Eerie Cup of Coco: Horror Art & Book Reviews
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Illustrations
  • Comics
  • Review Policy
  • Contact
  • Legal + Disclaimers
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Illustrations
  • Comics
  • Review Policy
  • Contact
  • Legal + Disclaimers

REVIEWS

Review: The Bone Houses, by Emily Lloyd-Jones

8/15/2020

0 Comments

 
The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Disclosure: I bought this book of my own accord. The following review may contain affiliate links.

Title: The Bone Houses
Author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
Release Date: September 24, 2019
Genres: Young adult, Horror, Fantasy, Magical realism
Star Rating: 5/5
Review:
Seventeen-year-old Ryn has a lot of responsibilities: being her medieval hamlet’s only gravedigger, keeping her family from losing their home to a corrupt lord, and preventing long-dead corpses from escaping the neighboring woods. But when a mysterious, naive mapmaker named Ellis arrives from the kingdom’s capital, the village is overcome with reanimated “bone houses,” which destroy any scrap left of her family’s stability. The two teenagers journey into the thick, magical forest to find the reason for the multiplying hordes of the undead, and also to answer questions about their own families.


The prose of The Bone Houses is hauntingly beautiful, without being overbearing or detracting from the pace of the story. There’s just enough description to portray the nuance of each character, the desperation of Ryn’s poverty, and the implicit threats from their stingy feudal lord, Eynon. The world-building and lore carefully crafted by Lloyd-Jones pair excellently with the narration and description of settings. At several points in the story, I slowed down just to visualize and experience the legends and scenery for a little longer.

The dearth of well-written female characters in fantasy (especially in older works or those written by men) has kept me from reading the genre as regularly as I would like. Ryn, as well as the other women in The Bone Houses, has a refreshingly large amount of agency. In a genre where many women are written as little more than a trophy for a male hero, or as strong women who ultimately become little more than a plot device, it’s a great achievement to have multiple women who are fully dimensional and make choices for themselves.

Even rarer: the other main character, Ellis, has a significant disability that is handled in a realistic, yet respectful, way. There’s no angst over things he’s unable to do for easy sympathy from the reader, virtue implied on Ryn’s part for accepting him despite his injury, or improbable physical feats that he’s able to do without severe strain. I really appreciate seeing a portrayal that is so human, honest, and considerate of what it’s like to live with a major health issue, and I wish that disabilities were written this competently more often.

The Bone Houses ultimately lies somewhere between fantasy and horror. The subject of death and grief are addressed in very adult, but accessible, terms; the masterful writing accurately describes all the tiny moments of pain that come with bereavement, and also how moving on from loss can feel like abandonment or betrayal. It skillfully walks the line between grim and hopeful, and it’s hard to forget for a long time afterward. I would recommend this to anyone who likes their books bittersweet and poetic, but I hope that its progressive portrayal of its characters reaches a wider audience overall.

Read-alikes:
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
The Innkeeper’s Song, Peter S. Beagle (out of print - so take a look at the Amazon marketplace!)

Content warnings: grief, animal death, gore.

If you liked this review, you can see me talk about books even more on my social media accounts, linked below:
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Reviews of horror, nonfiction, and other genres from a life-long lover of books.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020

    Categories

    All
    4.5 Stars
    4 Stars
    5 Stars
    Alcohol Abuse
    Animal Death
    Body Horror
    Bullying
    Child Abuse
    Childbirth
    Collection
    Consent Issues
    Disabled Character
    Disease
    Domestic Violence
    Drug Addiction
    Fantasy
    Female Centered
    Gender Commentary
    Ghosts
    Gore
    Grief
    Historical Fiction
    Homophobia
    Horror
    Indie
    Mind Control
    Mystery
    Native American
    Physical Abuse
    POC Authors
    POC Characters
    Post Apocalyptic
    Psychological
    Racism
    Self Harm
    Sexual Assault
    Social Commentary
    Social Horror
    Stalking
    Supernatural
    Thriller
    Torture
    Trauma
    VIctorian
    War Violence
    Xenophobia

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy
Affiliate Disclosure
Cookie Policy
General Disclaimer
Terms and Conditions
DO NOT SELL MY INFORMATION - Opt out link for cookie collecting