RTC I've gotta think about this one.

***

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've thought about it, so here I am. Bear with me as I attempt to put into words the confusion I'm suffering. Three stars, you say? Not bad, not bad. It would be two if the prose weren't so good, keep that in mind.

So here we have Laurel Early in rural Dry Valley, Kentucky, freshly dropped out of college. Her family's tobacco farm is her future now, and she has her three best friends from childhood to welcome her home for the summer: Isaac, Garrett, and Garrett's older brother Ricky. As with a lot of rural places, the Early family cemetery is on the farm land, and the place that serves as Laurel's mother's grave is an old dried-up well. Less than 24 hours after being home, the well is busted open like something burst out of it, leaving a huge pool and trial of blood.

Well well well.

Laurel knows that her family is "cursed" according to local myth and legend, but she never thought she'd have to confront that curse herself, or that it would be so dangerous to contend with.

This story, guys. Guys, THIS STORY. I wanted to love it so badly. The potential was there, the buildup in the first third crept into my skin, and the monster had such promise.

The only thing that really worked in this entire novel were 1) the rural setting, 2) the characters being so complex, and 3) the prose. It is not a good sign that if you replaced the horror element in your HORROR novel with something contemporary and current, that that book would be the same book, GUYS. This monster could have been Deliverance-style rednecks, and that would have had the exact same effect. It could have been corporate douchebags intimidating the Earlys for their land, and it would have been the same! It could have been GENTRIFICATION OF RURAL PROPERTY, AND IT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE SAME!

The monster is an ornament in WAKE THE BONES. It barely raises the stakes. No one is in serious danger, the last face-off ends in a splutter, and it only really shows up in force three times. That's once every 100 pages, and that's not good enough for a novel this dark. And as for WHY the monster is doing what it's doing, well, with a gun to my head and the hammer cocked, I couldn't tell you. We're given some vague reasoning as to why it's on the land and what it's doing to the tobacco fields, but that felt flimsy enough to be a soggy piece of bread in the sink: poke it and it falls apart. This is not a horror novel. It's a gothic featuring a monster.

Is it sufficiently gothic? Yes, this book is a creeper vine around your neck. That part is clear and comes through like a brick to the head. I LOVE the claustrophobia of gothic novels, and WAKE THE BONES checks every box on the list, including the oppressiveness of a Southern summer.*

I want so badly to talk about the ending and how the last quarter of this book made me so annoyed. Not even angry. I'm not mad, just disappointed. All the things I wanted to happen that would have jacked the tension up to 11 just...fizzled. We were given not much of a conclusion to speak of. Maybe I'm a contrarian, but a novel that calls itself horror needs to show up and deliver. As a gothic, WAKE THE BONES is great. As horror, it's much more than lacking. It verges on derivative.

*Fun fact: I was born and raised in coastal Maine, and in undergrad, the choir went to Virginia in April for a tour. You know those videos of polar bears passed out on rocks in the sun? That was essentially the effect on me. I couldn't believe how hot it was already, and people were around in pants and jackets. PANTS. AND JACKETS. No wonder you guys are cold up here in June.

This was very interesting and unique and dealt with some heavy topics. I highly recommend the author’s trigger warnings. I’m very glad they included those. It helps me to have advance warnings on things.

This book took a while to hit it's stride. It started as horror but then paranormal but also magical realism, there was a lot but not enough. The writing seemed very abstract and the characters weren't really shaped. At around the halfway mark they begin to solidify but still important details were missing. The plot did pick up when an ancient enemy was revealed, the devil. There was a twist I didn't see coming but also I really couldn't pick up on where this plot was going. Even though there was an abstract feeling to the story, I did like these four characters that were in a poor town trying to make it as queer people, as people who were always on the outside of that society.

Thank you to St. Martin's press and NetGalley for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think we are sorely missing more Midwestern Gothic and this is only further proof. Laurel's home is rotting -- but she's used to death. But then it stinks up the air in a way that's unfamiliar, a way that's dangerous. She has to use everything she can muster -- be it magic, love, or just her own two scarred hands -- to fight to cast out the Devil that lingers in the soil.

Okay, this is just my kind of stuff. It's YA-ish but it is dripping with the fear and anxiety about home and the future that never goes away even after you're a teen. It's full of love, family and otherwise, and fear, rational more than irrational. The prose is thick, echoing the summer stickiness that hangs on every page and it's scary enough that I found myself looking a little closer at the trees on my walk home. It's got all the good elements of a scary story, and left me feeling the kind of unsettled that Stephen Graham Jones does, albeit with a little more hope.

4 stars.

I really liked it. I like modern day settings with some witchy stuff thrown in.
I like these character, even when they are angsty and arguing.
I do wish Jay had more of a role, as the only adult in the story.
I love that Laurel is into taxidermy and her friends don't think she's weird. I want more taxidermy bone princesses!

The over all vibe of this story is to my liking. There are a lot of descriptions and little dialogue, so if you don't like that, you won't like this. But the writing is interesting and made me want to know more about the farm and the magic.

I really enjoyed this sort of classically southern gothic horror novel. Laurel is a strong and capable protagonist and she has a well-developed set of side characters around her to support the reality Kilcoyne is creating. The land itself definitely becomes a character but even before that it is lovingly described in a way that makes you feel the grass, smell the dirt, and suffer the weight of the humidity. Doesn't hurt that I read this in June and it felt like looking at mirror...

This book has deals with a devil, hauntings and haints, witches both confirmed and suggested, and all the sort of backwoods magic that you have heard about from folks sitting on porches who would be the first to condemn that sort of thing on a Sunday. My only real critique of this novel is the abrupt ending. I enjoyed the slow pace it put itself on to set up the relationships and setting but I was a bit disappointed in how little of the book was spent on the big bad(s) and defeating them. Otherwise this is solid and a quick enough read. It is also a really well-narrated audiobook for anyone interested in picking it up that way.

Wake the Bones is an eerie and darkly weird novel full of vividly written descriptions and an interesting magical system. While much of the novel is very well written, the characters felt very flat and forgettable.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Full list of content warnings in the book can be found here: https://www.elizabethkilcoyne.com/wake-the-bones/

Elizabeth Kilcoyne gave us a thrilling story about Laurel Early and her journey to discovering the secrets of her family farm. This was some story. The plot was so creepy and weird. I never knew what to expect or where it was going. Wake the Bones is one of the most unique stories I have ever read. It felt fresh and new with a sinister twist of horror.

Kilcoyne did a fantastic job with the setting of the story. It was consistently descriptive and made you feel as if you were really there. I liked this aspect because I would never know what growing up on a farm in a small town is like. And it also enhanced my reading experience a lot. As I said, you just felt like you were right there with Laurel.

I really very much enjoyed this novel and if you looked a little creepy and horror of a story I strongly recommend!

Holy Hell! I felt like I was reading Stephen King for the first time as I raced through this amazing story. Elizabeth Kilcoyne spins a story so full of terror that your nails will be bitten to the quick before you’re done. Everything is here - the small group of ordinary humans battling great evil, an outcast with the sight, a small-minded small town, and the greatest evil of all - the Devil himself.

This would make an amazing movie. The special effects alone would be incredible.

Highly recommended for horror fans.

This is a hard one to rate for me. If it hadn't been an ARC, I probably would have DNF'd it about halfway through, but since it was, I stuck with it and ended up mostly liking it.

I enjoyed the spooky, claustrophobically small town vibe from the beginning. But it wasn't really until the last quarter of the book that I actually felt invested and started to care about the characters. Up until that point it kind of dragged and there was an emotional distance to the writing style that made it hard for me to pin down what was actually happening. I had to reread passages a few times because I just felt really adrift in the story. I think the cadence of the writing and the author's style might have been a better fit for me in audio format. There were passages that were knockout gorgeous and evocative, but also lots of bits that I ended up kind of skimming even after reading them multiple times because I just couldn't seem to connect to what was being described.
The story also jumps around a bit, both in time and between different POVs. This has the advantage of setting up some surprises and keeping the reader guessing, but it was also somewhat confusing at times.

I liked the flawed, sometimes difficult to like characters, and their realistic and fraught relationships and interactions. I liked the magic and monsters, even if I didn't always understand them. This definitely had more of a New Adult feel than YA.
I particularly liked the ending, it felt like it hit just the right notes for the story. It left me with unanswered questions, a few of which I wish had been made clear, but most of which are the kind readers will enjoy mulling over long after they've finished the last page. I think if I'd had a firmer grasp on the story as a whole, and on the characters and what they wanted and felt throughout the book, the ending would have been really spectacular. As it was, I'd recommend this book, but it wasn't a perfect match for my particular reading tastes.

Evocative and atmospheric, I felt like I was in those fields with Laurel. I just wish the characters surrounding her were more than just sketches.

I enjoyed the writing in this, but at times it was hard to stay engaged. It felt like in a bid to be mysterious sometimes it tipped over into needlessly confusing. I had trouble keeping up with the plot, what little there was.

Overall, beautifully written, a good summer read.

W͎A͎K͎E͎ ͎T͎H͎E͎ ͎B͎O͎N͎E͎S͎ is a haunting mix of fantasy and horror with Laurel making a living off of what the dead leave behind.

Laurel is known around town as the devils daughter. After recently dropping out of college, she returns to her tobacco fields and taxidermy to make a living.

When she begins dreaming of her deceased mother, she knows that something unsettling is happening. There’s a dark energy creeping through these woods.

But can Laurel summon the energy of the forest to save the lives of her friends?

This book is a delicious mix of:

🥀 haunted woods
🥀 death magic
🥀 friendship
🥀 taxidermy
🥀 supernatural bone devil

I really enjoyed this. I would recommend reading it in a few sittings to completely immerse yourself into the eerie atmosphere of the writing.

My only complaint is that the romance portion just didn’t work for me at all. I found it to be a little bland.

𝗣𝗨𝗕 𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: July 12, 2022

Thank you to @wednesdaybooks for my ARC!

A bleak town, some great characters, grief, despair, horror, and magic combine to make Wake the Bones a captivating read.
The MC Laurel had her chance to leave Dry Valley in the rearview mirror. College didn't work out though and she is resigned to living on the family farm with her Uncle Jay. He raised her since she was a baby when her mother died and now expects her to pull her own weight. But something is stirring. Something worse than the hopelessness, poverty, heat, humidity, and the pervasive feeling of small-town life.
Ricky, who Laurel knows is her destiny. Isaac, her best friend must leave this town. Garrett yearns for Isaac but is resigned to letting him go. Friends since childhood who must stand beside Laurel as she tries to stop something very old and very evil from destroying everything.
Let me just say that if you enjoy a descriptive location where you feel like you are right there next to the characters, the author has done an outstanding job. I will admit, that I was confused at times trying to figure out what was real and what was an illusion. The ending helped to clarify the story for me. Dark and disturbing and I would have scooped up these four and taken them far away if this wasn't fiction. Turns out, Laurel was more than capable without my assistance.
I am not going to delve much into the plot because I think it is a better story without potential spoilers.

4.5 stars! - “A symphony of survival wound its way through the emerald tobacco fields of the Early farm.”

This book… is exactly what horror novels should be. The writing is so atmospheric. I think I got chills in the first paragraph not only from the horror elements but also from just how poetic the writing is. And how stunning is the cover of this book?

It’s the type of southern gothic horror that most southern gothic horror novels are striving to be, but never really end up becoming. The darkness pervades every chapter and oozes at the corner of each scene. The book is terrifying, engrossing, gritty, earthy, and atmospheric. The chapters are shorter in length which lent itself to a fast moving pace for the slate of horror plot elements included. I really loved this one, and can’t wait to read whatever is written next by Kilcoyne.

“The only child who didn’t have a fairy tale to tell was Laurel Early…” 👀 Such a good read, and there’s going to be several quotes I come back to when I inevitably re-read this one.

Thank you to @netgalley and @wednesdaybooks for the advanced readers copy. This did not affect my review in any way. All quotes came from an early version of this book.

The prose of this book was so compelling, and the characters kept me wondering what would happen next. A little creepy and very interesting!

"What's a little death to you? You've seen too much already."

This one was odd but I think I liked it. You have Laurel, freshly home from not making it out of her small town. She was the success story and now she's the failure, dropped out of college and back to work the tobacco farm of her family. But she's also back with Ricky, Isaace, and Garrett. This ragtag group of boys that are too close to be friends, but only one doesn't feel like family but might be more. It was interesting to learn about her land, her legacy and the people.

But the horrors don't take long to appear. Quickly there are unnatural deaths with a lot of blood but with beyond rotting bones. Nothing makes sense, not the soil, the plants or the bones that Laurel knows so well.

The writing is a bit flowy and showy. It's not bad, just at times it painted a picture I'm not always sure I saw clearly. I loved the boys and learning each interesting personality. It's gruesome at times but dealt with interesting topics with care. I liked this one, even if I was confused a time a or two.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Wake the Bones follows Laurel Early, a girl who lives on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, and her three friends who help out around the farm. Mysterious and haunting events begin to occur, and Laurel must use newfound magic to save everything — and everyone — she loves.

Overall I think this book rates at about a 3.5/5. It really nails the spooky atmosphere, and a lot of the creepy action had me all but glued to my kindle. Where this book falls flat for me is in the character department. Though objectively we do learn a lot of information about many of our main characters, I couldn’t help but feel that I as a reader was being kept at arm’s length from them. This tends to happen anyways with third person, but even in the sections that followed one specific character’s thoughts more closely, I still felt like I wasn’t getting to see everything, or that there was just a depth to their thoughts/feelings that wasn’t present.

There’s also a lot of build up in this book, which can be a positive or negative depending on what kind of reader you are. It just takes a long time for the group to really genuinely figure out what’s going on, but once they do, it’s resolved in almost the blink of an eye (just, really quickly in proportion to the amount of time we spent following them around while they just kind of existed).

Ultimately I did have a good time reading this book, and I’ll likely go back to it during spooky season for the immaculate spooky vibes.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a copy for review.

I really enjoyed this one. Aside from a slightly slow start I pretty much devoured this book in one sitting. I found the friendship between Garrett, Ricky, Laurel and Isaac to be a really amazing bond. The chemistry was there pretty much right away. The setting of Dry Valley was perfect. There's the woods, the farms, the small, small town life, just waiting for magic to happen. The magic comes mainly in the form of just...eldritch horror from the woods. Also Laurel can speak to bones for lack of better words. This book obviously deals with a lot of death, but it also is about growing up and wanting to get out of small towns and spread your wings. It's about learning to spread your wings where you are sometimes too. I really enjoyed this and the end was...perfectly weird.

Wake the Bones is one of my favourite YA debuts of 2022. It's a wonderfully dark, earthy story full of atmosphere and dread.

Laurel has dropped out of college and returned to the family tobacco farm where she and her friends Isaac, Garrett, and Rickey work. 

Something made of bones and dead things is stalking them in the night, and Laurel is having dreams of her dead mother.

This one feels like half a coming of age story and half a horror story. It's a novel about the pain and joy in the choices we make as we become adults.

Two of the protagonists are gay, and I especially appreciated the thoughtful story of growing up hiding a part of yourself in a community that hates you.

Also, the monsters are wicked cool. 

I recommend this one for fans of Melissa Albert, Claire Legrand, and T. Kingfisher.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for my review copy of Wake the Bones.

Wake the Bones is dark, atmospheric, and beautiful. And a little cozy

Elizabeth Kilcoyne has a stellar debut that is both chilling and hopeful. I was captured by Kilcoyne's writing. Her ability to paint nature on the page was by far my favorite aspect of Wake the Bones. I loved that this book leans heavily into the folk horror genre. I felt at home with every mention of banana pudding and use of "I reckon."
I believe I have only two issues with the book overall and that would be I feel like it needed more Christine and at times the story structure left me a little confused where it was jumping too next.

I cannot wait to read whatever Kilcoyne writes next.