Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne – Review

A huge thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

// Content Warnings: mental and physical abuse, violence, suicide, dental trauma, guns, postpartum depression, drug usage, animal death, blood, and abuse by an alcoholic parent //

Please educate yourself on the content warnings for this novel before reading, as I may have missed some in my review.

// Quick Statistics //

Overall: 3.5/5 Stars

Characters: 3/5 Stars

Writing: 5/5 Stars

Setting: 3/5 Stars

Plot: 3/5 Stars

Memorability: 4/5 Stars

// Quick Review //

I find it very difficult to review this novel because I am not quite sure how I feel about it. There were many intriguing aspects that I loved but there were also many things that I didn’t enjoy about Wake the Bones.

// Other Information //

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Page Count: 320 pages

Release Date: July 12, 2022

Series: None

Tags: Fiction, Young adult, Fantasy, Contemporary, Romance, Horror, Paranormal, Urban fantasy, Gothic

// Book Description (from Goodreads) //

The sleepy little farm that Laurel Early grew up on has awakened. The woods are shifting, the soil is dead under her hands, and her bone pile just stood up and walked away.

After dropping out of college, all she wanted was to resume her life as a tobacco hand and taxidermist and try not to think about the boy she can’t help but love. Instead, a devil from her past has returned to court her, as he did her late mother years earlier. Now, Laurel must unravel her mother’s terrifying legacy and tap into her own innate magic before her future and the fate of everyone she loves is doomed.

// Review //

Wake the Bones is an unsettling yet beautifully crafted tale of sacrifice, love, and magic. Full of hidden horrors, the novel follows the story of four young adults navigating a farm that holds an evil power set on their destruction.

When I first started this novel, I was absolutely in love with the characters. They were beautifully written. Laurel, Isaac, Ricky, and Garrett all help out on Uncle Jay’s (Laurel’s uncle) farm and have been friends since they were little. The main character, Laurel, lost her mother at a young age and now her whole world is changed drastically by the reveal of true wickedness that has invaded the land she loves and tends to. The relationships between the characters were obvious at the start. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed and adored them. Isaac and Garrett’s and Laurel and Ricky’s relationships were written very well and colorfully.

A great aspect of Wake the Bones is that not only is the plot driven by a devil-like threat, but also the character’s inner struggles. Isaac struggles to be himself in the small town the story describes. Although he would like to be with Garrett, he wishes to leave while Garrett wishes to stay and live the life he has thus known. Similarly, Ricky and Laurel’s relationship is along the lines of the enemies-to-lovers trope. Both of these added tensions to the scenes that already felt suspenseful.

However, I felt that the character development was somewhat lacking. The story contains magic but also takes place in a world fairly similar. Laurel is somewhat aware of the powers she has, but her friends disregard the validity of her claims… until the second half of the novel. They all of a sudden believe in magic? It felt unrealistic and like it came out of nowhere. Also, though Laurel was already used to having magic, she claimed to be incapable of having control of her powers. Except, when she has to use them in a life or death scenario, all of a sudden she becomes an expert in using the earth to fight off a demon? And it is not as if there was a time skip between her being unable to control her powers and not; this takes place on the same day. I would have liked to of seen her fail a little bit before getting a hang of using her magic. It would have been more realistic and made more sense.

I was absolutely in love with the first half of the book. The suspense beautifully built up and made me anticipate when Laurel would finally fight the villain of this story. The first half was solid and well-paced, unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the second half. All of a sudden it felt rushed and did not flow well, or make sense. A big reveal occurs yet there is hardly any time before Laurel is fighting with the ‘devil’. The twist and turns really had no effect on the story because there was no time to see the characters react and adapt to them. This made major parts of the novel lose their emphasis.

Overall, there was a lot of potential and good aspects, but the novel fell short in the second half. However, I still enjoyed reading Wake the Bones and would recommend it to those looking for a paranormal novel full of exciting characters, a rural setting, and a similar feeling to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

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