This book was just what I anticipated, plus a whole lot more! With the focus of death and the risen dead, it had a lightness to it that wasn’t to be expected. There was plenty of wit and humour to keep the load light, while still remaining violent and eerie.

I liked the characters and I liked that for once they all got along, especially the siblings. It felt a bit refreshing that the 3 siblings, the only family they had left, cared about and supported one another.

I liked that Ryn was tough and strong, but she wasn’t fearless. She was brave. She was actually terrified a lot, but she never let that stop her. Her love for her family. Her respect for the dead. Her acceptance of newcomers. Her wit and ability to make a heavy situation a bit lighter and not take everything so serious. Despite everything she had already been through, she still woke up and saw the good through the bad.

Ellis is a fighter and I love his strength and courage, in a different way than what most would expect. You can’t help but fall for the sweet, innocent mapmaker on a search for answers while also discovering new truths and realities. Fighting battles, internal and external, alone, but learning to confide. I think he, of anyone, travelled on the biggest journey and came out better for it.

There were other little tidbits that just helped keep a deep and dark topic lighter and happier, like Goat!

I have to mention the prose because reading this was just so easy and enjoyable. Nothing was too complex and was just written “as-is” versus trying to make things bigger and more elaborate than they were. I would like to read more from this author.

While it was about death, grief and mourning, it was also about love, family and friendship. My heart broke a little at times. I giggled a lot at other times. I really enjoyed it and I would definitely recommend others to read. And can we please just take a minute to appreciate this gorgeous cover?! I feel like it represents the story well, both eerie and beautiful.

It might seem obvious, or maybe not, but the overwhelming theme of THE BONE HOUSES, a story of a curse, magic, and reanimated dead, is grief. Of letting go of the past, whether that be from a loss or from a hurt or from an unknown beginning, and moving forward. Living.

<I>She knew how things died. And in her darkest moments, she feared she did not know how to live.</I>

My interpretation of the setting of this story is Wales, or a Wales-like place, because the mythology and folklore reference beings similar to the fae, to the Tuath Dé Dannan, and also the character names feel Welsh. Once there were magical beings in the world, and magic, but a battle saw it ended and, as time passed, the legends have become stories or morality tales. But in Ryn’s village, the magic isn’t all gone; the dead, or bone houses, still walk the forest. Though with few people brave enough to venture into the dark, few believe that even that much magic still lingers. It isn’t until years later, her father lost, her mother dead, and at seventeen, working as a gravedigger, doing all she can to keep her siblings fed and with a roof over their heads, that something has changed. The bone houses are leaving the forest.

<I>This was the problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren. Nothing stayed buried forever.</I>

When the village is attacked, Ryn teams up with a recent arrival, a mapmaker, to journey to the mountains where the legend of the cauldron of rebirth was said to be last seen. If they destroy the cauldron, maybe it’ll end the bone houses and break the curse.

“<i>I’m a mapmaker.</I>“
“<b>Why aren’t you spending the night in the village?,</b>“
“<I>I–I meant to.</I>”
“<b>You’re lost.</b>“
“<I>I am not</I>.”
“<b>You’re a mapmaker who cannot find a village.</b>”
“<I>I was using someone else’s map</I>.”

Lloyd-Jones’ story is lush, magical, and eerie. Beyond the mystical, it deals with grief, pain — both emotion and physical — and family; and not just the two legged variety. For all the horror and violence of the walking dead, Ryn is careful in dealing with them, respectful, even as she’s forced to fight for her life against them. She struggles with the concept of what she has to do, with how it makes her a terrible person, and though we don’t suffer through endless agonies I thought enough time was spent — or maybe it was just genuine enough — to make it a good argument. Even if there was really nothing else she could do.

<I>She was a half-wild creature that loved a graveyard, the first taste of misty night air, and the heft of a shovel.</I>

There’s a romance, a slowburn of one, and though you see it coming early on, it nonetheless still wows you as it unfolds. Gently, carefully, and sweetly. These characters were both very aware of themselves and each other; this felt real and believable. Intact, the whole story did. The family connections, the stillness and peace of the forest, the horror of what hides in the dark, the desperate things people will do when facing the death of a loved one.. it might have been wrapped up in the fantastical but it was all very real. Also I would die for the goat.

“<I>I grew up thinking monsters could be slain.</I>”
“<b>And I grew up thinking people were the monsters.</b>“

This isn’t my first read by this author (a fact I just realized while grabbing info for this review!) but it’s definitely the first one that will follow me into my dreams. This one is going to stick with me for sure. And I can’t wait to see what she writes next.

** I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **

This was a well written book that had a very interesting premise, just needed more action. I really liked the characters and even enjoyed the romance.

Marketed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (aka my Queen and Idol) meets Sky in the Deep, this zombierific book had me hooked. I definitely felt like it was more like a Welsh medieval fantasy than contemporary vampire slaying but I really enjoyed it. It’s atmospheric AF y’all and I was drawn in by the intricate mythology. Also my favorite character was a dead goat who just kept popping up everywhere and you’re like: How???? Are?? You here???

When main character Aderyn (Ryn) was a child her father used to go into the forest, telling Ryn and her brother never to follow him. Ryn ignores that and follows him, which you’ll learn throughout the novel is kind of her M.O. That’s when she first sees a Bone House, a risen dead, and her journey begins. Once her father disappears Ryn takes over the family business of both gravedigging and Bone House dispatching, and makes it her mission to protect her brother and sister from the things hidden in the forest.

Everything changes when apprentice mapmaker Ellis comes into town hoping to map out Colbren and the mysterious mountains where legends say the fey kings used to live. Who is Ellis? Where is he from? Nobody knows, especially not Ellis, who is honestly just doing his best and needs someone to help him. When he arrives in town the Bone Houses start attacking even more frequently, and Ryn and Ellis set off to put the world to rights.

All the characters in The Bone Houses were really compelling, and I found myself sympathizing with them and rooting for them, even when they were doing some kind of shitty things. The first few chapters were a bit slow as the world was established and we were introduced to each character, but once the journey began in earnest I couldn’t put it down. The scenery was really vivid and I felt like I was there with the characters as they moved through dark woods and my heart pounded each time a Bone House showed up. I would highly recommend this book during spooky season for kick-ass heroines, touching stories of parent/child relationships and family bonds, and all the things that go bump in the night.

4.75/5 stars!

This was such an amazing read! It's by far one of my top reads for 2019. I'm gonna just start off and say that I seriously recommend checking this one out! This had such a dark, creepy tone all throughout the book, and the characters are easy to love. I found myself trying to figure out the the mystery of the bone houses along with Ryn and Ellis, and even I wasn't prepared for the outcome. The was such an expertly done plot, and there didn't appear to be any missing pieces for our characters and the way the bone houses function. There are many moments that make you question the logistics of everything, but it all truly does come together and make sense at the end. If you want a creepy book, or just a book with a great mystery-thriller plot, then I seriously recommend getting this.

ARC provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was such a beautifully written story.  About the dead, well the undead.  But it was also a story about family and love.



Ryn is the oldest sibling in her family.  Her mother had passed away and her father never came back from the mines.  So Ryn took over her father's job, the gravedigger.  Ryn liked her job.  She felt more comfortable around the dead than the living.  And she knew what Bone Houses were.  They were undead, but not zombies.  They were rotted bodies, brought back to life by some remaining magic from a curse.  The Bone Houses stayed in the woods, but something changed and they were now attacking people at home.



Ellis doesn't know who he is.  Not really.  He was found, injured, when he was young and brought up around the prince.  He had a nice life, but wanted to know where he came from.  Who his parents were.  He was also a mapmaker and he found his way to forest when he was attacked by a Bone House.  Luckily Ryn was on watch and she saved him.  Ryn needed money to pay her uncle's debts and Ellis wanted to go map the forest.  So Ellis agrees to pay Ryn for her help.  She is also hoping to find a way to end the curse.  And to also find her father.



The Mountains of Annwvyn have never welcomed humans.  



Ryn and Ellis leave for their journey into the forest.  There are Bone Houses everywhere at night.  Not only is this a rough trip, but Ellis runs out of his herb for pain.  His shoulder gets so bad that he can't even move.  Ryn finds him help from a strange source.  The two begin as company and become friends.  It's probably hard to not become friends after everything they go through.   The Bone Houses are not the only monsters either.  There are dangers everywhere and only the old stories kids were told can help them.



Monsters were unrestrained, unbound, and beautiful in their destruction.  They could be slain but they would never be truly defeated.



I loved both Ryn and Ellis.  Ryn was stubborn and tough.  Ellis was sweet and determined to live a happy life, even with his daily pain.  Ryn's brother and sister were also great, but they aren't in a huge amount of the story.   What we do know is that Ryn loves them more than anything.  She will risk her life to keep them safe, even if she doesn't come back home.  



Warnings for a lot of death, descriptions of the undead, animals dying, loss of parents, pain that is a disability, and an undead animal that I dare you not to adore.



I gave this book 4  1/2 stars rounded up to 5.  Thank you to the publisher for sending me a link by e-mail to read this from netgalley.

Excellent! I never felt like this story dragged and flew through it in an afternoon. The characters were all well-drawn and I loved that Ryn was such a strong voice. I would highly recommend this one.

Ryn is a gravedigger on the edge of a forest where the dead don't always stay dead. When Ellis, a mapmaker with a mysterious past, shows up in town, the two journey into the cursed forest to find the source of the bone houses - zombie-like corpses - and return the dead to a peaceful grave.

The Bone Houses is richly atmospheric, a dark tale steeped in Welsh folklore and myth. It's a masterclass on slow burn, naturally developing romance in YA; watching the two main characters learn to care for each other is a true delight. Under the fairy-tale-inspired story is a heart-wrenching and nuanced examination of family, grief, loss, and how to let go of those we love. The Bone Houses was an unexpected delight from cover to cover, and a must read for fans of dark fantasy and fairy tales.

I devoured this book in one sitting. It was such an interesting story and I couldn't put it down! I highly recommend this book because it will have you enthralled the whole time!

So some of you may remember that I absolutely loved the YA contemporary fantasy novel The Hearts We Sold by Emily Lloyd-Jones. (Some of you probably remember that mostly because I recommend it to you every chance I get and will not stop until you read it.)

So when I found out that Emily was releasing a new YA fantasy titled The Bone Houses, I jumped all over it immediately. And though I’d like to thank NetGalley and Little, Brown Young Readers for allowing me to read this early, as always, all opinions in the review are my own!

The Bone Houses—billed as a historical horror with elements of Buffy the Vampire Slayer—releases September 24th of this year, which is great because this is going to be literally the perfect fall read. It’s a little spooky, a little badass, and I can perfectly picture cozying up with this novel and a cup of hot chocolate right when the leaves start to change later this year. (Does it seem like I’m already looking forward to fall? Because I am.)

Ryn, short for Aderyn, is a young woman keeping her family afloat after inheriting her family’s gravedigging business. Unfortunately, she’s dealing with more problems than just paying the bills (although, to be fair, that’s a pretty big problem). The uncle who was supposed to be caring for her and her two as-yet-underage siblings has apparently run off, and she’s also the self-appointed first line of defense for her village against the magical undead creatures known as “bone houses”—AKA the risen dead in somewhat skeletal form wandering back into the land of the living, often with ill intentions. (I’m picturing draugr from Skyrim, but with less fus-ro-dah.)

But as with all good stories, things cannot go on as they are, and the shift happens when Ryn comes across a lost mapmaker named Ellis wandering about the woods. After saving him from an attacking bone house and then appropriately ribbing him for being a mapmaker who has no idea where he is, the two eventually develop a tentative friendship (I think we all know where this is going—cue “oohs” from the audience).

Ellis is a wanderer with a mysterious past (he doesn’t even know his own surname, which is apparently a real point of contention for some people), but what makes him even more mysterious is the fact that the bone houses activity only seems to intensify after his arrival. After a particularly brutal attack puts Ryn over the edge, the two decide to set out on a (pretty epic) journey to fin and destroy the source of the magic that brings the bone houses to life once and for all.

Considering how much I loved THWS and how well-written I thought it was, I was pretty much expecting to love The Bone Houses—and I did. The Bone Houses is magical, dark, spooky, and wonderful, and it really has it all: a badass female MC (which you know I’m a sucker for), fantastic world building, creepy undead creatures, dry humor, and adorable romance. On its surface, The Bone Houses is a tale of a gravedigger with a bring it on attitude and a mapmaker with a past full of questions making their way to an abandoned castle of the fairy folk to break a curse, while accompanied by their pet dead goat (yes, you read that right). But at its heart, it is so much more.

Because underneath the concise synopsis, The Bone Houses is a richly complex story, which was one of the first things I loved about it. There’s really a lot of layers to the characters and their stories and the way they intertwine with each other, both intentionally and unintentionally. While Ryn struggles with the deaths of both her parent and the responsibilities she’s been burdened with, Ellis struggles with not knowing who his parents were and why they seemingly abandoned him in his infancy. Both of them end up confronting more inner demons than they’d planned to en route to their destination, which definitely seems to be a theme in Jones’s work.

And speaking of themes in her work, our main character in The Bone Houses channels her inner Gremma from THWS as she runs around with an axe as her weapon of choice (only not just when she may need to bust it out of her purse to threaten her friend’s abusive dad—this is her chosen weapon all the time). Ryn is a genuine badass who accepts her role in life, but still sometimes struggles with finding herself along the way. It’s easy to love her as both a character and a person, and she’s someone a lot of readers can probably identify with. Plus, she’s a smartass with a heart of gold, which is one of my favorite types of people—both in fiction and in real life.

Of course, we know that in a fantasy novel especially, the setting can be as much a character as our main players, and Emily Lloyd-Jones did some excellent world building here. She relies on Welsh mythology and history as the foundation of her building, and I really enjoyed reading about the Welsh mythical creatures, like the afanc (a lake monster in the same vein as Nessie) and the Tylweth Teg (the Welsh name for the fairy folk). She really deftly and effectively weaves the Welsh mythology and lore into Ryn and Ellis’s world, and for me, this is the type of fantasy setting I really like. I find the world building to be much more believable and relatable when its based in something real and the author makes that a part of the characters’ lives. You can tell when the setting is more of a “make it up as you go along, who cares if it makes sense, it’s fantasy anyway” type of situation and that is not at all what happens here. I have to applaud the amount of research and had work that definitely went into this. Overall, Lloyd-Jones creates a really beautiful world of magic and lore for her characters to live in.

I really enjoyed the relationship between Ryn and Ellis, as well. From the jump, there’s instant chemistry and you’ll find yourself playing not so much the “will they or won’t they” game as much as the “WHEN will they come on guys get it over with we know you love each other” game. There’s even a moment where Ryn offers to help Ellis get his shirt off because his shoulder was injured, and I couldn’t help but think, okay is this the new and improved version of “oh no, there’s only one bed”?

But in all seriousness, their romance develops naturally and through some really serious soul-searching moments—but not without their fair share of sarcastic quips and good-naturedly poking fun at each other.

Plus, I’m sure it’s easy to bond over instances of risking life and limb, which there’s no shortage of. If you like action in your fantasy novels, you’ll find plenty of it. Ryn and Ellis are consistently finding themselves going up against new enemies, facing unfathomable beasts, and taking new risks that will make you tense even just as the reader. There’s a good bit of fighting amongst the soul searching and romance, and I’ll be honest here—there was a point where I had about 10% of the book left and I found myself thinking, “welp, this is it. This is one of those books where every character dies and that’s how it ends.”

Suffice it to say, it will keep you in suspense and keep you turning the pages so quickly you’ll forget about your hot chocolate and it will get cold in the autumn air as you read this because it’s the perfect fall book.

Wait, what? Sorry, I’m digressing back to those autumn dreams.

Y’all know I’m a pretty big fan of Emily’s (and I have the lovely ladies of OwlCrate to thank for introducing me to her work! They featured The Hearts We Sold in their August 2017 box and it has been one of my favorite books they ever included), but I seriously can’t recommend this book enough! I admit, sometimes I’m a little stingy with the stars (I just think books really have to earn them—I can’t love every single thing!) but I’d definitely give this one five out of five stars. It’s spooky, dark, complex, and beautiful. It has a badass grave digging, axe toting, sarcastic comment making main character who wants nothing more than to take care of her family, a richly developed world full of equal parts magic and creepiness, a cast of fantastic beasts that would give Newt Scamander a run for his money, and an adorable begrudging friendship turned romance. What more could you ask for?

Oh, a zombie goat companion? YOU GOT IT.

I definitely recommend you add this one to your fall TBR and grab it up when it comes out September 24th because you are going to love it. You’re going to love it just as much if not more than THWS and if you still haven’t read THWS after I’ve been telling you to for two years what are you even doing?! It just came out in paperback and the paperback is freaking adorable, so there’s really no time like the present. Emily Lloyd-Jones is an amazing writer—vastly underrated, if you ask me—and I have great admiration for her particular brand of YA.

What do y’all think? Have you read The Bone Houses yet? Is it going straight to your fall TBR? Let me know in the comments! As always, I’d love to hear from you!

The Bone Houses is a story about a girl named Ren, who is her village’s gravedigger. Ren doesn’t just bury the dead in her village, she also protects the village from the living dead, known as bone houses. The bone houses have always been secluded to the forest, and would only come alive at night. But when the bone houses start going into Ren’s village and attack the villagers, Ren goes on a mission to find out how to stop them for good.
This story is creepy and atmospheric. The themes revolving around life and death and family are amplified by the beautiful, action-packed prose and detailed world-building. Ren is a strong female protagonist, and the goat is the best part of the story. I loved the goat so much.
This stand-alone story is full of horror with elements of magic mixed in. This is definitely a must-read, especially for a chilly fall night.

This story is like a fairy-tale : it's fantastical, eerie, and gorgeously written. But also like a fairy-tale, the magic vanishes if you think too deeply about it.

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn verch Gwyn is the eldest daughter of the gravedigger in the village of Colbren. Ever since her father disappeared into the forest one day, it's been her responsibility to put food on the table by burying Colbren's dead. She and her younger siblings - brother Gareth and sister Ceridwen - are heavily in debt to Lord Eymon and risk eviction at any moment.

After years of digging graves, Ryn had little fear of death. Death was quiet and stillness. It was fresh earth and wildflowers. It was coin in her purse and a hole in the ground.


The problem is that enough people just aren't dying. And even the ones who do die prefer cremation over burial, in order to avoid coming back as a bone house. The bone houses are basically zombies, walking skeletons, and if you wander into the forest next to Colbren you risk running into them. An eighteen-year-old mapmaker named Ellis discovers this the hard way: trying to spend the night in the forest, he's narrowly saved from being carried off by the bone houses when Ryn bursts into his life and destroys the skeletons. Luckily for them, bone houses aren't able to go beyond the forest's edges. Until suddenly, they are - bone houses attack Colbren, leaving destruction in their wake.

Ryn and Ellis soon strike a deal. Ryn needs coin, and Ellis (who's somehow mysteriously connected to the prince's castle at Caer Aberhen) has plenty of it. He'll give it to her if she can take him into the forest, deeper than anyone dares to go, and through to the mountains of Annwvyl on the other side. The land there used to be the domain of Arawn Otherking, lord of the fae; though he's long gone, Ellis is determined to map the area to win fame and glory. Ryn also wants to find a way to destroy the bone houses, so she's more than happy to follow him into the land of Arawn.

What follows is a lushly described tale heavily based on Welsh mythology.

Now, while I don't know much about Welsh mythology, I LOVED how atmospheric it made the novel. There's an old Celtic saying I read once - long is the day, and long is the night, and long is the waiting of Arawn. I don't precisely know what it means, but it sounds beautiful, and it's always hovered at the back of my mind. This novel was like that: hauntingly beautiful, but not much is explained. So if you try to actually dissect it, it stops being enjoyable. I'm talking about all the questions you're left with at the end of the book. I can't actually articulate them because of spoilers, but be aware that The Bone Houses doesn't try very hard to explain most of what happens.

You really do just have to think of it as a fairy-tale. Like, the village of Colbren seems to exist mostly in a void; there are no mentions of any other places except Caer Aberhen, let alone other countries in this fantasy world. Considering she encountered bone houses in the forest literally every day, I also found it weird that Ryn couldn't make any other villagers believe her about their existence until they attacked. Nor do we get much knowledge of what the main characters look like until well over halfway through the story.

But the writing helped me forget any deficiencies the book had. It's evocative without being purple or flowery, and the descriptions of the forest in particular are BRILLIANT. There's also a near-drowning scene which is described so well that I actually felt like I was in the water myself.

The romance is also lovely. It's extremely, extremely slow-burn: nothing happens until 85% of the way through, and even then it's more the hint of romance than anything else. But that was perfect. We get to see pages and pages of build-up as Ryn and Ellis, two very lonely people, learn how to trust and be attracted to each other's strength.

OVERALL

Beautiful prose and the kind of story perfect for autumn nights, but don't look too deep.