my mom my copy of this book to read and she loved it too, so there ya go! It's great for teens and middle aged women alike!
Messy commentary aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm really looking forward to reading it for a second time.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I also feel like the romance was a bit forced and cliche. The plot twist blew my mind, regardless of the fact that I kind of guessed it ahead of time. It was pretty well done!
Regardless, I really enjoyed this book. I absolutely loved the little goat companion. Ryn's relationship with her father is very touching, and I am not embarrassed to admit that it made me cry a bit. There were certain scenes that were so tense I genuinely felt anxious reading them. It's safe to say that I got pretty emotionally invested in this book. I also want to say I love the way Ryn treats the dead. She is very matter of fact with her actions toward them, but she also respects them.
I actually found myself feeling the need to annotate a book for the first time EVER because I Desperately needed my thoughts to be in my copy Forever. Also, I gave my mom my copy of this book to read and she loved it too, so there ya go! It's great for teens and middle aged women alike!
Messy commentary aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I'm really looking forward to reading it for a second time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
apierlessbridge's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Body horror
Minor: Death of parent and Animal death
blewballoon's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I really enjoyed The Drowned Woods, so I was confident I would like this and I wasn't wrong. I think I might have liked The Drowned Woods a little better, just because it spent a little more time with more characters while this one is very heavily focused on the main two and their adventure. I do kind of wish neither book had a romance, but it's not because the romances were bad at all. I just think I wasn't in the mood for a romance element, but the romance is fairly minimal anyway. I highly recommend either of these books if you like T. Kingfisher's writing, and visa versa. Both authors do fantasy stories and character journeys in a way that is satisfying but also easy to digest. I also recommend any audiobooks narrated by Moira Quirk, she's excellent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Body horror, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
amandalorianxo's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
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? No
4.0
I throughly enjoyed this one. It’s a different take on the fantasy genre, the afterlife and death overall. I liked Ryn and the other characters that encompasses the story. We are met with Welsh lore & how magic somehow created these dead people called bone houses. A mapmaker traveling from the main kingdom was told to make updated maps of the area. Ryn and the rest of the town realize that the bone houses are acting out. The semi plot twist surprised me at the end & it made sense looking back. An under rated stand alone book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Death
Moderate: Body horror
filipa_maia's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
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
4.0
This book was so good!
Strong female heroine, smart and loyal sidekick guy. How about that for a change? All this and a story full of zombies (aka Bone Houses)? Loved it.
I really liked this story: very rich background to the characters, very rich scenarios (full of magic, and scares), a lot of folklore to help give colour to the storyline and the right amount of twists at the end.
The only less positive note about this book is that, sometimes, I felt the story could move on a little quicker... in some parts, the plot just dragged when I was hoping for a little more emotion.
Strong female heroine, smart and loyal sidekick guy. How about that for a change? All this and a story full of zombies (aka Bone Houses)? Loved it.
I really liked this story: very rich background to the characters, very rich scenarios (full of magic, and scares), a lot of folklore to help give colour to the storyline and the right amount of twists at the end.
The only less positive note about this book is that, sometimes, I felt the story could move on a little quicker... in some parts, the plot just dragged when I was hoping for a little more emotion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Terminal illness, Child death, Murder, and Abandonment