Oh my.

Wake the Bones was a really beautiful novel. The vibe is atmospheric and the prose is poetic without being overly pretentious. The characters are flawed and messy, but the kind you love anyway. The plot of the perfect mix of mysterious and yet easy to follow.

I’ll really enjoyed reading this book and am definitely going to get a physical copy for my collection asap

Southern hauntings, that is my beloved niche. As a southern girl who escaped the small town with smaller minds, I expected this to be an instant favorite. The atmospheric prose left me hearing the wind in the grass and trees. The forbidden (but self inflicted) romance that cannot be between Isaac and Garrett filled me with yearning, I couldn't wait to be in Isaac's pov again. Witchy vibes permeated Laurel's strange dreams with her dead mother, as did every scene with the unyielding Christine. But for everything I loved there was a contrary note keeping me from falling all the way in, such as Laurel's selfish treatment of her best friend (that resolves but she hasn't improved or acknowledge her error by the end of it) I give the author credit for recognizing it through other's pov and to a small extent by Laurel but id have preferred her to apologize to her friend. A small paragraph that resurrected current political environment by using the word "liberal" pulled me from the story and kept me searching for more political notes rather than enjoy story line. It wasnt brought up again making it feel like a personal jab from the author than a legit plot point or character development for Laurel. Laurel's "romantic interest" which I forgot about for half the book and spent the other half wondering why I would care about him when he just shows up to say a funny line but does nothing noteworthy for Laurel until the end. Which brings me to the ending. No spoilers but I thought the easy path was chosen. There's also a total lack of poc though discrimination was acknowledge in a note about sundown towns and there was a mention of Spanish neighbors. All in all I have lots of thoughts about the book. The author has a beautiful way of writing I'd love to read again, but I will be paying attention for better incusivity and better follow through for all the themes introduced in the book but never fully put to rest by the end of the book.

Thank you netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review

Do you like complex adult horror marketed as YA? Here you go. It’s super creepy and folky with characters that will feel special the further you read. That’s pretty damn awesome.

Thank you for this opportunity! My Readerly gist is the one by invisiblemonster.

The title alone is creepy enough, add in some visions of the dead and evil encounters and this sums up to a terrifying novel. There were several times I needed to stop reading and either turn on a bigger light or just take a break. It is a slow build up, but still kept me engaged enough to want to keep reading. The story felt real, the temp rose and the humidity seeped into my bones where I could almost smell the sweat and fear. It was an all consuming story that just had you rooting for these characters. It was strange, sad, creepy, and loveable. I look forward to more from this author.

I dont know the point of the book. There is alot of telling. Telling the reader the mood, the feelings, and the waiting. There is not alot of showing, and it felt like any action was off the page and reviewed in needless, flowery language. There was no clear explanation of the magic and the main character's age was hard to believe. Some times she acted like a grown woman, other times a child. It was not an enjoyable read.

content warnings: body horror, animal death, animal abuse, violence

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Wake The Bones is a spooky Southern novel, perfect for reading in the hot humid heat of the summer. It will make your skin crawl and stick around long after you've finished reading.

This was simply not for me. At all. I'm not really sure what to say about it, because I think that it may just be me, but there was very very few things I liked about this. The pacing is confusing and erratic, the characters are boring (except Christine- I liked her and she was barely there), and it is a lot more gory than I was expecting. The goriness is a me problem, because I really hate body horror and dead animals, and it is absolutely not a detracting part of this book if you don't mind that stuff. What I do think is a detracting part of this book is the utter confusion you're left with. None of this makes any sense, no matter how much you read. I feel like I'm trying to read a book in a language I don't speak. I do think there's a specific subset of people who would adore this book though- if super creepy horror with flowery writing is your thing, I think you'd love this book. I can imagine a lot of people who really love horror would like a lot of the parts of this. I don't think this is a bad book (despite my rating), it is just so utterly not for me.

WOW! What an amazing debut from an author I will definitely be keeping my eye on!

From the first word, the writing is haunting and magical.

The characters are fairly fleshed out and I couldn’t help but fall a little in love with each of them for different reasons.



I don’t know what genre I’d call Wake the Bones- it’s like Horror with a dash of romance and a side of urban fantasy. Whatever it is, it sets a mood and I dig it.

I would definitely categorize this book as NA rather than YA based on the language and subject matter (definitely check TW, which the author had the foresight to include, which is very thoughtful for those who need them.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

The story follows Laurel Early, a hobby taxidermist nicknamed the “Devil’s daughter”, who returns to her home town after “failing” at college. She falls back in with her 3 childhood friends:
Brothers, Ricky and Garrett Mobley and Isaac Graves- Laurel’s blood brother and the object of Garrett’s affection.

The setting is Laurel’s Uncle Jay’s tobacco farm in rural Kentucky, where she grew up after the tragic death of her mother. Shortly after returning, Laurel starts having dreams about her mother, who seems adamant that Laurel is in danger, and it quickly becomes very apparent that this is the case.

Laurel, Isaac (who desperately wants to get away for his own reasons), Garrett and Ricky are soon left to face the “Devil”- a horrific monster that is responsible for the death of Laurel’s mother as well as their own individual demons.

Between the southern gothic vibes of the authors writing and the beautifully eerie imagery, Wake The Bones is nothing short of a magical NA treat. 4 solid stars!

*I RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS AN ARC IN EXCHANGE FOR MY HONEST REVIEW*

Wake the bones had such an interesting premise that I couldn't help but request it. After reading it, I have to say I'm quite confused. I don't particularly feel anything for the story nor the characters, and I'm overall left with a feeling of wanting a bit more. Wake the bones is a slow book, painfully slow. It heavily relies on its writing and, while some scenes were very well described, sometimes it was too much. I feel like this is a perfect example of "purple prose" - overly flowery without adding much to the story.

Because it focused so much on how things are told, it lost a bit of the plot along the way. I, after reading it, still didn't fully understand what's the plot of this book. I wish things were explained a bit better, in simple terms, to be honest. The prose hindered my reading experience a lot and considering this is a YA, it should read like one. The fact that this novel is marketed as YA will do it a huge disservice - because it doesn't read like one. The characters are grown and there are some scenes that were pretty gore-y. I think this would be more suitable for someone a bit older, based on that.

This was truly a frustrating read - it's exactly up my alley and yet I struggled to connect with it. It's dark, it's atmospheric, it's got magic and yet. While on the topic of magic, the system in this one was severely underdeveloped. I wished we'd gotten a bit more information on Laurel's powers. I also wished Christine, the other witch, was more of the actual character and less of a plot device. She's probably the only character that had a good, distinctive personality, as the rest of them blurred together quite a lot. I can't help but think of them as one-dimensional tropes instead of fully developed characters. Isaac's character had a bit of a backstory that ended abruptly and was never brought up again towards the end of the book, so truly, it was there just to be there. It didn't feel like it belonged together with the rest of the plot.

Laurel's character was one I couldn't fully grasp. She's a fluid character, and not in a good way. We start the book with a Laurel that wants more from her life than what her small town could provide, more than what Richie could mean to her and end the story with a Laurel that settles into the small-town life with Richie, which wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. I didn't understand why she'd hinder herself like that for a boy she spent half the book disliking because he represents the farmer-boy stereotype to a T.

For a book marketed as horror that promised dark, it lacks the horror. The monster appeared a few times when the plot needed some moving and was swiftly dealt with so we can go back to talking about the characters. It lacks the scary element for it to truly be horror. The devil also lacked a proper motive to be destructive, so I simply didn't care enough by the time the big fighting scene came around. The little build-up we had up to that point fizzled fast.

Wake the bones is a novel with gorgeous prose, if you will, but one that lacks in plot and character development. The idea was there, however I can't help but feel like this needed a bit more polishing to raise fully to its potential. As a debut, it's stands, and I'm definitely checking out the author's future works as this feels more of a case of "it's not you, it’s me".

Wake the Bones is a Young Adult Southern (or South Midwestern?) Gothic novel written by debut author Elizabeth Kilcoyne. Southern Gothic novels are an interesting subgenre of fantasy horror, of which I've had mixed feelings in the past - some of those mixed feelings are undoubtedly caused by the fact that I'm well an American from the North (despite 4 years in Durham for college), which leaves me with less familiarity with the settings involved in such books. There's also the fact that Southern Gothics rely heavily on atmospheric setting descriptions, which I don't particularly love due to some difficult visualizing I have. But Wake the Bones got some recommendations from some authors I followed and had an interesting cover, so I requested it on NetGalley anyway to see how I'd feel about it.

And well Wake the Bones is a fine YA Southern Gothic, even as it ties together a number of elements I've seen before in both Southern Gothics and other novels. You have a strong central protagonist with ambivalence about the future she wants for her future to go along with a tragic past and magic; you also have a pair of gay secondary protagonists who have different wishes and struggles, and well you have a solid horror plot that takes some interesting turns. But the book very much is tying together a bunch of classic plot beats together, even if not in a typical combination, and it just didn't quite do it for me yet again, so if you're like me and not super into such novels (southern gothics, or stories that rely heavily on atmospheric horror to go with emotional struggles), this might not do it for you either.

Trigger Warning: Self-Harm, Parental Abuse, Homophobia, among other things - the book is prefaced with a more explicit trigger warning, so as to not surprise, so I won't repeat that here.


---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Laurel Early tried to get away from the Kentucky farm in which she grew up in, the farm in which her mom seemingly committed suicide by jumping down the well. But after college didn't work out and she dropped out, she returned back to the farm where she and her three childhood friends - Isaac, and brothers Ricky and Garrett - help tend to the crops....and where Laurel plies her hobby: taxidermy. And Laurel's special gift - the ability to see things when touching bones - makes that taxidermy very special indeed.

Still Laurel is unsure about the direction her life is taken, especially in regards to Ricky...who she has always felt a mutual attraction with, even as she feels like being with him would be a step back. But those fears may wind up being less important compared to the nightmare visions of her mother that Laurel has been having....and of the devil from her mother's past that has returned to haunt the farm...a devil that is desperate to consume Laurel and what she cares about.

It will take Laurel discovering the magic deep within her, as well as the truth behind her mother's death, for her to save the things, place, and people that she loves....and even that might not be enough to save everyone....
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Wake the Bones is a novel that largely focuses upon Laurel, although occasionally it'll shift the third person perspective to another character - usually Isaac or outside psychic Christine, but sometimes Ricky or Garrett. These character switches are a bit frustrating at times honestly - since the entire book is told from third person, it's sometimes not clear whose perspective is being shown and it's a bit confusing. But mostly the writing works to keep things very atmospheric, and to really showcase both the Southern Gothic nature of the story as well as the internal youth-driven struggles of the main characters.

And for the two largest characters those are major struggles. For Laurel, she dropped out of college, a place she wasn't fully familiar with, but also still struggles between her desires to settle down on her family farm and do taxidermy and her feelings that she shouldn't settle. Those feelings no longer are about her physical location - she's home to stay- but still affect her feelings for Ricky, the boy who was the one from home she felt was too safe....and now is back in her life to her ambivalence. Then there's also the trauma over the loss of her mother on this same farm....a trauma only exacerbated by strange magical and possibly demonic happenings on the farm (and visions of her mother about them). Meanwhile there's also Isaac, sort of the secondary protagonist, who's a gay boy with a homophobic and just generally abusive parent (physically, not sexually), who loves (and is loved back) by Garrett....but also feels unwilling to hide his sexuality like Garrett to stay in this southern/midwestern country town that isn't quite friendly for people who are openly gay (both Garrett and Isaac drive out to a gay bar in Cincinnati to enjoy their times, but while those jaunts are enough for Garrett, Isaac doesn't think they're enough even if he'd have to leave Garrett and everyone else behind to go elsewhere). These struggles work really well and feel like natural and normal struggles for young adults like our lead characters.

And then there's the horror part of the story, a horror tied to Laurel's farmland and to Laurel's mother, a woman called a witch due to some seemingly magical powers, some fragment of which Laurel has inherited. Again, as I hinted above the jump, atmospheric horror of things like bones and whatnot here don't really work super well for me, but it's executed seemingly well enough. And the book does pull one sort of surprise twist in its final act, as it recontextualizes the actions of one character in a way that may surprise readers of similar novels, such that it requires Laurel to make decisions for herself and to resolve some of those ambiguities, even as hard as that is, for the sake of herself, not for what others might have once wanted for her. There's also some solid themes here of alienation (not just with Isaac) due to being different with the various witch-like characters in Laurel, Christine, and Laurel's mom I should add too.

Which is not to say this is a story that is one that is wholly unpredictable - Isaac's plotline is a pretty classic one, albeit one that is still very relevant - to the point you're kind of surprised at how Laurel is surprised by the revelation of how bad his abusive father is. Laurel's magic just sort of pops up at times, seemingly just at will, after ages in which she doesn't really know how to do anything. And the way the twist is resolved in the finale is one that I know I've seen before in at least one prior place.

But still Wake the Bones is a solid YA Southern Gothic, so if you like these genres, you'll enjoy this one. It just isn't really the type of genre for me, for better or for worse.

WAKE THE BONES was eerie and atmospheric and I LOVED it.

Fans of What We Harvest will enjoy this dark and bone laden tale of a group of teens growing up in Dry Valley, working on the Early tobacco farm. Laurel Early lives and breathes this farm. Orphaned after her mother’s death when she was a baby, she lives with her Uncle Jay, leaving her the last in the Early family line. She is known as the “Daughter of the Devil” because of her mother’s strange past and her weird abilities.

Home from college and not going back, she is eager to be on her farm with her friends… until the devil comes back for her. She learns a lot about the truth behind how her mother died, behind her own strange magic, behind her horrific visions and what she is truly capable of…

This was intense, with terrifying imagery popping right off the page. I really enjoyed getting different povs, with each character bringing so much to the story. I love the promise of love in the pages even amidst the chaos and fight for their lives.

~ Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review! RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022 ~

3.5 stars!

"Then a bird in the sycamore tree called to another in the air, and the world moved into motion, another inhale in an endless pattern of life and death."*

The body horror of The Only Good Indians meets the Langmore family from Ozark.

I genuinely think that's the best way to describe this book.

Despite the fact that I started this review by drawing comparisons, I think this book is very unique. It follows a 19-year-old protagonist while maintaining a place in the YA genre, which is something I particularly enjoyed as a 19-year-old reader. I find that often the 18-21 age range is a bit neglected in literature.

The other aspect I found particularly unique in this book is the setting. Wake the Bones takes place in rural Kentucky and follows a family stuck in their town working on their tobacco farm. While obviously there are many books that take place in settings like this, I do think it's rarer in YA, and I found the perspective very interesting to read from as someone who grew up in an area the opposite of rural.

The horror element of this book is what is probably the least unique, but I still found it effective. There's a devil haunting Laurel and her family and she must muster up the power to stop it. I always appreciate when magic or monsters in horror books have a larger meaning than just "big bad here to eat you," and this book definitely delivered on that front.

The writing is also a stand-out. While I did have some issues with pacing, the prose itself was beautiful. I found myself highlighting multiple passages.

Wake the Bones is a grotesque yet powerful tale of grief and human connection. I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for further books by this author.

*This quote is from an uncorrected copy of the novel and should be compared against the finished work.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

I decided to DNF Wake the Bones ("did not finish") after chapter 21/about halfway through the book. In reading other reviews people wrote for this book, I related to what Cat Reads Books had to say about the writing style: "It's disorienting, but not in a horror-story way. More like when you accidentally overhear two people talking who have a completely different communication style from your own and also you're missing some crucial context. I understand the words but the conversation makes no sense." (Read Cat Reads Books's full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4315525214?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1)

And it wasn't just the dialogue that made me feel this way, but the narration as well. The best way I've come up with to describe the book is this: it's a really hot, humid summer day (as it is in the book). It's like you're covered in a wet blanket, the weather is so terrible. You're waiting and waiting and waiting for a refreshing cool breeze to give you some relief and liven things up a bit, but it doesn't come. And it doesn't come. And then you think you hear it coming, but you were wrong. The book is slow, the characters are boring and feel very flat, and even when there are the horror elements thrown in (when you think the plot might get interesting!), the characters don't really interact with them much. It's like they say "what the f***??" and move back over to their real world problems. Maybe some of this is on me coming into the story with false expectations, because I thought the book was going to be much more horror fantasy, with the mention of magic in the synopsis and with how many people had tagged this as fantasy as well as horror. But even if I had been ready for straight up horror, I still wouldn't have enjoyed the author's writing style.

Also, there is a list of trigger warnings for this book, including drug usage, which I am fine reading. However, I am not fine with the author inconsistently claiming that "none of [the characters] smoked" at the beginning of the story when they're working in the tobacco fields, and then a few chapters later saying that one of the characters occasionally smokes pot. It doesn't matter what you're smoking. If you're smoking it, then you smoke.

Buy, Borrow, or Bypass: I recommend bypassing this one. I was going to power through and read the whole thing because when I start a book I always have the intention of finishing it, but every time I picked it back up to read more of, it did not excite me. It got to the point where I was so bored with reading it that I realized it was not worth me spending a few more hours to read the rest of it just to say I'd finished it. I always say that you shouldn't have to read even a hundred pages before a book captures your attention and you get payoff as a reader, and once I reminded myself of my own beliefs, it was a clear choice to DNF this one.

I didn’t know what to expect of this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by this atmospheric debut!

This was the perfect southern gothic horror story for summer. More than once, I was scared and yet couldn’t stop reading.

If there’s one thing the author does well, it’s creating wonderfully haunting prose and creating the perfect sweltering atmosphere. As someone who grew up on a farm and lived in the south, the author sets the scene very realistically!

The story concept is very interesting, and I love that the magic system dealt with the land and her connection to it. Everything in Laurel’s life revolved around life and death. There are a lot of themes at play here, each darker than the next, and I loved what the author did with them.

The only thing I would have loved to see more of was character development. I felt like I only got to know them on a surface level, and I think the characters had more to give. Even Laurel, who was the main character, didn’t seem to grow throughout the story. Her friends, and the other POVs in the story, played such big roles but still felt like they didn’t have a chance to reach their full potential.

Overall, the plot and the prose are wonderful, and I suggest giving this one a read!

It felt like middle of nowhere small town psychological horror. This book was very atmospheric, the way the author describes everything makes it feel like you are there. I loved the way the magic was described. One of the things I didn't like was the point of view would change in the middle of a page with no warning.

Creepy, profound and deeply enjoyable, Wake the Bones is a story that weaves friendship, love, horror, and the beating heart of rural America into its marrow. It's a story about grief and love, about home and the cost of staying put or leaving everything behind. It's a story about death, and life and magic - the kind of magic that curls up in the soil like roots, that lays thick on the land like morning dew. It's a story about a girl reaching beyond the bones that she works with and out towards the people who love her, and into the soil of her land, and learning the patience for listening to what's there. This book is a perfect atmospheric horror story whose core is woven with the love and life of the characters at the heart of the story. I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend.

“…her bone pile just stood up and walked away.” Tell me this sentence doesn’t intrigue you. I’ve read plenty of horror novels but can’t say I’ve come across anything quite like this.

Upon finishing this book, I turned off my Kindle, sat quietly for a few moments, then asked myself, “What did I just read?” Wake the Bones is dark, weird, imaginative, and otherworldly. Did I mention weird?

Laurel drops out of college after freshman year and returns to the family tobacco farm in rural Kentucky, a town she’d sworn to get away from. Turns out fate has other plans for her. Raised by her uncle after her mother committed suicide when she was a baby, Laurel still struggles with the loss. Soon after returning home, her world is turned upside down when the farm…. comes alive. So do the bones Laurel has collected. Turns out her mother’s life was more complicated than she ever knew, and the thing/devil? that haunted her has now turned its sights on Laurel.

The farm itself is a living, breathing character in this novel, and there’s a connection between it and Laurel I never completely understood. The same can be said about Laurel’s magic. Not a lot of explanation is given, but it’s there and seems to be powerful. I wasn’t really a fan of hers, but her strong friendship with Isaac is one of my favorite aspects of the story. With an abusive father, he needs all the support he can get, and Laurel, her uncle, and friends Garrett and Ricky offer that. Isaac’s relationship with Garrett also won my heart.

Pacing is a little uneven, but the climactic ending moves briskly and comes with a bizarrre surprise in the epilogue that fits perfectly with the story. I may not have connected with this novel on some levels, but the atmosphere and descriptions of the farm are done to an eerie perfection. I’ll be looking for future releases by this author.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wake the Bones is an interesting and unique read. The writing in this novel is fantastic and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror novels. For me personally it just wasn't for me, but honestly I struggle a lot with horror novels and therefore I wouldn't let this review stop you from giving it a chance if horror is a genre you are interested in!

Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne is a dark, gripping, young adult sci-fi fantasy that will send chills down your spine. An intriguing read that will cling to your subconscious long after its final page.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

WOW! What a treat! This was an engaging and engrossing novel that I seldom wanted to put down.