Refreshing take on dark unseelie fae with a lot of cinematography/ imagery descriptions and elements. A portal fantasy with great characters. Loved the ghosts ones and Lumi's entire concept of stitching skeletons back together. Totally gives Guilhermo Del toro and Tim Burton vibes.

4.5 stars. I loved this!
This book was creepy and beautiful and descriptive and lush and I absolutely loved the story! I fell in love with the characters and I truly found the story to be so unique and intriguing. I really struggled to put this book down! It was so interesting and gripping, and I just wanted to keep reading.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

First of all, thank you & Netgalley so much for sending me a copy of this book.

The Bone Brides is a Sapphic YA Fantasy novel about two girlfriends, one magical and one human, who run away together. They go into the magical realm and one goes missing.
I really liked the magical world, it was unique and well done. I have never read something like it.

The story is more about love and trauma. I didn’t expect it, but it was beautifully done. I love reading about two young queers in love. It heals the inner me, who was so scared to come to terms of liking women – let alone not liking men at all.

If you’re looking for a Sapphic YA Fantasy book with an unique fantasy world, that is more focussed about trauma and other issues: read this book!

The Bone Brides was a sad read for me. I just felt so much for the characters. Grief sucks and Marley Rose-Teter tackles it head on.

There are two different types of grief going on in this story: grief for what was lost and what you never had. Nola is grieving over the loss of her father and Lumi for the mother she never had. The first quote says it all for Lumi. This isn’t to say that I don’t understand Lumi’s mom’s thought process - it still doesn’t make her actions right.

I think that’s a huge part of why this story works so well. Almost everyone is a morally grey character, but you can understand why they feel the way they do. Rose-Teter balances that fine line beautifully.

The Bone Brides isn’t just an emotional tale but an action-packed one too as Nola discovers a completely different world. She’s not the hero type, but she will be to get her Lumi back. Then the quest takes on a deeper meaning as the truth is uncovered. Facing your fears and still fighting is a trope I love to read and Rose-Teter doesn’t disappoint.

What I Liked: This was a heartbreakingly beautiful book that captured two different takes on grief in a nuanced manner. This book packed so much into it, but it does this in a way that all aspects work well with each other. I really liked that the world-building happens throughout the story rather than all at the beginning. You learn more about the world along with Nola, and there were aspects that I didn't see coming.

The relationship that Lumi and Nola have is wonderful, and it's great to see how this continues to develop as Nola learns more information about Lumi. It was fascinating to see how things shift between the two of them as they both grow and develop on their own, and how their own development informs their relationship.

The addition of the human that was swapped out with Lumi was interesting, especially as you get the chance to learn more about the fae world and how things have played out for years.

The best parts of this story and the pieces that stand out are the moments in which Nola and Lumi are navigating their grief. While the action scenes pick the pace up for this story, I really enjoyed getting the chance to see how they both came to terms with grief and what it meant for them. It was nice to see how Nola navigated the loss of her father as she gained more information about him, and also how she shifts the way she interacts with others as she learns that she is allowed to express her feelings. It was heartbreaking to watch as Lumi learned about herself and grieved the relationship she wished for with her mother.