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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
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:
Yes
funny
adventurous
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:
No
Meh. Just okay? Deciding whether i read the next or not
The Story, the writing and the characters had me captured from almost the beginning.
I enjoyed learning about the Bone Criers and seeing the growth of all the POVs.
3 POVs was a bit challenging in the beginning, but the stories are so intertwined it gets easier to keep up.
The amorie story between the two main characters is what I love most. I’m a sucker for from enemies to lovers.
I’m ready for Book Two, good that it just came out
I enjoyed learning about the Bone Criers and seeing the growth of all the POVs.
3 POVs was a bit challenging in the beginning, but the stories are so intertwined it gets easier to keep up.
The amorie story between the two main characters is what I love most. I’m a sucker for from enemies to lovers.
I’m ready for Book Two, good that it just came out
adventurous
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
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
First of all, let's talk about how beautiful that cover is. I love every single thing Charlie Bowater illustrates - she's unfairly good, really - and her art, along with the premise (enemies-to-lovers, soul bonds, and fated love? yes please!) was what convinced me to pick up Bone Crier's Moon.
Unfortunately, I ended up not loving it as much as I'd hoped.
To start with the things this book did very well, the lore Purdie adds to her France-inspired fantasy world is really interesting and unique! The Leurress, including Ailesse and her best friend Sabine, are a group of beautiful, powerful women that strike me as half sirens and half psychopomps, and they gain their special abilities (such as speed, strength, night-vision, agility) from the bones of three animals they must select and sacrifice before undergoing their rite of passage. If she chooses, rather than killing their destined soulmate outright, a Leurress may spend a year with him and perhaps conceive a child in that time, but if she fails to kill him by the end of that year, both of their lives are forfeit. Since I already knew from reading the blurb that Ailesse was going to fail her rite of passage and fall in love with Bastien, this lore did a great job at hooking me in and making me think, how on earth are they going to get out of that?
The other strong point of this novel was Sabine, one of the three point-of-view protagonists. Despite being a Leurress, Sabine despises the thought of killing and has collected only one of her three grace bones - that of a salamander. She's a truly sweet soul who'll do anything for her best friend, and her character shone above the others. I found myself looking forward to her chapters while I was reading through Ailesse's or Bastien's, especially considering that it was through her that we got the most in-depth exploration of the world.
However, I'm not sure I fell for the romance here. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favourite romantic tropes, but when it comes to it, I like a slow burn - expressions of vulnerability, some awkward, reluctant bonding, maybe a tearful breakdown or two - before we get to the kisses and the I love yous. Ailesse and Bastien seemed to lurch straight from wanting to kill each other to all of a sudden being so overcome with attraction that they couldn't help but want to be together, and so I had trouble believing that after a month, they'd be more than willing to die for one another. There was a perfect opportunity for poignancy and tension in that Bastien starts out despising the Leurress for killing his father, but rather than having a proper catharsis that lead to growth, they both just skirted around the topic and didn't get to know one another too deeply.
I was also somewhat rankled by the fact that Ailesse, in spite of her strength, is constantly being stripped of her powers. Multiple times, her grace bones are taken from her by other characters - it happened so often that each time they were restored to her, I would be anticipating the next time they were robbed from her - and while Sabine's arc proves to us that Sabine is a strong and capable heroine even while lacking her bones, the book seems to insist that Ailesse is not.
Despite the quibbles I had, the lore, Sabine, and her wonderful friendship with Ailesse were enough to make Bone Crier's Moon a fairly enjoyable read. With a better-developed romance and less over-reliance on depowering one of the protagonists, this could have been a new favourite!
Unfortunately, I ended up not loving it as much as I'd hoped.
To start with the things this book did very well, the lore Purdie adds to her France-inspired fantasy world is really interesting and unique! The Leurress, including Ailesse and her best friend Sabine, are a group of beautiful, powerful women that strike me as half sirens and half psychopomps, and they gain their special abilities (such as speed, strength, night-vision, agility) from the bones of three animals they must select and sacrifice before undergoing their rite of passage. If she chooses, rather than killing their destined soulmate outright, a Leurress may spend a year with him and perhaps conceive a child in that time, but if she fails to kill him by the end of that year, both of their lives are forfeit. Since I already knew from reading the blurb that Ailesse was going to fail her rite of passage and fall in love with Bastien, this lore did a great job at hooking me in and making me think, how on earth are they going to get out of that?
The other strong point of this novel was Sabine, one of the three point-of-view protagonists. Despite being a Leurress, Sabine despises the thought of killing and has collected only one of her three grace bones - that of a salamander. She's a truly sweet soul who'll do anything for her best friend, and her character shone above the others. I found myself looking forward to her chapters while I was reading through Ailesse's or Bastien's, especially considering that it was through her that we got the most in-depth exploration of the world.
However, I'm not sure I fell for the romance here. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favourite romantic tropes, but when it comes to it, I like a slow burn - expressions of vulnerability, some awkward, reluctant bonding, maybe a tearful breakdown or two - before we get to the kisses and the I love yous. Ailesse and Bastien seemed to lurch straight from wanting to kill each other to all of a sudden being so overcome with attraction that they couldn't help but want to be together, and so I had trouble believing that after a month, they'd be more than willing to die for one another. There was a perfect opportunity for poignancy and tension in that Bastien starts out despising the Leurress for killing his father, but rather than having a proper catharsis that lead to growth, they both just skirted around the topic and didn't get to know one another too deeply.
I was also somewhat rankled by the fact that Ailesse, in spite of her strength, is constantly being stripped of her powers. Multiple times, her grace bones are taken from her by other characters - it happened so often that each time they were restored to her, I would be anticipating the next time they were robbed from her - and while Sabine's arc proves to us that Sabine is a strong and capable heroine even while lacking her bones, the book seems to insist that Ailesse is not.
Despite the quibbles I had, the lore, Sabine, and her wonderful friendship with Ailesse were enough to make Bone Crier's Moon a fairly enjoyable read. With a better-developed romance and less over-reliance on depowering one of the protagonists, this could have been a new favourite!
No, I didn’t really buy the Bastien/Ailesse romance, even with all the twists the boom throws at you. Sabine has big gay energy and I’m in love with her. The worldbuilding/plot itself was really cool and I liked that the story’s arc seemed different from most other YA fantasies. There were parts that came very close to dragging but I felt like the author did a good job of using the passage of time to skim over most of the uneventful but necessary catacomb scenes. Nevertheless, there could have been more actual development in the main romance. But that’s not what I care most about in a fantasy story, and it mostly didn’t overshadow the other interesting elements. I have more specific and spoilery thoughts for sure but I’m mainly super intrigued to see the direction the sequel takes. That cliffhanger, oof...