The Bone Houses

Another book that was recommended to my by the TBR program that I mentioned previously here. I read this one really quickly, in fact I read it in three sittings over two days. Needless to say, I enjoyed the story a lot. It was recommended to me as a YA Horror novel and I can see why. Bone Houses are skeletons that have come back to life and attack the living. Pretty creepy stuff. That’s the basic premise of the horror aspect of this novel, but the story as a whole goes much deeper than that.

We’re following two characters in this novel, Ryn and Ellis. Ellis is from the royal court and is a map maker who wants to make the best map of Colbren as the ones that currently exist are vague at best. Ryn is a local to Colbren and her job is a gravedigger and general protector of her family and the town by keeping the bones houses at bay. They meet up at the beginning of the novel and then all hell breaks loose. Bones houses come out in full force attacking the whole village which leaves Ryn with one option: find out how to end the bone houses once and for all. Ellis tags along with the hope of making a map of the woods. And so, they embark on the dangerous mission that will hopefully result in answers for Ryn, Ellis, and the whole village.

This was fun, fast paced, and creepy. I wish it was a little more scary, I mean I really wanted to have nightmares about this and that’s just not going to happen, but that’s fine. I also found myself in the camp of “I don’t want a relationship in this book” for the first time in a long time (if you’ve been around these parts for a while then you know I’ve been reading romance novels pretty heavily over the last year). I think there is a lot to this story and while the end felt a little rushed compared to everything that came before it, I still thought it was wrapped up pretty nicely and did the characters justice. I’m interested in checking out other books by Emily Lloyd-Jones, but I’m really excited to see what she gets to next especially if it’s along the same spooky, eery, tone.