A review by onthesamepage
The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin

dark tense slow-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

5.0

There will be no other men. There will be no other lovers, there will be no other great romance. There will merely be this, between us, this recognition of the perfect hurt and pain that honed us into blades, so we could cut each other free.

I don't know when I forgot how much I like messy characters, but I'm so glad books like these are getting published and reminding me that I do. Is Alexey a terrible human being? Absolutely. He was grooming Dimitri and went on to groom Ivan, he was abusive and manipulative, and there wasn't a single moment where I was rooting for him. But getting to read things from his perspective was fascinating.

I really like lovers to enemies as a trope, and seeing how Alexey and Dimitri broke apart through flashbacks was great. There's a scene where Alexey hits Dimitri, and instead of taking it, Dimitri hits back, and let me tell you, I was cheering him on. 

The juxtaposition to all that toxicity is the romance that blossoms between Dimitri and Vasily. It goes from friends with benefits to lovers in a way that felt like a very natural progression, without ignoring the fact that Dimitri is dealing with a lot of trauma. Vasily was probably my favourite perspective to read—I like reading about clever people being clever, and watching him maneuver his way into Alexey's court as a spy was exciting. 

The first 40-50% is pretty slow-paced, but the last 30% is absolutely wild. So much happens that I couldn't have predicted, and I loved the roller coaster it took me on. I will say that I had some minor issues with the ending—
for a group that's supposedly fairly smart, I truly don't understand how they saw a demon fly off with Alexey and decided they didn't need to follow up on that
. But it's a minor gripe when I had a really good time with the book. 

One thing I will say is that, even though the author does not list this as an inspiration in any way, I couldn't help but compare Alexey and his Holy Science to Zionism. There are specific references to Alexey poisoning and slaughtering innocent people, using kids as shields, etc. It hits differently when we're witnessing a genocide against Palestinians where a lot of the same things are happening. It took me a while to figure out where the discomfort was coming from, but once I'd identified it, it ceased to be an issue.
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