Bone Crier's Moon

8:38 pm 19 March 2020
Bone Crier's Moon - Kathryn Purdie

Bone Criers ferried the souls of the dead to the afterlife so that they didn't remain and feed upon the living. To assist in the task of ferrying the souls, they drew upon the powers of animals whose bones they wore after slaying them. But to be granted the power to ferry the dead, the Bone Crier had to kill their one true love. Ailesse had trained her whole life to take over the Bone Criers. Now she just had to summon and kill her true love.

 

The start of Bone Crier's Moon was my favorite part. Ailesse and her best friend, Sabine, are on a hunt for a shark so that Ailesse can gain the abilities of the shark. Their fight was fun and the dynamic between Ailesse and Sabine was engaging immediately. And the concept of this group of women gaining the powers of the animals they defeated in battle was a fun one.

 

Unfortunately, there's a third POV outside of Ailesse and Sabine - Bastien. He's not as interesting as them. Bastien's hellbent on revenge because a Bone Crier killed his father as he watched. Completely understandable that he'd be upset about that and would want to wipe out the Bone Criers who go around sacrificing men. His head just wasn't interesting to be in. Especially when he and Ailesse were hit with insta-love. I didn't even understand why they suddenly loved each other. They both went from literally wanting to killing one another to loving each other very quickly. They just did not click for me.

 

I also could not understand the actions of Jules at one point in the book. She just got firsthand proof that Ailesse had been telling the truth about Bone Criers ferrying the souls of the dead and had been told that if this doesn't happen, the souls will remain and feed on the living.

So she proceeded to take the bones Ailesse needed to see the dead and which gave her her powers, leaving Ailesse defenseless when she's surrounded by the dead who are attacking, even though Jules believed that if Ailesse died Bastien, someone Jules supposedly loved, died too, and the tool the Bone Criers needed to ferry the souls to the afterlife and ran away. As expected, Ailesse ended up almost dying and the dead terrorized the town and people started getting sick as the dead fed on them.

(show spoiler)

I did not understand what she expected to happen or what her plan was. It felt like the book just need the problem to not be resolved right then, so Jules had to act stupid so that the plot could be drawn out longer.

 

Everything involving the Bone Criers was far more intriguing than the romance. Unfortunately, the romance took up quite a bit of focus once it got started.

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