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

5.0

What an absolutely beautiful book. It really embraces not only Jewish culture and mysticism, but the Jewish artform of contemplation. It's an incredibly nuanced and delicate exploration of love, loss, and longing and how morality or virtue does not drive emotion. 

This will not be a book for everyone, you have be open to thinking about some hard moral questions and recognizing the humanity in someone irredeemably evil. It's dark and doesn't shy away from some pretty rough themes. I think it'll either grab you and rattle your brain or you'll absolutely not vibe and drop it. 

I saw a lot of reviews complaining about Alexey getting a POV and taking up space in the story and I have to say I don't think you understand the book if you don't get why it's written this way. He's not a good man, he wasn't the best husband, but you need to see the misguided love and passion and drive through his own eyes to really feel the impact and how it resonates through every other life in the book. It's not meant to be a comfortable or easy book and without hearing his perspective it would be far too simple to write Alexey off as a cartoon villain rather than a flawed and broken man who has been lured past the point of salvation

I will think about this book for a while and I love a good ponder