Review: Bone Crier’s Moon – Kathryn Purdie

Synopsis:

Bone ​Criers have a sacred duty. They alone can keep the dead from preying on the living. But their power to ferry the spirits of the dead into goddess Elara’s Night Heavens or Tyrus’s Underworld comes from sacrifice. The gods demand a promise of dedication. And that promise comes at the cost of the Bone Criers’ one true love.

Ailesse has been prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, a mysterious famille of women who use strengths drawn from animal bones to ferry dead souls. But first she must complete her rite of passage and kill the boy she’s also destined to love.

Bastien’s father was slain by a Bone Crier and he’s been seeking revenge ever since. Yet when he finally captures one, his vengeance will have to wait. Ailesse’s ritual has begun and now their fates are entwined—in life and in death.

Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers’ work. But when her best friend Ailesse is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to save her, even if it means defying their traditions—and their matriarch—to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.

My review:

Warning: light spoilers ahead.

Uhm… Ok, not impressed at all with this book, one of the most hyped and awaited reads of this year, probably thanks to Charlie’s Bowater’s stunning cover. I didn’t connect with the story or the characters. I found the world building neither impressive nor original. I mean, in the past few months we had so many stories with worlds full of magic bones and more entertaining.

The biggest problem I had with this story was with the side characters and in particular Jules. I had the feeling she was forcedly made obnoxious just for the purpose of driving the plot’s events and the romance between Ailesse and Bastien. All the major events were caused by Jules, who – poor thing – has been gifted with only a set of a few negative personality traits: she is unreasonably stubborn and simply purely mean for no reason other than to justify the romance. She was a very annoying character whose purpose is just to continue driving the story line of the missing bone flute, so that all the other characters can continue to exist and the enemy-to-lovers romance can bloom.

On the one side you have a world where these Leuress/sirens have to sacrifice animals and men for their gods, but you have a very childish character who only acts out of jealousy on the other side. It’s a bit of a contradiction of the dramatic reality of this world.

I am so sorry to be so negative, I don’t mean any disrespect. It’s just that I really didn’t feel any sympathy for these characters or for this tragic romance that had no clear reason to be and for me Bone Crier’s Moon was a massive disappointment.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.