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A review by vigil
Your Blood and Bones by J. Patricia Anderson
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
ehhh. ok. the ending of this book saved it from a flat two star rating. i ran into numerous issues, mainly characterization, the romance, and dialogue.
the dialogue and the characterization go hand in hand in some respects, the characters are given little in distinguishing personality traits, which is unhelpfully accompanied by having identical dialogue styles. the boy and the girl especially are from two different backgrounds, but speak in the exact same manner as everyone else in the book.
theromance..... it really just wasn't well built, and fell prey to the most basic cliche YA tropes, though even they are usually employed in books with better build up. it took 20 pages and a near death experience for her to start admiring how hot the boy was, or how she was absolutely certain he would not hurt nor kill her, despite not having much of a reason to believe that. it also destroys the possible intrigue their relationship could hold. because yeah, what does it mean that this guy who saved you has also murdered two people in cold blood, and nearly killed a third. that should give a character pause, but the girl rationalizes this in a paragraph. this is ostensibly an adult novel, i think we spend at least a third of it in a poorly constructed YA fantasy romance.
this is a common issue of novellas, but this book really did not trust it readers to understand its themes or purpose (probably because the plot is largely meandering and more interesting outside of the scope of the protagonists) so it has to directly inform the readers through corny out of place dialogue. i am not against a self righteous monologue on principle, but this book ended up at 74 pages on my phone, and they started to appear on every other one after a certain point.
honestly i truly do not think this is a bad novella, but it definitely needed another round or two with an editor.
the dialogue and the characterization go hand in hand in some respects, the characters are given little in distinguishing personality traits, which is unhelpfully accompanied by having identical dialogue styles. the boy and the girl especially are from two different backgrounds, but speak in the exact same manner as everyone else in the book.
the
this is a common issue of novellas, but this book really did not trust it readers to understand its themes or purpose (probably because the plot is largely meandering and more interesting outside of the scope of the protagonists) so it has to directly inform the readers through corny out of place dialogue. i am not against a self righteous monologue on principle, but this book ended up at 74 pages on my phone, and they started to appear on every other one after a certain point.
honestly i truly do not think this is a bad novella, but it definitely needed another round or two with an editor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Gore, Death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death