First my thanks to the publisher and Elizabeth Kilcoyne for the NetGalley eARC of "Wake the Bones", published July 12th, although this review comes August 1st. I apologize for the delay.

I have a weakness for the mixing of magic and plants, a while back I read the The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest in it is "Joshua Tree" by Emma Bull that sense of desert and green magic is very like "Wake the Bones". It's not something I have read often but am always eager to see more of in fiction.

"Wake the Bones" is a loving study in description of nature while telling a tragic story in Laurel Early and get family and friends, a college dropout coming home to her uncle Jay who's farm is haunted by her mother (once the town witch) and grandparents too quick deaths. Her friend and almost brother Isaac Graves, who's single alcoholic father beats him - who's secretly gay in their small town. And the Mobley brothers, Ricky and Garrett who've entangled their lives and hopes for the future.

When ghosts and devils come to Laurel Early first in visions and then in fact she finds she has magic and with help from the loner and local psychic Christine Maynard, there may be a way to save the people and farm she loves.

A great atmospheric novel filled with the macabre and dread, definitely a good read. I wish we'd gotten a little more information on what the supernatural element was, the narrative felt a little bit disjointed, and the characters a little flat. But it was well worth the read.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne in exchange for an honest review. This book was amazing. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I couldn't stop. I had to find out what happened with Laurel, Issac, Ricky and Garrett. I loved this story of love, tobacco fields, death, heartbreak, and the devil. I grew to care about the characters and my life became fuzzy as I raced to the end to see if they all survived.

I really enjoyed this book. As an Appalachian horror fan this ticked all my boxes! Readers who grew up being told "If you see something in the woods at night no you didn't" will feel especially affirmed.

Thanks to Netgalley for letting me read the e-arc of this beautifully haunting book.

The amount of detail put into descriptions made the story so rich and unsettling and I loved that so much that it is very hard to compile everything into words. But the main point is that it is worth all the praise it's been given and I'm so thankful I read it.

DNFed; after reading a list of content warnings, I don’t think this book is for me. Of what I did read, though, the writing itself was lovely!

*Arc provided by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.*

Protagonist Laurel drops out of college and moves home to her small farm town to work a tobacco field and engage in her favorite hobby of taxidermy. Shortly after coming home the land starts to dry up and now Laurel is seeing her dead mom's ghost.

Originally, upon reading the description I thought this seemed strange, but had the potential to make for good horror. On second glace, the synopsis feels just as disjointed as the book. I found it incredibly difficult to get through as the characters were not very engaging and it seemed like things were being thrown in as last second ideas. This one wasn't for me at all unfortunately.

Wake the Bones was one of the most interesting reads I've had this year, and I will definitely be recconending it to everyone.

I would give this book 3 stars for the characters and the plot but add another start for the setting because it is so well done. I have lived in the county this book is set in or the one right next door that has the hospital that you would rather go to Cincy than go to since it is a good place to die (or at least so people in town say, I never needed either hospital thankfully). The creeks and valleys of the foothills and the farms stand out for themselves, and the sense of pride of place but also hopelessness is done beautifully. Now on to plot and characters. I liked the start and the buildup but some of the choices at the ending felt inconsistent and the ending felt rushed. The MC’s love interest felt flat, but I think that was somewhat the point and I was ok with the resolution of that arc. Mostly, I was let down by how rushed the ending felt and how it felt disconnected in parts from the earlier build-up. In conclusion, I would read more by this author, especially if set in rural Kentucky.

I was drawn in quite quickly to this eerie gothic horror story set in a small town.
As a character Laurel is really unique and different to any other character I have read about before which I appreciated. She’s firmly entrenched in the realms of death, decay and plants. I found the parts about taxidermy fascinating.

Set in Summer, this book has a very Southern gothic feel to it. The woods setting was incredibly creepy and has a slow, sweltering build up as more information is revealed about the dark presence in the woods.

Some cons: I personally didn’t care too much for the other characters or the romance. The magic was also a bit difficult to follow at times.

This is a dark read and as such expect it to have many trigger warnings such as death, suicide and abuse.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

I really tried to like this, and I did at first, but as the chapters continued, I found myself continuously frustrated with most of the characters, and while the plot is intriguing, I just can't finish it right now.

I might try to resume this later, and I hope I get to finish it to figure out the ending, but ultimately it just wasn't for me. I will say that the writing was quite engaging at times and that there were some genuinely creepy moments.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When big city living doesn’t work for Laurel, she returns to her childhood home in Kentucky to way much more than expected!
This story may start out a little slow, but it delivers an amazing ending! Wake the bones is Young Adult Southern Gothic Horror at its finest. I love the creepy and magical elements in this book.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys gothic, magic, and young adult novels.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Wake the Bones!

This story sort of unraveled the further in you got to the book. I liked the set-up, the descriptions, but the characters were really flat. In general, I didn’t think there needed to be four main characters, and was confused as to why we would get random chapters from other people’s POV rather than Laurel. They didn’t add to the story and if anything, made Laurel seem like a side character.

I felt that there was a lack of focus with this book, and the plot tried to juggle too many things at once. Because of this, emotional beats didn't always land and a lot of the narrative felt under-explained and underdeveloped.

I don’t want to delve into spoilers, but I didn’t like the shift from the weird and creepy monstrous to something from a Supernatural episode, especially because it wasn’t developed enough and kind of felt like it came out of nowhere. And ironically, the twist is included in the book’s blurb, but it still lacked tension and build-up for me. Furthermore, in general, the ending was confusing and felt kind of rushed.

This was the author’s debut, I believe, and I really enjoyed the concept and atmosphere and setting, but felt that not enough was done to develop the characters and their relationship. I’m interested in seeing what the author comes out with next, though! The creativity of the concept and atmospheric writing was impressive and surely the author is one to continue to look out for.

This book was so unique and gripping, and I very much enjoyed this engaging story! It's very different from what I've been reading lately but it was so good.

I really enjoy horror books so when this one became available to request I had to request it and I loved it completely!
Laurel is known in her town as being the "Daughter of the Devil" and is returning to her hometown after basically finding out that college wasn't for her. Laurel is living and working on her family's farm, seems like your average girl but she has a very peculiar hobby. She enjoys working with bones and has the ability to read them and be able to see the death of the owners of the bones. But, one-day things changed and her bones walked away. With this, she started knowing that evil was at work on her land.
While this definitely is a great book to get the whole creepy aspect and read in the dark the author tells this story with a passion and the writing portrays the passion very well! I think this author has a great perspective on grief and how it changes and the hopelessness of that grief. I love how the author weaves the story with different POV's and how she puts the magic in the story so effortlessly! If you love a good paranormal mystery with a splash of horror then this should be your next read! Thank you Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the unprecedented opportunity to read this one! I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author!

Laurel Early has lived a simple life on her family farm in Kentucky. She had thought to get away by attending college, but she has just dropped out and is back home. Her uncle tells her she’s an adult, so it’s time to get to work. Making a living means growing and harvesting tobacco and keeping up with all the other work on the property. Laurel also does taxidermy and collects bones, cleaning them and making them into jewelry or other items. A little magic manifests in her as she holds them: sometimes, she can feel how the creature died.

Her mother, Anna, on the other hand, worked stronger magic: “whatever field she slipped her fingers into always produced a good yield.” But Anna was hated and envied by her community. And then she’d fallen to her death in a well on the property when Laurel was just a baby.

Laurel isn’t a favorite in the community, either, but she does have her best friends, all young men. And she knows one of them could really pin her down into a predictable life if she let him (she does long to let him sometimes…).

Then a horrible creature made of bones — from Laurel’s collection — starts to terrorize her. A devil who haunted her mother is back for Laurel. The only way to save herself and those she loves is to figure out the truth of what Anna did years before and find a way to unravel it. That includes tapping into deeper magic than she knew she was capable of.

Wake the Bones definitely has elements of Southern Gothic. Elizabeth Kilcoyne writes lush descriptions of the town and countryside and the magic that resides there. The interactions between the characters are also layered, thick, and rich with meaning. Quite often she comes at things sideways, whether in dialogue or in her prose, like a good Southerner, and it’s so roundabout that too often her meaning is obscure. I re-read a number of passages several times, trying to be sure I understood what was meant. But I felt the meaning slipping away from my grasp, so I was a bit confused here and there. The prose felt sometimes as thick as the humidity she writes about, and I think it would have benefited from a few “drier spells,” so to speak, to enable more clarity.

It’s a well-written young adult book, and I’m sure people who love Southern Gothic will eat it up, but it wasn’t fully to my taste.

This book seemingly had everything I could want but it fell flat for me. However there was an inclusion of trigger warnings which I appreciated. They are mental and physical abuse, violence and suicide, body horror, guns, post partum depression, drugs, animal death and blood. There’s also a more complete list on the author’s website.

I’ll be quick about it. The characters weren’t as developed as I would have liked. They came across flat and never really fleshed out. They’re people going through some serious situations and yet they didn’t feel real or solid.

The atmosphere was great but it didn’t do the story any favors. By which I mean, the atmosphere was better than the story itself.

We’ve got a character who goes from surprised by magic to just accepting it on a dime, it wasn’t really believable. It’s off-putting how the characters act. Their relationships are so wishy-washy and don’t make sense. Their reactions to things don’t make sense.

The magic system doesn’t make sense, things sort of just happen just because? Like the author kept adding in more and more things without giving them proper room to breathe and grown and actually make sense in the plot.

What’s most infuriating is the writing itself, word choice and sentence construction isn’t bad. It’s actually very nice. But that doesn’t make up for a weak plot with weak characters.

I do appreciate the inclusion of a list of trigger warnings. That will always be a plus for me. I just wish the story had been good.

This gets a two (2) out of five (5) from me. And that’s for the writing. I can’t recommend this book.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars. Knocked the book an entire star for the violent killing of rabbits. So tired of "horror" books needing to kill animals, usually bunnies. Otherwise it would have been 4.5 stars.

I really enjoyed the creepy aspects, the relationships, the supernatural parts. This was such a good story. Imagine your mother dying to drag something down with her that wanted to kill you. And then coming back to warn you and give you a tooth. Super fricken weird.

This book was not exactly what I was expecting but I also really enjoyed it. Wake the Bones ended up being a fast read because I was so drawn in by the creepiness of it all.

The book centers mainly around Laurel Early but also around her friends Isaac, Ricky, and Garrett. There's a lot going on with the characters including a complicated friendship between Isaac and Laurel, a strained desire between Laurel and Ricky, a nice sibling relationship between Ricky and Garrett, and a secret attraction between Garrett and Isaac. Like I said, there's a lot going on. Despite this, the characters were easy to keep distinct from one another.

To be honest, I could have done without the romance between Ricky and Laurel. It's not that I didn't like it them together, it's more that I didn't feel like I knew the characters well enough to see them together and their dynamic was hard to grasp. Still, the ending between the two was really interesting and had beautiful imagery. I liked the lgbtq+ rep with Isaac and Garrett and enjoyed their arc.

The creepy meter was lighting up like crazy during this book and I loved all of it. The creature made of bones was described in amazing detail, from the look of it to the smell of it, and I was loving the wrongness of the scenes painted. The concept of a haunted farm and the creature was fantastic and it was written perfectly to create a very eerie atmosphere.

The writing did a pretty good job of toeing the line between mysterious and just plain confusing. There's definitely an element of disjointedness but I feel like some of that has to do with the characters' fright and confusion with the devil's presence. Still, I would have liked to see more of an explanation given for the land's magic, Laurel's magic, and the evil on the farm. I would have also liked more of a presence from Christine, the local pariah/witch, who seemed to only serve the purpose of helping Laurel and the others defeat the evil on the farm. I feel like there's definitely an audience out there who likes things to be a little more blurred and atmospheric but I like my atmosphere alongside a plot with a little more explanation.

Although I didn't have a great grasp on who the characters really were and some of the finer points of the plot I found myself quickly turning the pages and wanting to know what would happen next. I loved the bone monster and the perception of death on the farm, how it was something final and yet cyclical and able to take a new shape. The creepy atmosphere was great and I loved the desolate feel of the setting.

I would recommend this to folks looking for a creepy, dark magical vibe. This would be a great book to read during the spooky season and I would definitely read more from this author.

Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne is one of the creepiest books I’ve read this year. 🦴

Laurel Early grew up on her family’s farm with her uncle. The tobacco farm has always been a magical place she loves but something has changed. There’s a devil on the farm, taking from the land and spreading terror. The same devil responsible for her mother’s death. While Laurel’s powers grow so does the evil. It’s up to her and the three boys she grew up with to try and save her land and themselves.

This book is an intense YA horror story with imagery so descriptive that I was a little freaked out reading alone at night. I was very surprised when the monster’s name was the same as the ghost story that my family told growing up when I would visit NC in the summers. It was certainly creepy to see the name Bloody Bones in a book.
It’s also a story of love and how it can keep us from letting go. It’s a story about deep grief, loss and family secrets. It’s also the story of friendship and young love. The characters were likable and I appreciated the LGBTQ representation. I really liked the side characters in this book.

TW:
Domestic violence
Child abuse
Death
Grief

Thank you to @netgalley and @stMartinspress for the free digital copy. All views ore my own opinion.