Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Bones of Ruin

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley

12 reviews

littlebluenaiad's review against another edition

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jose_kg's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I really wanted to love this book, magical realism in Victorian London sounded amazing and many of the ideas that Raughley had are very interesting. The problem was the execution, the pacing was odd, very slow in parts and a lot of unnecessary repetition of characters back stories to the point I wondered if she'd set herself a high minimum word count. There was a lot of telling instead of showing and characters having deep feelings for each other with no reason. There was a fair amount of mind-reading going on, where Iris would question something in her mind and then a character would helpfully supply the answer without being asked. Iris was a surprisingly boring MC despite a really interesting back story, I think the author wanted her to be too perfect and that made her boring and the plot had to drive the story completely. The love triangle wasn't very believable and I don't know what was meant to be going on with Adam.

I found the final big battle with the other 'fanciful freaks' really silly. Firstly these people were meant to be her friends, we'd been told over and over how much their friendship meant, but the second they perceived her as a possible threat they try to kill her. Secondly they try to kill her, a person they explicitly know cannot die, so what on earth did they think they were going to achieve? Piss her off so she'd kill them faster? Thirdly, they heard her story of all the pain she'd gone through, the fact she didn't want to kill anyone and now that she knows what she can do she won't accidentally kill anyone else, so as a group that has multiple murderers in it, they decide she's the worst for accidently killing someone? It just seemed so contrived and took any emotion from the realisation that many of them probably died when the club burnt down.

Overall I found this a hard book to finish and I won't be reading the rest of the series. I have given some stars because the premise is really interesting, I just wish it had been executed better.

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lvjysunday's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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stacyaj's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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readingsitaaras's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

What a wild novel! Such a fascinating premise and for the most part it delivers on it. I actually liked Iris, found it hilarious how everyone just falls in love with her as soon as they meet her. I think overall most of the characters were well developed but they could use just a bit more work. The plot was complex, interesting and full of twists. I could’ve done with maybe one less plot line since the story got a little hard to follow sometimes. Overall, I’m intrigued enough to read the next book, especially since that ending was so chaotic that I have to know what happens afterwards.

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boricuabookfairy's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-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? Yes

4.5

Read with the B2 Weird book club on Discord as our February book pick!

This was amazing!! Also so bloody and violent, lived for it all.

Rep: African cishet female MC, BIPOC cishet male side character, BIPOC female side character, MLM side pairing.

CWs: Violence, murder, death, racism, mentions of eugenics, torture, non-consensual medical experimentation, cannibalism, blood, gore, gun violence, injury/injury detail, fire, medical trauma. Moderate: sexism, misogyny, slavery, trafficking, mentions of sex work. Minor: suicide attempt, xenophobia, sexual harassment.

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