So, my review of the previous book in the Bone Grace series is “So many owl charades holy frick.” That’s it. Let’s see if I can do a little better, haha.

After realizing that murdering your boyfriend kinda sucks, Bone Crier Ailesse and her loverboy Bastien are ready to fight the inherited trauma of tradition and forge a new path. Sabine fully supports her sister and wishes she could just be a supporting character. However, being the secret love child of famille’s matrone, inheriting her mother’s position, and carrying the bones of a death god’s fursona put a damper on that. Speaking of mother, she’s in the underworld plotting Evil, so if a protagonist could take care of that, that would be great.

Forgive me for the glib blurb. Funny is how I’m feeling about this series. The plot is well-done, with tight beats, but these beats depend entirely on teenagers being reckless and running off on their own at the slightest provocation. These kids don’t know what they’re doing beyond the present moment. The audiobook narrators strengthen this impression. All the voice actors, especially Bastien’s, have an odd tendency to list the character’s actions, like one would a rather tense grocery list. Other little annoyances include how Sabine weeps and bemoans killing animals, but spares less thought for the whole ass dead humans. Besides the girls’ mother and Sabine’s father, the adults are absolutely nerfed at the knee. Some attempt is made at explaining their listless rule-following—this is the way it’s always been done; why would you change it—but the attempt could be stronger. Come to think of it, Bastien’s friends and the other Bone Criers aren’t developed at all really.

My last critique is how intense the insta-love is. Alesse and Bastien haven’t known each other long, and it beggars belief how intense their romantic feelings are. Alesse was his prisoner for a significant chunk of their relationship! Underground! Moist! Starving! Not exactly romantic. Yet I was supposed to believe that their romantic love is enough to change death physics. To me, it would have made more organic sense for Alesse to view Bastien as a good friend. I would not kill people for my friends. There would be something more noble or exalted about refusing blood sacrifice for a friend. The fact it’s a lover makes Bastien seem like a selfish treat dangled in front of Alesse. If Purdie really wanted a romance, Sabine and Alesse had intense chemistry, and I would believe Alesse wanting to challenge gods for her. Obviously they wouldn’t be sisters in this scenario.

This review has many critiques, but in truth, Bone Crier’s Dawn is a fun listen. The not-France France setting is refreshingly different and wonderfully described. The voice actors handle the French words with silver tongues. The world-building is cinched tight. The fight scenes are heavy, visceral, bloody. Sabine is dark-skinned! Yay Black French people! While the side characters are one-note, Sabine, Alesse, Bastien, and Caz live in all dimensions. The complexities of mother-daughter relationships flow off the page. I appreciated the theme that communities thrive when they interact with others—not when they’re closed off. The god fursona charades continue to be goofy, but I so love to laugh.

The Bone Grace series is a well-wrought, beautiful, but ultimately middling Young Adult fantasy. It won’t knock your socks off, but you’ll be entertained.

Review of Bone Crier’s Moon: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/6f4a8390-5458-4c79-89c2-0bcad6f8a0dc