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Bone Crier's Moon by Kathryn Purdie was the April Owlcrate book!
Bone Criers have a sacred duty. They alone can keep the dead from preying on the living. But their power to ferry the spirits of the dead into goddess Elara's Night Heavens or Tyrus's Underworld comes from sacrifice. The gods demand a promise of dedication. And that promise comes at the cost of the Bone Criers' one true love.
Ailesse has been prepared since birth to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers, a mysterious famille of women who use strengths drawn from animal bones to ferry dead souls. But first she must complete her rite of passage and kill the boy she's also destined to love.
Bastien's father was slain by a Bone Crier and he's been seeking revenge ever since. Yet when he finally captures one, his vengeance will have to wait. Ailesse's ritual has begun and now their fates are entwined—in life and in death.
Sabine has never had the stomach for the Bone Criers' work. But when her best friend Ailesse is taken captive, Sabine will do whatever it takes to save her, even if it means defying their traditions—and their matriarch—to break the bond between Ailesse and Bastien. Before they all die.
This was my April Owlcrate Book. First Owlcrate book I ever got, actually. And at a 3.5 star rating from me, it was a pretty enjoyable first!
Bone Criers as a concept are really cool. They train their entire lives to ferry the dead to the afterlife, so a sort of different take on reapers. Reapers are awesome, taking your own spin on something is awesome, so yeah, they're pretty awesome! They get their powers from different animals by killing (so yes, there are animal killings in this show) them and being imbued by their "grace" after they take one of their bones. Overall, really cool, but with the downside of, well... They have to kill their soulmate before they can become a ferrier (one who ferries the dead to the afterlife).
We don't get much of a look at the actual world, which is original but French based, but we get mentions of the royal system, a war, and the town. Most of the world building is focused on the Bone Crier system and their gods. It almost feels more like an Urban Fantasy set in the past because the rest of the world is so... just accept as there. So even if you're not a fan of high fantasy but prefer historical/modern fantasy (just real world fantasy in general), this is still enjoyable.
Which is perfectly fine since, as I've said, I love the entire Bone Crier system.
As for the characters, they're a very nice balance to play off each other. Ailesse is the perfect Bone Crier to everyone but her mother, who always seems to judge her. Sabine is the farthest from perfect, not really possessing the normal Bone Crier strengths and having an aversion to killing, human or animal. Bastien is a human hurt by Bone Criers, a skilled orphan thief, and intent on killing a Bone Crier.
Bet you can't guess who he chooses to try and kill.
There are a lot of side characters who are enjoyable. My favorite one was one of Bastien's friends.
Although I like the characters, I can say that sometimes there being three PoVs felt... Weird. I felt like Bastien's was underutilized because he was the human who didn't understand the great issues going on for the Bone Crier's. After a certain point, he felt like he was rarely used because all the interesting stuff was being unveiled from Ailesse's or Sabine's PoV. The stuff was really interesting and I always found myself shifting between who I wanted to get back to. So yes, my biggest complain about the three different PoVs is that by the second half of the book, Bastien's felt like it carried too little weight.
Writing was good. nothing special, but I still enjoyed it. Some complain about the random French words, but it gave the sense of culture behind the Bone Crier's for me.
I enjoyed the plot. It was this enjoyable mixture of hidden magical world, rescue mission, unfolding of a secret plot, enemies-to-lovers type plot. Nothing overly original, but it was executed in a very enjoyable way. I always felt like I was getting hints to connect the dots with the grand scheme that connected the entire plot, but I never had the full picture, which made me eager to have it unfold.
Biggest complaint plot wise would be the enemies to lovers aspect. I loved it for the most part, but do you see that -to- between enemies and lovers? That part felt like we just... Time jumped right over it. They were enemies, we got a hint there was a "to", then they were growing feelings for each other.
Would recommend to people, but not vehemently recommend, and would probably never reread.
