The Bone Crier’s Moon: Two fated lovers that want to kill each other? I’m listening…
Bone Crier’s Moon Review
Characters
We get to know Dovré by the eyes of three characters: Sabine, the very tropey female lead that doesn’t fit in with her people (Groundbreaking, I know!); Bastien the rugged hero looking for revenge (with the high cheekbones and good hair to go with it); and Ailesse, the accomplished best friend (that will either become a villain or most likely die in front of the heroine…).
Except that Sabine is no damsel in distress. Bastien’s pain and feelings are never discounted. And Ailesse beliefs in her calling are never used as an excuse for cruelty.
Add some great and some good enough secondary characters and I was hooked.
It’s really not funny how excited I was about this story being set in medieval France and that not being used as an excuse for having an only white cast.
(Why was I excited? Nine times out of ten, authors believe medieval equals English even though the rest of the world had already been invented by then. I checked.)
Setting
While Dovré is very much a patriarchal society, most of the focus of the story is on the Bone Crier’s and I was glad to see the trappings of a matriarchal one.
Not only the great majority of characters in this story are women, but they are the ones that are feared.
It was liberating to see women being physically strong, sporting scars, training, holding weapons, and being leaders
2020 and yet…
The only faults I can find in this book other than its ZERO LGBTQ representation are how superficially the matter of gender identity and sexual orientation was explored.
And to that, you can say “Luc, not every book has to have an LGBTQ+ character…” (The ellipses stand for the rest of your whining that I don’t care for writing down).
Here’s why that argument is wrong: the gays didn’t magically appear in 1946 with the birth of Freddy Mercury. Stop erasing us.
Is It Worth It?
Bone Crier’s Moon is in general a solid read if with some slower chapters. The main characters are well fleshed out, the world is convincing and most of its sins are forgotten once you get to that ending!
*Review based on the DRC kindly provided by Edelweiss+ and Harper Collins/Katherine Tegen.
Do you agree with my review? Share your opinion in the comments 🙂
Pssst!
The sequel is called Bone Crier’s Dawn and is set to come out in 2021
Looking for more great reviews?
Check out our review of Dark Skies by Danielle L Jensen.