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A review by kathleenfairchild
The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin
Did not finish book. Stopped at 54%.
Thank you Netgalley and Pinguin Random House Canada for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book hasn't been for me and I finally DNF'ed it at 54%.
Please check out content warnings for this book on the author's website.
Spying in enemy territory, complex and messy relationships, complex, traumatised and morally grey characters, religious themes, dark rituals, trying to overthrow an evil overlord. That's what I wanted and expected from this book.
I appreciated the queernormative worldbuilding and the Jewish folklore-inspired parts have been interesting. Under different circumstances I would have liked to explore more of this.
The story is told in 3rd person POV from three different POVs, Dimitri, Vasily and Alexey. The characters didn't feel developed enough for me to connect with them, never really going beyond the role they play in the story. A strong connection to the characters is vital for my enjoyment of a story, so me not caring for the characters is the main reason why I DNF'ed and probably has tainted my view on other aspects of the story.
The pacing is very slow in this book. Nothing much more than some mild strategising happens in the first half and some glimpses of what the villain is up to. I thought the actual spying part would start sooner but Vasily has just arrived to do his work and met the villain where I left off. I usually love strategising, political manoeuvering, and political intrigue in books but I didn't find it particularly intriguing here.
I also wished we got to see more of the world the story takes place in. It's contained to two places mostly: where Dimitri's people reside and where the villain resides. We do get to see some other places very briefly but not enough, in my opinion. The creepy library with the strange librarian was fun though.
There is something about the writing that didn't work for me. It felt pretty dry overall and some of the dialogue didn't read natural due to being used to getting information across to the reader. There were some flashback kind of scenes that I found engaging enough though. They made me interested in a prequel that doesn't exist, and the more I think about it, the more it feels like this book reads like a sequel.
The most interesting to me were the folklore-inspired parts, the dark rituals, and the summoning of demons and angels and that's what I would tentatively recommend this book for.
Oh, and I kinda want a demon-detector goat now lol
Please check out content warnings for this book on the author's website.
Spying in enemy territory, complex and messy relationships, complex, traumatised and morally grey characters, religious themes, dark rituals, trying to overthrow an evil overlord. That's what I wanted and expected from this book.
I appreciated the queernormative worldbuilding and the Jewish folklore-inspired parts have been interesting. Under different circumstances I would have liked to explore more of this.
The story is told in 3rd person POV from three different POVs, Dimitri, Vasily and Alexey. The characters didn't feel developed enough for me to connect with them, never really going beyond the role they play in the story. A strong connection to the characters is vital for my enjoyment of a story, so me not caring for the characters is the main reason why I DNF'ed and probably has tainted my view on other aspects of the story.
The pacing is very slow in this book. Nothing much more than some mild strategising happens in the first half and some glimpses of what the villain is up to. I thought the actual spying part would start sooner but Vasily has just arrived to do his work and met the villain where I left off. I usually love strategising, political manoeuvering, and political intrigue in books but I didn't find it particularly intriguing here.
I also wished we got to see more of the world the story takes place in. It's contained to two places mostly: where Dimitri's people reside and where the villain resides. We do get to see some other places very briefly but not enough, in my opinion. The creepy library with the strange librarian was fun though.
There is something about the writing that didn't work for me. It felt pretty dry overall and some of the dialogue didn't read natural due to being used to getting information across to the reader. There were some flashback kind of scenes that I found engaging enough though. They made me interested in a prequel that doesn't exist, and the more I think about it, the more it feels like this book reads like a sequel.
The most interesting to me were the folklore-inspired parts, the dark rituals, and the summoning of demons and angels and that's what I would tentatively recommend this book for.
Oh, and I kinda want a demon-detector goat now lol