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

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Sins on Their Bones is a very dark & very Jewish fantasy that explores surviving domestic abuse and the brutality of war. It’s got mysticism & dark rituals, a caring found family, and a baby goat who can sense demons (best character??). 

In many ways, The Sins on Their Bones feels like a sequel. We’re dropped into the devastating aftermath of Novo-Svitsevo’s civil war, following the broken & defeated dethroned Tzar Dimitri as he watches his brutal, estranged husband Alexey rule with cruel ambition.

Alexey has used the forbidden Holy Science to return from the dead, and is now seemingly indestructible while Dimitri and his court plot in hiding. Dimitri can’t separate himself from his former abuser – and when he finally begins to open up his heart to spymaster Vasily, Vasily comes up with a terribly dangerous plan to infiltrate Alexey’s court and take him down once and for all.

It’s curious to meet characters in the middle of their arcs. Dimitri has separated from Alexey, but he has not grown enough to love himself and rule with confidence. Vasily has escaped his abuser and has skills like no other spy, but he is too afraid to tell Dimitri he loves him. And Alexey has already accomplished the seemingly-impossible by reincarnating as an immortal being – his next step is just to take over the world. 

For me, this setup made the first half of the book a bit laborious to read. Dimitri is agonizingly defeated & depressed, and it takes his friends hundreds of pages to get him to even consider fighting back again. Alexey was a relatively fun POV, but he is a bit of a run-of-the-mill villain (even though his choices sometimes puzzled me). Vasily was definitely the most interesting to me, and I wonder what it would have been like to read entirely from his limited narration. However, I generally thought the characterization of both our trio of narrators and the rich cast of supporting players was complex and well-developed (I just wanted to SEE them develop more on page).

Aside from the pacing, I do also think the writing itself was a bit clumsy. I read an early copy - so small things could shift by publication - but I often found the sentences to be choppy, awkward, or repetitive. 

It is wonderfully Jewish, with a deep love for Jewish ethics and Ashkenazi traditions (and a delightful splash of kabbalah) throughout the pages. The characters pray, question everything, and ponder what it means to be good & how to sacrifice for those they care about. This was a real high for me. 

I also thought the exploration of domestic violence and what it is like to survive your abuser was well done. These emotions are complicated and overflowing, and I think they were handled with care.

The sex and romance aspects were mixed for me. I loved the queernormative world, and I was rooting for Dimitri & Vasily to make it as a pairing. I didn’t 100% love the characterization of the ace character. The sex scenes were sometimes a bit repetitive – we’d see almost the same exact sexual encounters between two characters several times. Several of these encounters were with an abuser, and I’m not sure why the decision was made to repeat them since they didn’t seem to move the story forward or expand on anything else (and of course graphic sexual abuse can be quite distressing to read as well). 

Lastly - and this is personal taste - I’m not super into the ‘good monarch’ plotline, even though it was really pushed on us that Dimitri would lead with ethics and care. 

However, I really appreciated the lushness of the world and folklore, and Vasily especially captured my heart. 

CW: domestic abuse, emotional abuse, graphic rape/sexual abuse, mental illness, war, gore, torture, body horror, death, sexual content, vomit

Follow me on TikTok for book recommendations!

(I received a free advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)