The Bone Houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones Review

⭐⭐/5

(More like a 1.5)

DISCLAIMER: If you don't agree with my opinions, that's totally fine! Just please respect them.

“Home was taste and smell and sensation. It was not a place.”

― Emily Lloyd-Jones, The Bone Houses

Characters:

The characters felt undeveloped to me and felt like the author made them like this:

Ellis

Personality: mapmaker, hufflepuff

Ryn

Personality: gravedigger, gryffindor

So I really wasn't invested in the characters and wasn't excited to follow their story. The only character that I liked was Ryn's goat (named Goat), who definitely killed a lot of bone houses and helped protect her owner and Ellis.

Plot:

The plot felt really rushed at times, but at others it just felt so slow and I wasn't looking forward to picking up the book. It also wasn't complex and was very straightforward at times. Additionally, I didn't understand the climax or the plot twists at the end and there were many 'big coincidences' that were just unnecessary.

Worldbuilding:

I liked the worldbuilding of Colbren and how it felt like a small town and everyone was really close to each other. But since a lot of the story was Ryn and Ellis traveling, we didn't get to see much more of it and I understand that.

Relationships:

I wasn't rooting for Ryn and Ellis to come together since, again, their characters were boring. And though this book said it would be a 'slowburn' romance... they got together quickly. And this is just random, but the first (and only??) time they kissed was... on top of a high cliff?

So overall, I'd say that this book was a 1.5 stars, and the only reason I give it that instead of a zero is because of the goat :)