Thank you, Wednesday Books, for allowing me to read Wake the Bones early!

Elizabeth Kilcoyne's prose captured my attention from the very beginning and it never let go. I devoured the whole book in a matter of hours and I am definitely tempted to re-read it again soon, but I will put that desire aside only because I have a high tower of books looming on my side table. Really a spectacular debut!

This book was WEIRD. But in all the best ways. A beautiful, creative novel. It just sweeps you up and plants you down in rural Kentucky, which was nice for me as my roots on my mother's side extend into Kentucky for centuries. I know well the type of rural locale she describes, both the pros and the many cons.

But to the story itself. There's a horror that lurks from the beginning and then explodes onto the scene, and the author's language is so evocative and beautiful, like poetry. Her careful choice of words set the scene and you simply cannot stop reading, turning page after page to see how Laurel Early will defeat the evil that has come to claim the land, everything she holds dear, and, finally, her.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the atmosphere in this story - small-town and gothic - not to mention the strange characters who were also fascinating. Everything about the description drew me to this story and when I had the chance for an advanced copy, I was thrilled! I loved the darkness and the supernatural and the setting.

This was a definitely different read. Sort of horror, mystical type of story. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.

A story about friendship, and a devil that is stalking Laurel, whose mother died of suicide, or so she thinks. A slow moving YA plot

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book was my kind of weird.


Wake the Bones would probably live in the realm of New Adult, featuring a group of childhood friends who have lived their whole lives with the blood of their Dry Valley running through their veins. Bonded by blood, and love and all of the ambivalent forces of magic.

A multi-POV, we get glimpses into each of our main characters, but particularly Laurel Early, the so-called "Daughter of the Devil" now returned to her hometown after a failed attempt at college. Despite that, she is overjoyed to be back on her soil with her tobacco and her boys and even the ghosts that haunt her dreams. It isn't until death itself comes creeping into reality that Laurel, Isaac, Garrett, and Ricky have to face the real devil of Dry Valley.

Listen I loved this and I'm not sure I have enough time to talk about it but here goes. The setting is a slow-blooded, poor Kentucky town and every word feels like the way the sun swelters in the summer. Each voice is easily recognizable from each other and you fall in love with our foursome for entirely different reasons, but my favorite was definitely the fact that they are all terribly wonderfully messy human beings. Their selfishness is just as enthralling as their love. Their mistakes have consequences, and their thoughts are as nuanced and complicated as any other flesh and blood creature. It's impossible not to fall into their fold; to take on their worries and their traumas, and to root for their success. The characterization was just fantastic. And Christine??? BRILLIANT. Absolutely brilliant. I adored her, as bitter and unbothered as she pretended to be.

The concept of magic here was so familiar to me. It's how I have always envisioned it myself. A thing that cannot truly be controlled, only directed, and rarely without consequence. A force that is just as much blood and mud and bone as it is roses and sunshine and clear streams. Kilcoyne displayed the wicked and terrifying forces of nature in a way that stole my breath each time.

Truly, this was a beautiful read. If you don't mind characters who aren't afraid to be human and get their hands dirty.... if you long to see an interpretation of magic that feels as though it lives right under your skin — snag this book on July 12, 2022. You WON'T regret it.

*My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Wednesday Books, Netgalley and Author Elizabeth Kilcoyne for the opportunity to read an eARC of Wake The Bones in exchange for an honest review. Wake The Bones is about a young woman named Laurel Early who dropped out of college to go back home and resume the things she loved the most, Tobacco farming and taxidermy. While back at home, Laurel is faced with a devil that has come to court her as he once did her late mother. In order to save her future and the fate of those she loves, Laurel must tap into her magic before it's too late. The things that peaked my interest in this book were Laurel's hobbies of taxidermy and creativity. I also loved that this book did do its job of being creepy, macabre and odd. That being said, I felt like the plot took too long to get to a good, interesting place. Once it got to the point, it all went too fast and became hard to follow due to the dialogue and me loosing interest once more. I felt like there where certain things missing from the plot and a lot left unanswered, then increasing my level of confusion as the reader. Overall, Wake The Bones was not a terrible book or read but I would've loved to see certain things done and written differently.

4/5

This is a very solid book and it definitely serves as an intriguing debut novel. This is a horror type novel, although I’m not even sure what genre it would really fully fit into? It definitely doesn’t confine itself to just the horror or mystery genre, which makes it to be an interesting read. Set in the summer I feel like this book is very atmospheric and definitely is slow, but it for the most part works really well.

The characters are all well developed, although they had stereotypical wants and needs for YA characters, I enjoyed them. Our main character Laurel is definitely strange and I see her being a conflicting MC to read about, and although I definitely didn’t enjoy all the things she did, I for the most part liked it. Ricky was okay. I initially really liked him but by the end he just really annoyed me with his dumb decisions. Garrett was definitely my favourite side character. He seemed to be the most logical of them all and was quite sweet. I didn’t really at all care for Isaac. I think the character of Christine was very underused. I was surprised when we had our first chapter from her POV as it’s mostly Laurel’s with Garret and Isaac’s thrown in too. Christine was really interesting but she seemed to be just a plot convenient character and only existed to help Laurel and co.

The romance and relationships both were a tad similar to me and I think although they were decently well developed, they were a bit unnecessary in the grand scheme of things and took away from the overall plot.

The plot itself was okay. I think it started off strong but as the ‘magic’ used in this book is described very loosely, any such scenes with it can be hard to understand. I wish it had been more clear. The climax felt too short for how intimidating the threat was made out to be. I thought the ending was very convenient, and it wrapped up a lot too nicely for me.

The pacing is slow and near the 70% mark became a bit slow, but for the most part it’s okay. The writing is very atmospheric and there are weird comparisons and descriptions here and there, but for the most part it’s an enjoyable read.

I think it was missing a more concrete plot (I felt so many things were left vague) and the characters needed a bit more depth, but it was overall a very enjoyable read. I’m interested in what the author will write next!

This book was very original , dark and gripping. I enjoyed the gothic feel and the plot overall, however I did feel it could use a little more character development.

Interesting premise (and gorgeous cover), but so much of this just didn't quite work for me. It felt very surface level, and I think would have benefitted from digging a bit deeper both in character development and world building. The tone was a little inconsistent as well.

Oh my god! This was excellent! Dark, spooky, gory! One of the best books I've read this year. I can't recommend this enough

Perfectly dark. Perfectly creepy. Perfect small-town feel. I love this novel! I am going to put this on my purchase list for sure. I think our library's fiction book club will absolutely devour this one!

A good book about dealing with large emotions. Fans of YA books will appreciate the topic and how the writer deals with the subject.

I really really enjoyed this book. There are some TW but the author made it perfectly clear what to expect in the book. The writing was beautiful and the story was weird, wild, and wonderful.

This was not my normally reading material, however, I loved it so much. Laurel grew up on a tobacco farm with her uncle, her mother died when she was a baby, and has recently came back home after dropping out of college. She along with three guy friends wrestle with staying in the same small minded town, or trying to find their ways in the world. That is where the normal ends.

Laurel has magic but was not aware of her true powers until she is threatened by the devil who wants to kill her. She must save herself and her friends before they all loose their life.

This is a gothic tale at its finest. And I was so surprised at how much I loved this creepy weird story.

It doesn’t release until July, but I highly recommend this one, once it does.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 generously rounded up
I went into Wake the Bones blind -- and while I did like it, I didn't love it. The story follows Laurel, Ricky, Garrett, and Isaac four teenagers living in rural Ohio. They've grown up together, but they keep secrets from one another. Laurel has dropped out of college. Garrett is in love with Isaac and makes no secret of it. Isaac doesn't want the town to know who he truly is but is also desperate to escape and be the person he wants to be. Ricky is solid and "summer" and may or may not be in love with Laurel, who may or may not be in love with him back or is just settling. It's a lot of teenage drama and angst mixed into farmland and death. It's sort of like The Raven Boys but all of the character developed is crammed into one novel.
Laurel is maybe cursed, and exploring how her mother died will hopefully help her cure that curse. If it sounds like I hated it -- I didn't. The language is weird but beautiful but occasionally too much. The character development feels too rushed at places and too intimate as if the characters are expected to read each other's minds because of their closeness. There is too much telling through vivid metaphors and not enough showing.
However, despite all the angst, it's an excellent book and worth the read. This is Elizabeth Kilcoyne's first novel and it does show. She's often wordy, and it lags the story down. Not everything is about how a character feels, dammit! But I loved parts of her language, the weird story she told, and the obvious love she had for her world. I will be checking out her work in the future. This is a dark story, and I didn't post any trigger warnings. However, if you are not a fan of darker subjects like death, you may want to skip this one. But if taxidermy is a fascination, and you are a fan of wordier writers and beautiful metaphors, check this one out!

I really enjoyed reading this book! It's a great atmospheric read with a unique story and great world building. The characters are really complex and unique and overall it's a great story.

Shadows mix with light and uncertainties mix with truths to create this dark imaginative story. I was lulled into a sense of foreboding and heart from the first page of this story. The author did an outstanding job of creating an atmosphere and allowing the story to form organically. There are strange moments that have the reader holding their breath and then guessing and gasping at what comes next. The story isn't all dark and it isn't all light. There is a wonderful mixture of reality and what feels like fantasy.

I really enjoyed hunting for the truth alongside the characters and I could really feel the world they lived in. It starts out during a hot southern summer, and I could feel the heat on my skin and the coolness of the water along with every other moment between these pages. I really enjoyed this story, will read more from this author ASAP and will be buying this in physical form to experience this story again and again. I received an ARC vis NetGalley and St. Martin's Press and am leaving an honest review.

I truly loved the premise and the plot of this book but I found the writing to be strangely confusing — I don’t know why, but I often had a hard time following the dialogue, the action, because it felt messy and disjointed.

After dropping out of college, Laurel Early returns to the family farm in Kentucky to resume her life as a tobacco hand and part time taxidermist. Upon her return something is awakened, a devil from the past, who is obsessed with possessing her and destroying everything she has and everyone she loves. Laurel must awaken an innate magic and uncover the secrets of her mothers past in order to defeat the devil.

Wake the Bones is a unique YA horror set on a rural Kentucky tobacco farm. While the novel may not be classified as Southern Gothic horror it definitely shares characteristics of this horror sub-genre. Although classified as a horror novel, I found the relationships between the four childhood friends (Laurel, Isaac, Ricky, and Garrett) and their struggles with living in an insular community to be the main plot of the novel. While I found the characters to be complex and intriguing the horror aspect of the story felt a bit confusing and vague. Laurel, like her mother and some of the other townsfolk, have magical abilities which manifest in different ways. I enjoyed learning about the different abilities of the residents and how they are seen as dangerous and labeled as witches by their community. Laurel's magic manifests as an ability to touch bones and have pieces of their story revealed to her. I really enjoyed the premise of this novel as well as the character interactions but there were just too many times I felt confused about what was happening. This is definitely a novel to check out if you are looking for something a bit different than your typical YA horror.

Despite the fact that i am still not that much of a horror reader, I am loving the fact that we are getting so many good creepy horror stories in 2022. I want to first talk about the writing! it was everything. It was so vivid and detailed and as if I were really in the scenes being described, which is both amazing and terrifying with how wonderfully creepy this book is. No matter how horrifying, it was also beautiful. There were so many quotes that I wish I could tattoo into my brain. The characters were well developed, complex, and relatable. I especially love a good found family dynamic, which this gives us in spades. I cannot wait to hold a physical copy of this book. This was just such a captivating read.