Overall: 🐢🐢🐢🐢
Storyline:
Writing Style:
Character Development:
World-building:
“‘Tu ne me manque pas. Je ne te manque pas.’ It means ‘You’re not missing from me. I’m not missing from you.'”
Bone Crier’s Moon by Kathryn Purdie
The Story:
The Ferrier: She has worked so hard to become a Ferrier. Ailesse has collected all three bone graces that are needed for her Rite of Passage, now she just has to kill her amouré. The full moon is here and the Rite has started. Now she just can’t become too attached before she finishes their dance and plunges her bone blade into his heart.
The Witness: Her best friend is about to finally meet her amouré and then kill him just as fast. Even though Sabine is a fellow Leurress, killing anything that is alive is something that is very difficult to stomach. But as a Witness for her friend’s Rite, she must put aside her dislike of killing to watch one happen. Who knows, perhaps after this ritual she will find her inner Leurress and finally get her remaining bones.
The Amouré: He watched a Bone Crier kill his father when he was young. Now Bastien has had eight years to create a plan of revenge for the death of his father. The full moon is here again and it is time to wander the bridges around the city until a Bone Crier appears and he can get his long awaited revenge. He will be the one doing the killing and not the woman in white tonight.
Key Elements:
Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance
Others in the Series:
Book 2: Bone Crier’s Dawn
Why This Rating?
Kathryn Purdie’s Bone Crier’s Moon was a fascinating concept for a story. The beauty of being in tune with nature like the Leurress’ is quite stunning. I love seeing moments when nature not only helps out the characters but is a strong part of who they are. The Bone Criers, Leurress, definitely take on the ‘nature make you strong’ ideas. From collecting their bone graces to needing to be underneath the stars and moon, all aspects of nature flow through them. And of course having them be the ferriers of the dead only prove how important they truly are.
I did feel like the pacing of the book was a bit odd. The beginning of the book seemed to go a bit slow. This is understandable since a fair amount was story building, but it definitely took me a bit longer to get into this story. Towards the end of the book I felt like it was flying through moments. You are climaxing through so many different problems and situations in such a short amount of time that I’m not sure everything could come across properly. I had to remind myself to slow down during some sections just to be sure I understood what was happening.
Purdie did a great job with her character development throughout this book. The need to help out a friend or just to survive a situation are both very compelling reasons for characters to get over those personal hills that were keeping them back. I thought it was really well done and loved seeing that growth from her characters, especially in Sabine (you’ll have to read it to find out how her path goes!). Out all of them, she is the one that probably has the most growth and change.
I will give you all a heads up, this book does end in a cliff-hanger. So if you are a reader that can’t stand those, you have been warned! Also, the pronunciation for some of the phrases and names were a little hard for me to read through. It isn’t that the words are overly difficult, they just have a bit of a French flare to them. I had to find a few different sources to help me pronounce some of the words properly. I did not get the audiobook version, nor have I listened to it, but it might be able to help you know how to say some of these words if that is a stopper for you in stories.
Time to get lost in the next story!
