Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. I unfortunately DNFd at 40%. There was a lot of rule stereotyping in this book. I didn’t like Laurel from the get go. She was whinny and complacent. The relationship in this was toxic and forced. The relationship with Issac was toxic. She was selfish and I just didn’t vibe with her. There was not much to the villian story. It was not really scary or suspenseful at all. It was gory but not scary.

Ehhhh I didn’t really connect with this book or the story. It just seemed like a lot was there for shock factor. The plot was kind of bland and I didn’t love the way the book ended. It seemed a little rushed to me, if I’m being honest.

Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne
4/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

"Death did not scare her, intentions did."

Wake the Bones needs to be your next horror/mystery read!!

We follow new college dropout, Laurel, who is back in her little farm town. She just wants to keep her head down, work on her family's farm, and with her taxidermy business on the side but her summer turns out to be anything like she thought. The devil who once courted her dead mother has returned for her, her farm is alive (along with the animals she has been taxidermy-ing), and she is trying desperately to not think of the boy who she cannot love.

I absolutely loved the audio version of this book. The narrator is perfect and captures the creepy small town essence of this story. It is wholly unique, enthralling, and will leave you wanting to finish in one sitting.

Wake the Bones will be released July 12th, and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sharing an arc with me in exchange for my honest opinions.

This is gonna be a hit with witchtok and taxidermy fans. I do wish there had been more diving into the taxidermy aspect of the book, but it's there, in all it's smelly glory.

Laurel has failed out of college, and if she wants to move back home, she's going to have to fit back into her farm and what remains of her family, as if she never left. But while Laurel doesn't feel so much changed, everything that once bracketed her space in the world has shifted and warped. She's surrounded left right, back and forth, by people on the brink of monumental change, and below her, something old and wished forgotten is rising up.

Reminiscent of "The Only Good Indians" by Stephen Grahm Jones, in it's focus on small-town, never-moved-out rural life, and the complicated relationships we form with those who are close to us only partially due to family ties, but instead more due to growing up in proximity. Similarly, the feel of ancient evil is there, though this time addressing a more Christian sort of interpretation.

I did confuse this book with "What Moves the Dead," which is coming out the same day, with a really similar cover and title theme, but they were actually a good pair to one another. "What Moves the Dead" is more about setting, while "Wake the Bones" is all about the characters and relationships. Definitely pick up both!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, Wednesday Books, and NetGalley for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a good, solid book (and very well read audiobook). It's creative, a little bit odd, and atmospheric.

I think our main character is okay - She is a bit inconsistent and frustrating at times (just can't seem to make up her mind) but that can easily be attributed to her feeling of being lost in the world.

My favorite part of the story was the queer representation. It's very well done. The themes of friendship, family, and grief also bring this story to life. I wish we got to feel closer to the characters, but liked seeing their different dynamics.

The audiobook experience is great, and the narrators are wonderful. The pacing could've been improved a bit, but the last 1/3 of the book is full of great content. I do think there was a point where it got muddled, however it does come together. This will be great for folks looking for a YA novel that has elements of horror, magical realism/fantasy, and romance.

TW: abuse (physical and emotional), death/vivid descriptions of decay, homophobia

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this book! Filled with creepy goodness!!

Gritty, dark, and unique. Can't say that I've read any YA quite like it. Will recommend to patrons looking for a spell or a scare!

Not bad, but not really for me.

I really did want to enjoy Wake the Bones a little more than I did. While I am a fan of the style, I didn’t find the logic behind the magical realism to hold up very well. And while things were incredibly detailed it wasn’t always put into a form that flowed well.

I will definitely give major credit though for some of its more horrific aspects, as I did find some of the descriptions to be thoroughly and wonderfully disturbing. At times it definitely did not feel like YA book as far as the more gristly details went, but unfortunately the other YA tropes felt unnecessary and really took a toll on the rest of the experience for me.

3.4/5

As far as audio quality goes, Macmillan Audio has always been one of my favorite production companies. While the narrator was just a bit too flat for my personal preference, I did find at a higher speed that I was able to stay more focused on the story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy.

Well, I'm really glad other people are liking this one because it was not it for me. This is especially unfortunate as I really expected to love this book.

Pretty much everything in this book was underdeveloped from plot to characters to the magic system. There's several inconsistencies in the book - and really I'm unsure if our characters are like 17 or like 21? Everyone treats the MC like she's really young and she dropped out of her first year of college but she also said it's been 20 years since her mom died. IDK.

And that devil mentioned on the back of the book is barely in the book. Speaking of, I hate the narrators voice for him. It was just like so bad. Otherwise the audiobook was as enjoyable as it can be for a book you're not invested in.

This gothic horror had the feel of a fairytale gone wrong, but in the best way. It was both dark and whimsical. A perfect combination! Laurel Early and her group of friends were out on her farm harvesting, when things started to go wrong. The farm is haunted, and Laurel is too.

I listened to this one on audiobook through Macmillan audio in exchange for my honest review. I absolutely loved this audio! The narrator was perfect and the sound clear and crisp. I always seem to enjoy Macmillan’s audiobooks!! Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio.

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Synopsis- The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away.

After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s terrifying legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed.

Elizabeth Kilcoyne’s Wake the Bones is a dark, atmospheric debut about the same complicated feelings that arise when the place you call home becomes hostile.

So...Honestly? I'm not sure what I just read. It didn't feel like YA, maybe New Adult? It was a little creepy, but I don't know if I'd say horror. It definitely was dark and atmospheric. There's magic. There's angst. There's self-discovery. I liked Ms. Kilcoyne's writing style, it was full of imagery and she does a great job pulling you into Laurel's world.

There's a lot going on in this book. Even though the main characters are in their 20s, it has a coming-of-age vibe. Romance. Mystery. LGBTQ acceptance struggles. Abuse. Dark magic. Evil. Ghosts. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with the different. jumps between story elements as they wove back and forth and across different points of view. I would have liked to see more from Christine, I think an opportunity was missed there.

Bailey Carr was an excellent narrator. Her pacing was excellent and she did a good job moving between characters.

I definitely enjoyed parts of Wake the Bones, but as a whole I just felt confused when I was done. Maybe that's the sign of a great book? I definitely kept thinking about it even after I finished.

I was excited for this one because the premise sounded really interesting, but unfortunately I couldn't connect to any of the characters. The plot was somehow boring even for how cool it was, and it never picked up speed or interest for me. I think this would be a better adaptation to movie/tv, to have more fleshed out characters in person and for the chance to have the creepiness translate better in real life.

Laurel Early left her family farm near a small town to go to college, but it wasn’t long before she dropped out and found herself back home again. Things went back to how they’d always been – working in tobacco fields with high school friends and practicing taxidermy during her free time. But one day, she runs across a warning left on her land, learning that her mother practiced magic and an evil being is after Laurel’s blood.

The author did an amazing job with the setting descriptions. From the sweltering heat of the tobacco fields to the dust of the red clay land, the author completely evoked the feelings of living on a small southern farm. Honestly, it made me feel like I’d grown up right down the road from where this story took place. Similarly, the atmosphere of the small town and the interactions of its inhabitants (both positive and negative) were well written, realistic, and relatable. The author wove all of these things together to create a somewhat unsettling setting that focused on its tenuous relationship with nature.

The plot and the story itself were weird – but in a good way. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this work. There was plenty of detailed information concerning bones (especially teeth) and taxidermy and gore that got a little bit much for me, but I’m queasy when it comes to that sort of stuff. I liked how Laurel’s story centered around her coming back home after trying and failing to leave, and how her feelings relating to her home and its landscape were quite complicated. This was one of the most well-done aspects of the work. The plot itself was a little slow in getting off the ground, but as I enjoyed the atmospheric setting of the work and the author’s writing style, I didn’t mind this so much.

Laurel was a well written protagonist, with the right amount of conflicting feelings, strength, and personality to make for a genuine character. I enjoyed reading the story from her POV. Overall, the secondary characters were nothing special. There are three men Laurel’s age that didn’t feel particularly unique in the way they were written. They were given some distinct characteristics that the author repeatedly referenced but their personalities and the characters themselves felt interchangeable. Things about their characters were revealed through Laurel constantly telling the reader about them, but then the characters never actually do these things during the story. It made them feel flat overall.

I listened to the audiobook version of this work. The narrator did an amazing job at bringing the story and characters to life; she was the perfect choice for this audiobook.

This story excelled at its setting and the atmosphere, and the author’s writing style was gorgeous. I would have loved stronger secondary characters, but overall I enjoyed this work and recommend it.

I received a complimentary copy of this work through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

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.

The narrator was just ok. All the young men sounded almost the same. Hard to distinguish between them. The cast is mostly men, but the narrator was a woman, likely because the “main character” is female. However I felt like the story was pretty evenly divided between her and her bff Isaac so two narrators would have been better.

After hearing the content warnings at the start of this book, I almost decided not to read it. In the end, I got through it without issue, but I still don’t think this book was for me.

One of the main issues that prevented me from enjoying this book was the audiobook narration. I found the narrator’s cadence to be unnatural. It felt like she emphasized the Southern accent in some words but not in others, and I found the difference to be jarring. Also, typically in books with regional accents, the narration will be read in a more standard accent, and the dialogue will have a stronger regional accent. But for some reason, there were points in this book where the accent of the narration felt more pronounced than in the dialogue.

As for the book itself, I think part of the issue for me might have been in how it was marketed. I prefer YA horror over adult horror because it typically focuses more on the suspense, and less on graphic content or body horror. Unfortunately, this book didn’t follow that trend. Perhaps I should have done more research into the detailed content warnings of the book before requesting it, but I judged this book based off its marketing - the summary, the cover, the genre labels.

I did think the writing and prose were good. The author writes very descriptively but I felt like too much time was spent on description, at the expense of the plot and pacing. Some people may enjoy this, but I would have liked to see the plot progress a bit more quickly.

Overall, this book just wasn’t for me. I would recommend it for New Adult readers (rather than YA), and for readers who enjoy descriptive and slow-paced, atmospheric narratives, and who aren’t squeamish about descriptions of gore, body horror, and general grossness. I think this book had some elements in common with The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater in its setting, pacing, and character dynamics, so readers of that series may enjoy this.

Thank you to the publishers (Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners) for the chance to read and review this audiobook ARC via NetGalley in return for my honest review.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

The writing of in this book is so absolutely eerie, beautiful, and stunning! I picked it out because of the cover, and I got exactly what I was looking for! Highly recommend to fans of spooky YA!

From the beginning of the book, goosebumps creep up and tend to linger throughout the rest of this haunting tale. The storytelling, creativity, scare factor, unfolding of mystery-all show off Kilcoyne’s ability to place you in her scenes.

A young woman struggling with her past and trying to live a simple, quiet existence is thwarted into terrifying encounters and soon begin to disrupt not only her but the lives of one’s close to her and the only escape seems to be delving into her mother’s past.

One of my favorite lines had to do with where veins end and roots begin. 🤭

If you are itching for a scare, you want to read this!

"The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away."

It's nighttime, I'm driving down back roads through a heavily wooded area, and enjoying the soothing voice of the narrator as I'm sucked into this haunting story - enter our first interaction with the bone monster. I had instant chills and was immediately on high alert. The way the author spun the imagery and adrenaline of this interaction had my heart pumping out of my chest. This was exactly why I listen/read this genre.

Kudos to Elizabeth Kilcoyne on her debut novel. This was the perfect mix of horror, coming of age, romance, and grief. I know, you wouldn't think those would mix well, but somehow she did it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is an extraordinary debut - it's complicated and rich and emotional and just about the goddamned creepiest read I've had in a while.

It is definitely not for the squeamish, as it deals extensively with death, decay, and the sorts of small horrors that embed themselves in the consciousness of rural communities as well as the supernatural horror, which is itself still deeply rooted in folk magic and southern gothic.

Baily Carr delivers a breathtaking narration, capturing the voices with ease and delivering the spookier passages to hair-raising effects. Highly recommended.

I'm sorry, I really enjoyed the narrator, but I just could not get into this one. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was said this was a horror book when in my opinion it was not. There was also a lot of confusion around magic and evil that I found to be annoying to follow. There's also a lot of gore, which was mentioned as a trigger warning at the beginning of the book - so heads up.