Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie
Hello readers.
This review I'm doing slightly differently than normal. Usually I try to omit re-telling the story as much as possible and keep my reviews to my opinions. It's a struggle I've been back and forth on how to conduct these reviews for years and if you have an opinion on it, please feel free to reach out.
However, since there is so much going on in this story, I thought it was more appropriate to include a break down of the story because I specifically really enjoyed the magic system in this.
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| Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie |
♥♥♥♥♥
Title: Bone Crier's Moon
Author: Kathryn Purdie
Year Published: 2020
Format: Physical
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
Review*:
The beginning of this book was a really awesome start to the series. It had a fast pace from the beginning, where we are introduced to our two main characters right away Ailesse is far more adventerous and embraces her heritage of becoming a Louresse to ferry the dead, like her mother who is the matrone of their little coven. Sabine is her best friend and far more timid, having a hard time taking the lives of animals to receive the magic of their grace bones. Very shortly into the book though, both of them are challenged and their roles are somewhat reversed.
I think what drew me in the most to this book was the magic system. These louresse's are chosen by the gods Tyrus and Elara. Tyrus is the god of the underworld and Elara is the goddess of the night sky. Once a month it is the duty of the louress's to ferry the dead souls across the land bridge to either the gates of hell or the gates of heaven. There are two types of dead souls, the chained and the unchained. The chained are souls that have sinned during their lifetime and go to Tyrus in hell. The unchained are those who had a pure life and are risen to the gates of Elara's relm. If the louress matrone is not there to ferrry the dead, they become restless and start to feed on the Light of living people, which means they parish in body and soul.
To become a Louress, which are exclusively women, you must obtain three grace bones from different animals. I absolutely loved this type of magic system. Like the ladies in this book, you should be cunning with the animals you chose to take bones from because you absorb their key abilities. For instance if you took a bone from a bat you would have echolocation and the ability to see in the dark, however since it's physically impossible, you wouldn't get the ability to fly. The beginning of this book Ailesse is trying to obtain her final grace bone, which she shows a tiger shark, before completing her right of passage to become a louress.
The right of passage, once all three bones are acquired, is the prospect lures in her soul mate using the bone flute, which is also used to ferry the dead, to a bridge and kill him. The prospect has one year of the night of her ceremony to kill her soul mate, otherwise they both die.
As the heir, once her mother passes, Ailesse has taken this very seriously. The has planned her three bone animals to the T, chose the most challenging bridge in the area to lure her soulmate, and she even gets her best friend to be her assistant during the ceremony, when typically an elder is the one to assist.
This is where everything goes wrong and the roles reverse. The man, Bastien, that Ailesse ends up ensnaring is a child of another man who was lured to his death by a fellow bone crier. He teams up with a pair of sibling orphans who also lost their father in a similar way. Their goal is to find one of these 'evil women' and kill them and their assistant for revenge on what they did to their fathers. As expected, the trio don't fully understand the magic behind the madness and although they capture Ailesse during her ceremony, they come to learn that there is a reason for this terrible ritual.
There is the trope of insta-love and enemies to lovers in the book, but it's built in as a systematic factor rather than just an unhappy coincidence. As they try to exact their revenge, the trio also end up trying to help Ailesse as they learn more about the Louresses. Jules, who is the older of the two siblings, is EXTREMELY cinical of the entire situation, most of it stemming from the fact that she has feelings for Bastien. Jules is ruthless when it comes to Ailesse and doesn't let up on their mission to kill the bone crier and seek revenge despite Bastien's intentions starting to wane.
The main issue I have with the book and why I somewhat hesitate to give it five stars is the writing. Purdie did a great job with the world she built, not too much information but enough for you to fully understand the lore as much as Ailesse, someone who was very dedicated to her destiny, would. However the events happen in such a back and forth way it kind of crumbles into a ping-pong tournament of Ailesse is free and has her bones, then she doesn't, then she does and she has the flute to save everyone, and then she doesn't. Meanwhile, Sabine has this incredibly odd character arc where she starts off as a vegetarian bone crier who doesn't like to kill animals, to a meat eating loner who hunts the golden jackal for her final grace bone. This is also all in multiple POV, so although Purdie writes each chapter to tie you back into that characters POV of the moment, it gets a little bit confusing.
This book is also set in a fictional Parisian world. They use some french words or pronounciations. Anyone who enjoyed Serpent & Dove I think would really enjoy this book. It is fairly similar in the setting, the pacing, and the enemies to lovers trope.
I think what drew me in the most to this book was the magic system. These louresse's are chosen by the gods Tyrus and Elara. Tyrus is the god of the underworld and Elara is the goddess of the night sky. Once a month it is the duty of the louress's to ferry the dead souls across the land bridge to either the gates of hell or the gates of heaven. There are two types of dead souls, the chained and the unchained. The chained are souls that have sinned during their lifetime and go to Tyrus in hell. The unchained are those who had a pure life and are risen to the gates of Elara's relm. If the louress matrone is not there to ferrry the dead, they become restless and start to feed on the Light of living people, which means they parish in body and soul.
To become a Louress, which are exclusively women, you must obtain three grace bones from different animals. I absolutely loved this type of magic system. Like the ladies in this book, you should be cunning with the animals you chose to take bones from because you absorb their key abilities. For instance if you took a bone from a bat you would have echolocation and the ability to see in the dark, however since it's physically impossible, you wouldn't get the ability to fly. The beginning of this book Ailesse is trying to obtain her final grace bone, which she shows a tiger shark, before completing her right of passage to become a louress.
The right of passage, once all three bones are acquired, is the prospect lures in her soul mate using the bone flute, which is also used to ferry the dead, to a bridge and kill him. The prospect has one year of the night of her ceremony to kill her soul mate, otherwise they both die.
As the heir, once her mother passes, Ailesse has taken this very seriously. The has planned her three bone animals to the T, chose the most challenging bridge in the area to lure her soulmate, and she even gets her best friend to be her assistant during the ceremony, when typically an elder is the one to assist.
This is where everything goes wrong and the roles reverse. The man, Bastien, that Ailesse ends up ensnaring is a child of another man who was lured to his death by a fellow bone crier. He teams up with a pair of sibling orphans who also lost their father in a similar way. Their goal is to find one of these 'evil women' and kill them and their assistant for revenge on what they did to their fathers. As expected, the trio don't fully understand the magic behind the madness and although they capture Ailesse during her ceremony, they come to learn that there is a reason for this terrible ritual.
There is the trope of insta-love and enemies to lovers in the book, but it's built in as a systematic factor rather than just an unhappy coincidence. As they try to exact their revenge, the trio also end up trying to help Ailesse as they learn more about the Louresses. Jules, who is the older of the two siblings, is EXTREMELY cinical of the entire situation, most of it stemming from the fact that she has feelings for Bastien. Jules is ruthless when it comes to Ailesse and doesn't let up on their mission to kill the bone crier and seek revenge despite Bastien's intentions starting to wane.
The main issue I have with the book and why I somewhat hesitate to give it five stars is the writing. Purdie did a great job with the world she built, not too much information but enough for you to fully understand the lore as much as Ailesse, someone who was very dedicated to her destiny, would. However the events happen in such a back and forth way it kind of crumbles into a ping-pong tournament of Ailesse is free and has her bones, then she doesn't, then she does and she has the flute to save everyone, and then she doesn't. Meanwhile, Sabine has this incredibly odd character arc where she starts off as a vegetarian bone crier who doesn't like to kill animals, to a meat eating loner who hunts the golden jackal for her final grace bone. This is also all in multiple POV, so although Purdie writes each chapter to tie you back into that characters POV of the moment, it gets a little bit confusing.
This book is also set in a fictional Parisian world. They use some french words or pronounciations. Anyone who enjoyed Serpent & Dove I think would really enjoy this book. It is fairly similar in the setting, the pacing, and the enemies to lovers trope.
*This review may contain spoilers.
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