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randomutopias 's review for:
Bone Crier's Moon
by Kathryn Purdie
2.4 stars
I really struggled with the review of this book, mostly because I didn't truly enjoy reading it, despite knowing, from a rational perspective, that the book isn't necessarily bad.
This is the second book I read inspired on Les Dames Blanches, the first one being Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin. I liked S&D a lot more, but felt Les Dames Blanches were much better developed and explored in BCM.
I've mentioned in reviews before that everything French-related doesn't seem to attract me as much as most people, meaning I tend to roll my eyes a bit at the French words and architectural inspiration - which I'm fully aware is a deeply personal opinion.
This being said, I think I could easily get over these elements (as I have done for S&D, for example) if I liked the story or the characters. That was not the case.
Bastien made "sense" as the person meant to confront the Bone Criers with a certain reality, while also being confronted with the truths he didn't (want to) know. For balance, you have the other side of the story from Ailesse's perspective - she is the Bone Crier who has to shock Bastien with those truths, while also being confronted with the oddness of some of their rituals & lack of knowledge of the real world.
The problem was Sabine. Not that I didn't like Sabine, quite the contrary, the issue was the biggest and most interesting revelations were happening with her and not Ailesse. Meaning, Bastien and Ailesse's relationship was mostly explored as an insta-love justified with the fate given to them by the gods, a fate they want to break so they can be together without having to complete the ritual (how convenient).
Meanwhile, Sabine was finding out their Matrone (?) was messing with shady stuff & had broken the Bone Criers's rules; that the Matrone had two daughters; that Ailesse and Sabine were sisters; that Bastien wasn't actually Ailesse's amouré; that an owl was actually helping her despite being considered a bad omen; that she was worthy of a white jackall instead of her Matrone; etc., etc., etc.
All that was most relevant was happening with Sabine, not Ailesse.
It's true certain aspects were also happening with Ailesse (finding the "new" bridge, for example), but the most shocking ones - the ones that seem responsible for the plot of book #2 - were almost disconnected from her chapters. It made the story lose some traction, some movement, some dynamism.
I honestly ended up having very mixed feelings with the characters - the book wanted me to care about what was happening to Ailesse, but then showed me the most interesting things with Sabine, so I ended up not truly connecting with neither.
As for Bastien, he was alright. I wasn't blown away by his character growth and, sometimes, the romance felt a bit forced.
As for Marcel (?) and Jules, the first one was there for plot point convenience (a nerd always comes in handy when you have puzzles to solve), and the latter I couldn't truly understand. I think the point was for her to be part of a triangle? But it was so obvious from the start how things would go, that I couldn't connect to her either.
I felt really bothered by the book's pacing and developments. There wasn't truly anything that wowed me, despite being much more invested in the second half of the story.
I was truly glad I finished the book - I felt relief, to be honest -, mostly because I didn't want to DNF-it. I kept looking for whatever people found that made them love this story so much, thinking maybe the end itself would grab my attention so strongly I wouldn't resist reading the next volume...
That didn't happen.
I will not be reading book #2, I have literally zero interest in the story, and after reading some reviews I am utterly convinced I would find it worse than this one.
In retrospect, I can't say I'm proud for not DNF-ing Bone Criers Moon. And that is quite sad.
I really struggled with the review of this book, mostly because I didn't truly enjoy reading it, despite knowing, from a rational perspective, that the book isn't necessarily bad.
This is the second book I read inspired on Les Dames Blanches, the first one being Serpent & Dove, by Shelby Mahurin. I liked S&D a lot more, but felt Les Dames Blanches were much better developed and explored in BCM.
I've mentioned in reviews before that everything French-related doesn't seem to attract me as much as most people, meaning I tend to roll my eyes a bit at the French words and architectural inspiration - which I'm fully aware is a deeply personal opinion.
This being said, I think I could easily get over these elements (as I have done for S&D, for example) if I liked the story or the characters. That was not the case.
Spoiler
For starters, I didn't enjoy having three narrators at completely different plot points of the story.Bastien made "sense" as the person meant to confront the Bone Criers with a certain reality, while also being confronted with the truths he didn't (want to) know. For balance, you have the other side of the story from Ailesse's perspective - she is the Bone Crier who has to shock Bastien with those truths, while also being confronted with the oddness of some of their rituals & lack of knowledge of the real world.
The problem was Sabine. Not that I didn't like Sabine, quite the contrary, the issue was the biggest and most interesting revelations were happening with her and not Ailesse. Meaning, Bastien and Ailesse's relationship was mostly explored as an insta-love justified with the fate given to them by the gods, a fate they want to break so they can be together without having to complete the ritual (how convenient).
Meanwhile, Sabine was finding out their Matrone (?) was messing with shady stuff & had broken the Bone Criers's rules; that the Matrone had two daughters; that Ailesse and Sabine were sisters; that Bastien wasn't actually Ailesse's amouré; that an owl was actually helping her despite being considered a bad omen; that she was worthy of a white jackall instead of her Matrone; etc., etc., etc.
All that was most relevant was happening with Sabine, not Ailesse.
It's true certain aspects were also happening with Ailesse (finding the "new" bridge, for example), but the most shocking ones - the ones that seem responsible for the plot of book #2 - were almost disconnected from her chapters. It made the story lose some traction, some movement, some dynamism.
I honestly ended up having very mixed feelings with the characters - the book wanted me to care about what was happening to Ailesse, but then showed me the most interesting things with Sabine, so I ended up not truly connecting with neither.
As for Bastien, he was alright. I wasn't blown away by his character growth and, sometimes, the romance felt a bit forced.
As for Marcel (?) and Jules, the first one was there for plot point convenience (a nerd always comes in handy when you have puzzles to solve), and the latter I couldn't truly understand. I think the point was for her to be part of a triangle? But it was so obvious from the start how things would go, that I couldn't connect to her either.
I felt really bothered by the book's pacing and developments. There wasn't truly anything that wowed me, despite being much more invested in the second half of the story.
I was truly glad I finished the book - I felt relief, to be honest -, mostly because I didn't want to DNF-it. I kept looking for whatever people found that made them love this story so much, thinking maybe the end itself would grab my attention so strongly I wouldn't resist reading the next volume...
That didn't happen.
I will not be reading book #2, I have literally zero interest in the story, and after reading some reviews I am utterly convinced I would find it worse than this one.
In retrospect, I can't say I'm proud for not DNF-ing Bone Criers Moon. And that is quite sad.