A Ritual of bone is told from multiple pov, each in a different part of Arnar, each experiencing a different sort of horror and as the story progresses you can see how the characters are going to intertwine. I think Lee has done an awesome job of building the world through these characters. He is able to build the atmosphere and the lay of the land, all the while giving you an in depth look into who these people are as a society. He builds the story and world up, layer upon layer until you feel like you can see the story play out in your head. (Thatѓ??s rare for me.)

Lee manages to create this overwhelming feeling of impending doom. The atmosphere is oppressive and at times claustrophobic. Every time you think it couldnѓ??t get worse for the characters, it does. There are so many different types of horrors occurring throughout that you never get a break. I loved that he took my zombie expectations and turned it on itѓ??s head. He doesnѓ??t shy away from going full horror. Gore, chaos, psychological mayhem, this story has it all.

ѓ??She had murdered them. She watched as they fell lifeless to the floor. Her instincts torn asunder, her children, who looked to her for protection, for love, betrayed. Killed by her own hands. She had eaten them. Trapped watching, screaming in her mind, trapped in a living nightmare, watching it all unfold. Her love, replaced with a terrible rage as her spiralling descent into madness consumed all that she was.ѓ?ќ

Because we are following so many characters, we get to watch the onset of each catastrophe. We watch through the eyes of the Apprentice as obscene rituals are performed in the name of learning. We follow the soldiers as the undead make their way through the land. We see the plague set foot in Arnar for the first time, with people bleeding from every orifice and dying in the streets. While I did initially have an issue with the amount of povѓ??s, once I found my reading rhythm I was able to follow along easily. Not every pov is given the same amount of page time and I found a couple of those not introduced until later becoming my favourites, so I will definitely be picking up book 2 to see how everything is going to play out. This book has such a build up that you just know that the carnage in A Ritual of Flesh is going to be crazy.

The book seems to have heavy Norse influences, especially with the way the communities away from the cities live and the fighting styles and weapons. The battles were very well written. I liked the way the soldiers interacted with each other. The way the soldiers were developed was great.

I went into A Ritual of Bone expecting a zombie story, I got so much more.