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A review by katnortonwriter
Bones at the Crossroads by LaDarrion Williams
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? Yes
4.25
This was great. When I finished "Blood at the Root," I more or less made a wishlist for what I'd like to see in this book, and I felt like Williams addressed most of my issues with the first novel. (To be clear, I did enjoy book one, but I think it had some issues.)
If you're reading this review, I presume you've read "Blood at the Root," so let me give a couple of comparisons first:
1. "Bones at the Crossroads" is much darker than book 1, IMO, in terms of the amount of violence and death. It's not extreme for the genre, which I would call late YA, but the gloves are off and the stakes are high here.
2. Williams really rolled back the amount of in-narration AAVE. For me, that's neither here nor there, but some people felt strongly about it, so I think it's worth noting. There is still a lot of "NOOOO!!!" etc. with extra letters and punctuation, and I remain mildly frustrated by that editorial choice, though not to the point where it impacted my review.
3. Some people got real mad about how Malik treated Alexis is book 1, and I think they were right to feel that way. In this book, Malik's anger and messiness are address (though not resolved) and I think it's worth following his emotional journey through this book, because that choice was deliberate on Williams's part.
In general, Williams's prose really matured here---many scenes in book 1 felt rushed, and Williams spends SO MUCH MORE time on worldbuilding and the magic system, which was quite muddy in the first book. There's a lot of fairly on-the-nose commentary about queer and trans identities in the Black community, which for me was a plus, let's talk about it more... also, am I an idiot, how did I not clock the earlier references to the House of Transcendence? More of the side characters get more fleshed out, I understood people's goals better in this book, and overall I think Williams's talent is growing, so I'm excited to see what he does with this series and in future works.
Other little things I really enjoyed:
- subtle humor than made me snort-laugh multiple times
- the scathing things the characters have to say about Miller's "The Crucible" (so accurate)
- the quote "Mercury is retrograding the hell outta me right now."
Williams opens the book with some notes on the adultification of Black boys and youths. Malik is messy, he makes mistakes, he has a lot of anger and a lot of trauma. He's surrounded by adults who have failed him, and it's understandably hard for him to trust people and manage his emotions. Spoiler: he goes to therapy! And while this book does include racial trauma (though apparently it was marketed otherwise), this second installment focuses more on the the trauma of having parents who continually put their desires before your needs. BIG. OOF.
There were some parts where I was confused why things were happening (the answer was often "for plot reasons") and the end drove me a little bit nuts because there was a big problem and Malik took, like, a full day of procrastination time to resolve his love triangle when TIME WAS OF THE ESSENCE. But overall, I thought this book was stronger and more thoroughly developed than the first book, and I will most definitely be back for more.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. My review is my own and being left voluntarily.
If you're reading this review, I presume you've read "Blood at the Root," so let me give a couple of comparisons first:
1. "Bones at the Crossroads" is much darker than book 1, IMO, in terms of the amount of violence and death. It's not extreme for the genre, which I would call late YA, but the gloves are off and the stakes are high here.
2. Williams really rolled back the amount of in-narration AAVE. For me, that's neither here nor there, but some people felt strongly about it, so I think it's worth noting. There is still a lot of "NOOOO!!!" etc. with extra letters and punctuation, and I remain mildly frustrated by that editorial choice, though not to the point where it impacted my review.
3. Some people got real mad about how Malik treated Alexis is book 1, and I think they were right to feel that way. In this book, Malik's anger and messiness are address (though not resolved) and I think it's worth following his emotional journey through this book, because that choice was deliberate on Williams's part.
In general, Williams's prose really matured here---many scenes in book 1 felt rushed, and Williams spends SO MUCH MORE time on worldbuilding and the magic system, which was quite muddy in the first book. There's a lot of fairly on-the-nose commentary about queer and trans identities in the Black community, which for me was a plus, let's talk about it more... also, am I an idiot, how did I not clock the earlier references to the House of Transcendence? More of the side characters get more fleshed out, I understood people's goals better in this book, and overall I think Williams's talent is growing, so I'm excited to see what he does with this series and in future works.
Other little things I really enjoyed:
- subtle humor than made me snort-laugh multiple times
- the scathing things the characters have to say about Miller's "The Crucible" (so accurate)
- the quote "Mercury is retrograding the hell outta me right now."
Williams opens the book with some notes on the adultification of Black boys and youths. Malik is messy, he makes mistakes, he has a lot of anger and a lot of trauma. He's surrounded by adults who have failed him, and it's understandably hard for him to trust people and manage his emotions. Spoiler: he goes to therapy! And while this book does include racial trauma (though apparently it was marketed otherwise), this second installment focuses more on the the trauma of having parents who continually put their desires before your needs. BIG. OOF.
There were some parts where I was confused why things were happening (the answer was often "for plot reasons") and the end drove me a little bit nuts because there was a big problem and Malik took, like, a full day of procrastination time to resolve his love triangle when TIME WAS OF THE ESSENCE. But overall, I thought this book was stronger and more thoroughly developed than the first book, and I will most definitely be back for more.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. My review is my own and being left voluntarily.