Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne is a dark, gripping, young adult sci-fi fantasy that will send chills down your spine. An intriguing read that will cling to your subconscious long after its final page.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

WOW! What a treat! This was an engaging and engrossing novel that I seldom wanted to put down.

This book is less horror more angst. The ghostly haunting aspects felt like after thoughts. More subplots than anything. They are really just a catalyst for the characters to deal with their own emotional turmoil and self actualization. Not the book I was looking to read. Honestly it felt like a teen angst story (Tho the characters are mostly in their early 20s) with monster elements shoehorned in. And the characters are all kind of insufferable. The most interesting character, Christine the resident witch psychic outcast, only has a handful of scenes. I would have rather read her story, to be honest.

After reading the synopsis and the story starting out pretty good I in the end was very disappointed. The story started out explaining a little about the characters each in turn and bringing together the farm and atmospheric land they lived on and around. I loved the writing by this author and will be happy to read more in the future, it really was beautiful. Unfortunately after some good set up in the first 1/4 of the book the horror aspect fell flat and it became a romance novel with some aspects of horror. By the synopsis and especially the cover (which is just amazing) I expected so much more. I needed more about what and how the things happening came to be. It really is a shame that so many especially YA novels get caught up in the making it all about the characters sexuality and relationships instead of them growing and learning who they are and how to deal with difficult situations.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martins Press for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

What I liked: The depth of the characters and their backstories woven into the small-town setting. The world building was amazing. The author really made me feel like I was on the farm. The prose and descriptions were beautiful. The book was such a unique idea and I was literally on edge at some parts and had to put it down to breathe.

What didn't work for me: Definitely the pace of the book. It was a really slow read. I struggled at times with who was speaking and the points of view were confusing at times.

With spooky season coming up, this will make a great fall read.

I wish I had more well-formed thoughts to articulate how much I loved this book. I picked it up because I'm a sucker for a good "bones moving of their own accord" story, and the premise made me think that this would be a solid contemporary novel about growing up in a small, southern town with a bit of dark fantasy added for some flair.

When I tell you that I audibly gasped the moment I realized this was a horror novel in disguise. To my even greater delight, it's exactly the kind of horror novel I've been looking for. Dark magic and demons abound, and the sinister story elements are packaged in a small-town aesthetic that's described in such immaculate and loving detail that I could physically feel the summer heat and smell the cloying, earthly stench of rot that literally haunts the story from beginning to end. Horror relies so much on atmosphere, and Kilcoyne does a remarkable job at establishing it at every turn.

The small-town aesthetic isn't just for show, though. Laurel and Isaac's growing pains as they attempt to find lives and identities outside the confines of a judgmental and oppressive hometown are a crucial part of the story. The tension and heartbreak of their friend group are so beautifully written and deeply relatable that I found myself feeling nostalgic for a young adulthood I never personally had.

The only reason I didn't give it a five-star rating is that the ending feels a little rushed. There's a lovely, tense moment just before the story's climax that's called out in the text itself as a "calm before the storm," but it doesn't feel as though the storm ever actually arrives. Things seem to get resolved relatively quickly once they start getting legitimately dangerous, "aided" by off-screen decisions and sacrifices that don't actually seem to have much of an effect. I still liked the ending, but it did feel as though the story petered out a bit instead of reaching the compelling climax I was hoping it would.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to anyone who's looking for the kind of horror that makes your teeth ache in your jaw and leaves you itching to escape the soil that feels saturated with the sins of your parents.

**3.5-stars**

When Laurel Early left for college, she was excited to be escaping her small farm town in rural Kentucky. It's what everyone from there dreams of, but few succeed at. Unfortunately, Laurel didn't succeed either. The big city life of Cincinnati was overwhelming. She begin to fail her classes and then stopped going altogether once she realized she could just go home.

She returned home to her Uncle Jay's farm, but hadn't come clean with her best friends yet. They just think she's home for the summer. In addition to working on the tobacco farm, Laurel is also a taxidermist of sorts. She doesn't seem like the type of taxidermists that I am aware of, but she deals in a lot of animal remains, particularly their bones.

It doesn't take long after she returns to town that the horrors begin. Blood trails on the farm, massacred animals, dreams of her dead mother. The whole atmosphere is frightening, but in addition to all of that, there is a lot of normal, contemporary issues happening for Laurel and her friend group, made up of Isaac, Ricky and Garrett.

There are rumors that the Early farm is haunted, but a local girl, Christine, who everyone knows is a witch, is the first person to actually say it to Laurel at the time she needs to hear it. It definitely gets her thinking. She needs to get the mystery of their property solved. She's always been haunted by her mother's suicide, but is there even more to the story than anyone knows?

Wake the Bones is a character-driven YA story with dark magical realism elements and a heavy Southern Gothic vibe. I finished this extremely quickly once I started listening to the audiobook. I couldn't stop listening, but I couldn't really decide whether I was enjoying it or not. This was seriously a difficult story for me to rate.

There were many interesting aspects and the horror imagery was very well written, however there were good solid chunks that I found boring. The contemporary character work, it was too in the feels and less in the dark mystery I was hoping for. I can definitely recognize that Kilcoyne writes beautifully, I just think at the end of the day, this particular story was lacking a bit of the pizzazz I was hoping for.

If I had to compare this story to other books, I would say it reminded me quite a bit of Summer Sons, Burn Our Bodies Down and Ghost Wood Song; like the three of them meshed together. It's funny though, because even though I wasn't blown away by this, I can't stop thinking about. I'm basically trying to figure out why I ended up feeling so ambivalent about it.

With all of this being said, I would definitely be interested in picking up future works from this author. I liked the themes explored here, the characters were well done and as mentioned before the horror imagery was great. I would love to see her go even further into the Horror lane.

Thank you to the publisher, Wednesday Books and Macmillan Audio, for providing me with copies to read and review. It's certainly given me a lot to think about!

***ARC received from Wednesday Books and NetGalley in exchange for honest review, opinions are all my own. Thank you!***

Wake the Bones debut novel from Elizabeth Kilcoyne is an interesting book. The synopsis makes it read like its going to be a horror book, old evils returned to complete what they couldn’t with the prior generation. Yet the book itself is a mashup of horror, fantasy, coming of age, romance and because the genre seems to change chapter to chapter depending on the character POV its hard to get fully engrossed in the story. When it focuses on just one genre its a good book but as a whole, its a difficult and disjointed read read.

The book is told from the perspective of multiple characters and some add more to the story than others. I would consider Laurel and Isaac the co-leads for the story and as such I liked them the most. Laurel is returning to her home after finding she can’t make it out in the outside world and Issac is desperate to escape the town he grew up in. Its a really good contrast between to two. I liked Laurel, I liked her taxidermy and the bone collecting yet it never really feels like it goes anywhere. It felt like it was a big set up at the beginning to be apart of who she was but other than it being used by the devil it isn’t a big part of the story. At the beginning the book felt like it was going to make a big deal about how some of her weirder behaviors impact how the city views her but other that Christine, there is no other interactions with townsfolk. It also feels like it is supposed to have some impact on her magic and yet we never really see her using these parts of her to use her magic with.

Out of the secondary characters Christine is the only one that brings any real value to the story. Her chapters interwoven with Laurel and Issac are very nice, someone who has picked this town and doesn’t care what others think of her. She is different, she doesn’t fit but the place she has carved out for herself is good enough for her. As much as I like Garrett he feels like he is only there to add to Isaac’s storyline so to give him POV chapters took away from times we could have been exploring with Laurel. I did not like Ricky at all, his whole story line seems to be Laurel’s love interest and little else, its hard to root for someone that doesn’t feel like they have a place in the story. I do truthfully believe that Ricky could have been completely written out of the story and nothing would have been lost.

The atmosphere comes alive with the writing. You can feel the oppressive summer heat and the descriptions bring the small town to life. I wish we had gotten to see more of Laurel’s farm as it plays such a large part in the story but when we are there it is lovely. Same with the magic, while its a little disjointed and not well explained how Laurel is so quick to manage it you can feel the woods come alive around her as she connects with who she is. In the horror parts the writing is so descriptive it feels more tapped into describing the gore than letting the terror build up over the book. Which is a disappointment because the devil can be a truly scary creature if given the space and Laurels mom Anna also adds some good horror elements that just get lost.

I wish I had liked this book more, it has many good elements that work on their own but get lost in other parts that feel like they belong in a completely different story.

Laurel Early is back on her family farm after dropping out of college. She returns to a life of tobacco farming and taxidermy. Along with neighborhood boys Ricky, Garrett, and Isaac, Laurel is set to have another boring summer. Until her pile of discard bones walks away and manifests into a creature from a nightmare. Laurel soon realizes that she is being haunted by an ominous being that knew her mother. It will take the help of the town witch, her crew of friends, and the clues her mother left behind to escape with her life and the farm intact.

Wake the Bones is a delightful gothic tale of mothers and daughters, twisted magic, and found family. I really enjoyed this debut from Elizabeth Kilcoyne and found it to be a bone-chilling and unputdownable read. At the heart of this tale is found family, chosen people who know us in a way that biological family may refuse. Kilcoyne does an excellent job with sensory details that will send shivers down your spine. I particularly enjoyed Garrett and Isaac’s relationship and the complexities they were dealing with. Readers who enjoyed Summer Sons (Lee Mandelo ) or The Raven Boys (Maggie Stievfater) will definitely relish this horrific walk through the woods.

Thank you to Elizabeth Kilcoyne, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, Wordpress blog, and Barnes & Noble etc

3.5/5 stars

This YA contemporary fantasy horror (aka genre-bending) novel is perfect for fans of A FAR WILDER MAGIC, WHAT WE HARVEST, and STRANGER THINGS.

Just by reading the first chapter, I could tell that this book is going to be divisive—some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it. I fall somewhere in the middle. While I absolutely admire Kilcoyne’s writing style, the pace of WAKE THE BONES is slow. The plot is fairly well developed, but the characters could have been more memorable.

Nevertheless, the story felt timeless. You are wrapped up in a rural, old-timey Kentucky town; yet, at the same time, also in modern times. Someone’s cell phone rings while they are working in the tobacco fields. Laurel uses real bones from dead animals to make jewelry . . . that she sells in her online shop in order to pay off student loans. The contrast between the historical-feeling Southern country setting and the modern-day mentions of technology can be jarring—which took me out of the story just as easily as it developed world-building.

Speaking of world-building, Laurel’s exploration of (her) magic certainly could have used some development. How her magic works is never really explained. And from what is explained, the magic system doesn’t seem consistent. Her magic is nature-related but also blood-based. Her magic is intangible, but then she can see it as a warm, green, ephemeral light. She doesn’t know how to control her magic but suddenly she’s conjuring fire. The magic system just doesn’t seem properly flushed out.

What I did love, though, was Kilcoyne’s writing style. The way she describes the settings, particularly the farm and the woods, turns nature into its own character. Kilcoyne’s writing is atmospheric and evocative and distinguishing:
“His accent was so thick it smothered his words and stuck to his vowels like the motor oil under his fingers.”
“These summer storms were a reckless bunch, concerned only with their own expression.”

In fact, the setting(s) as a character almost felt more animated than the characters themselves. Neither Laurel nor Christine nor Isaac nor Garrett nor Ricky felt particularly memorable. But I don’t believe that they were as underdeveloped as some other reviewers have posited. Actually, the characters in WAKE THE BONES almost felt more realistic because of how they blended in to the story. Of how they fit (or didn’t fit) into their environment. Yet they still didn’t stand out. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I believe it’s because none of the characters really changed over the course of the story. Sure, Laurel learns more about her past and her magical abilities and how she belongs in her world (which is her deepest want—finding her place and learning how to live). But her character arc still feels lacking. I don’t know. By the time we meet everyone, they just seem to have already established their beliefs and wants and needs.

I also think the fact that characters are somewhat underwhelming could be attributed to the dull voice and awkward third-person POV. The scenes jump between random characters, which didn’t work for me as a reader. It seems the only reason the author incorporated multiple POVs was for info-dumping. And I think it would have been so much more interesting to get that information through Laurel, for that information to have been shown rather than told.

WAKE THE BONES is a haunting story of life and death, and love and loss, that will enchant you with it’s vivid descriptions and will make you question what it means to belong . . . to your home, to those around you, and to yourself.

**Content Warnings: gore / blood, death, suicide, homophobia, mental and physical abuse, violence, body horror, drug usage, postpartum depression, gun use, ableist language (“idiot,” “stupid,” “blind,” etc.)

***I will post my review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads, and will update my Netgalley feedback with these links after the title releases in March.***

This was a very interesting combination of horror and mystery. At times the story was really unsettling. The atmosphere was my favorite part! Each scene was very descriptive and I felt like i was there.

I struggled with knowing it was considered a YA novel. It felt more adult to me and some of the subject matter seemed like it was better suited for an older audience.

There were a lot of times in the story that I got lost. I wasn’t sure where we were or what was happening but not in a good mystery way. It felt disjointed and confusing until I got a key piece of information that helped me realize what was going on, but then I had to reread things to know the context.

Overall I thought it was just okay. It was a little slow for me.

Wake The Bones is an eerie, otherworldly story that will leave you unsure of what, exactly, you just read. It’s simmering in the summer heat, ripe with bones and new growth and dead things walking. There are some books that will be favorites for those who connect with them, and I believe that this will be that book for many people.

We follow a girl named Laurel Early who has an affinity for magic involving bones. Unfortunately, when something unearthly awakes on her farm, she is forced to come to terms not just with her magic, but with the truth surrounding her mother’s death and her own life. And that’s probably a terrible synopsis but this is the sort of story where you should dive in blindly and just go where the current takes you.

Personally, I didn’t love this book. It has some great elements: a summery horror atmosphere, a swampy farmland setting, and relatively quirky characters with their own relationship dynamics. It just didn’t all come together the way that I wanted it to. However, I truly do think that it was more of a “me” thing and not the fault of the book.

If you enjoy weird magical stories sprinkled with horror, there’s a good chance you might enjoy this!

I really wanted to like this book, horror isn't typically my favorite genre because I spook really easily, but this novel's premise sounded interesting enough to make me want to try it. I didn't expect to find myself absolutely bored out of my mind by this book.

If you are someone uninterested in graphic descriptions of corpses, both animal and human, and descriptions of the mutilation of those corpses, I'd skip this book. If you are looking for a horror novel that relies on more than that for its horror, I'd also skip this book. As a southerner, I wanted bone-chilling horror with the Devil in the South and instead got boring descriptions of multiple corpses, the farmland of the setting, and characters sleeping in jeans despite it being the middle of summer, which may have been the most horrifying part of this book for me.

This book is also one that I'd classify as New Adult instead of Young Adult given that the characters are all in their early twenties and therefore are dealing with adult issues and having sex that somehow forms protective magic over the land that is broken in the next chapter and therefore useless. This book is told in third-person through multiple points of view. None of these POVs are distinct enough to make it easy to tell who the central narrator of that chapter is, except in the case of Christine which was mainly because her chapters began separated from the other main characters. I never found myself caring about the characters in this story because they all felt the same and all felt flat. Kilcoyne spends so much time describing the atmosphere and the various corpses throughout the story that there's no space for the actual characters. Despite the death, decay, and the Devil, the stakes of this book feel low, especially given that by the end of the book, any mistakes made, or losses suffered are magically fixed.

To start I was completely draw to this book due to the synopsis and the hauntingly beautiful cover so I assumed this was going to be a perfect read for me. I was so disappointed however that i just simply couldn't get into this one. I don't know if its timing or me just expecting it to be something it wasn't but I had such a hard time finishing this one. The setting and world building was expressed in such beautiful ways it did keep my attention but at the end of the day the character's fell flat for me and I wasn't invested in their journey or the romance. i just wonder if these gothic horrors are simply not for me because I haven't found one yet to really grab me the way I was hoping. I will say that I definitely see people enjoying this one and I even have a few friends I know it will be a big hit it just didn't work for me and at the end of the day that's just how it goes.

3.5/5 Thanks to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

An atmospheric, moody, small town slice of life story that borders horror, fantasy and mystery. A tale full of creepy vibes, skeletal monsters, and a group of friends confronting choices that will change their relationships and possibly threaten their lives. Laurel Early has just dropped out of college and returned to Dry Valley and her small Kentucky farm to resume tobacco farming, taxidermy and see what there might be between her and her friend Ricky. But the land and the bones she collects soon begin to exhibit strange and deadly behaviors that bring back horrific memories of her mothers death. Laurel will need to embrace her magical gifts in order to save herself and her friends.
This was a weirdly intriguing story, not a lot happens but I still kept turning the pages to see what was going to stroll out of the woods next. For sure the creepiness and horror vibes throughout kept it tense. Isaac was my favorite character and the"will they or won't they" relationship with Garrett was tender and sad all at the same time. If you enjoy small stories with a large creep factor, this may be for you!!

Thank you to netgalley for the earc in exchange for an honest review! This was easily one of my favourite books of the year. The character dynamics and setting were all reminiscent of THE RAVEN CYCLE, so obviously I loved it. The prose was absolutely beautiful and I adored the way grief was portrayed. It seemed a little mature to be shelved in YA compared to other titles I’ve read which is something I’ll consider while recommending it, but overall I loved everything about this book!

ARC provided through NetGalley. Thank yooooouu!! All opinions are my own.

I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, it just wasn't for me :/
As someone who grew up in a small town in the South, I really loved the vibes and imagery of Laurel's hometown. But...

I had a hard time getting into this book. Even at the halfway point, the plot felt rushed at times and the background of the characters felt too stiff. This novel uses multiple 1st-person POVs, yet all the voices sounded the same to me? It would always take me a few pages into a chapter to realize who was "speaking" as the 1st-person for that chapter, so it was really just lacking that oomph for me.

That being said, I enjoyed the plot twist at the end, but I won't write it here for the sake of spoilers. Although I'm giving it 3 stars, I do recommend it--especially for those who want spooky vibes in the fall for a spooky read!

Wake The Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne is the story of Laurel Early, a college dropout who returns to her family’s rural Kentucky farm to work in the tobacco fields. When strange occurrences begin to happen, threatening the lives of Laurel and her friends, Laurel is forced to investigate her late mother’s connection with the paranormal.

Honestly, I didn’t love this book. This was described as a young adult horror novel, so I expected that this would be more tame than adult horror novels. In reality, this was more of a disjointed teen romance novel with elements of fantasy/horror. The romance between Laurel and Ricky fell flat. The characters weren’t realistic, and many of them seemed unnecessary to the story. I wanted more information about the demon haunting the farm, and how Laurel’s mother became involved with it in the first place.

With that said, Kilcoyne’s writing style is beautiful. Her atmospheric prose immediately transports the reader to a sweltering Kentucky summer.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wake The Bones, by Elizabeth Kilcoyne is the perfect book for a late summer, or autumn read. It has a moody atmosphere, young characters at a crossroads, and creepy supernatural elements. I loved the small town element, and young people just out of high school trying to find their way. The title refers to Laurel's ability to sense the final moments of an animal from touching their bones. But the title seems to go deeper than that. I took it to mean finding your place in the legacy of your family and community. Laurel and her friends are all in that moment when you decide where you want to (or need to) go with your life. For Laurel, it means dealing with the death of her mother, and her (possibly being a witch). For Isaac, it means fleeing a dangerous home situation. And for brothers Ricky and Garrett (who love Laurel and Isaac, respectfully), it means deciding what your willing to do for love.

This was a beautiful book with supernatural elements, and a "big bad" coming for the group. This could represent many things, and I loved that one could interpret this in a variety of ways. If you love horror and YA, you will really enjoy this book.

What I Liked:

Moody Atmosphere:

This small farming community in Ohio is one I have never experienced in real life. The people, young and old, work hard. They are up at dawn and doing manual labor like fixing fences, and picking weeds. It's backbreaking work, but Laurel and her friends are in it together, so they still manage to have a few laughs.

But, there is an underlying current of doom. The land is not as fertile as it once was. And Laurel has an unusual hobby. She is a taxidermist. She scours the land for the remains of animals who have died and brings them to life as still life sculptures. It's her way of connecting to the land.

Lauren also lost her mother when she was a small child. Did her mother kill herself? Or did she die trying to protect Laurel from an unspeakable Evil? Will the bones reveal the secrets of the land? Is her mother a ghost? Who, or what is the Evil thing that may be trying to kill Laurel?



via GIPHY

Diversity of Paths:

I liked that even though the main character, Laurel, drops out of college, her life is not over. For many people, college is just not for them. There was some sadness that she has to start over to find the right path. But Laurel always knows that her farm is where she wants to be. There is no real struggle to leave, which I found to be refreshing. One can make a life, a good life, anywhere. And some people feel a strong connection to where they grew up. So many times in YA, the characters can't wait to leave their small town. And some of these characters do feel that way (with good reason). But I really liked that the author presented a counterpoint.

Characters:

Laurel is still trying to understand her mother's death. This legacy comes with a heavy burden. her uncle has raised her, and she feels a deep obligation to help out at the farm. She also knows that her uncle is grieving too. So she feels like she can't talk to him honestly about her mom. This is hard for Laurel. She really has no one she can really talk to about all of this.

Laurel's friends will break your heart. She has three male friends who are also trying to figure out their life paths. Brothers Garret and Ricky are hometown boys all the way. They like where they live and have no desire to leave. But Garret is secretly in love with Laurel's other friend, Isaac. Garret and Isaac both want to be together, but how can they do that in a homophobic town? Isaac is sick of living in the shadows, so he desperately wants to leave to a larger city. Also, as his father is an abusive alcoholic, Isaac really needs to leave if he wants to keep himself safe. These are Laurel's "ride or die" friends. They believe Laurel when she tell them something evil is on the way. Even with all their tensions, they are always there for each other.

Story:

This story is one of growing into an adult, but also of dealing with the baggage of one's family, all with the backdrop of a supernatural suspense thriller. The group keeps finding grizzly dead animals around the farm. Is someone (or something) trying to mess with Laurel? Was her mother an actual witch? Could Laurel be, as well? There is evil all around, but also there is the earth, the natural healer. I loved that Laurel and her friends are so in tune with the land that they can sense something bad is coming. When it does arrive, it takes all of them to drive it away. There will be a cost, but not one I saw coming.

Trigger Warning for domestic violence & suicide

3.5 rounded up. This is a lovely little blend of fantasy, horror and a little bit of romance and to me it really works on all fronts. I loved all the characters and thought they were fleshed out enough for what was called of them - especially loved Isaac, I was always racing to read scenes with him in. I also thought the imagery in this book was insane and this interesting blend of gory and beautiful all at once. I really felt immersed in this novel. The only reason I'm swaying more to a 3.5 than a 4 is purely because I don't love reading YA and some books really tilt YA for me. I think if I was younger this would've been a solid 4 but based on other things I read it has to be knocked down a little.

If you read the description and it sounds like something you'd like I'd def check it out :)