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Bone Crier's Dawn is the second and final book in the Bone Grace duology by Kathryn Purdie. I received my copy from a special Owlcrate order.
Love is a matter of life and death.
Bone Criers have been ferrying the dead into the afterlife for centuries, a dangerous duty only possible with the powers they gain from sacrificing their amourés the men destined to love them and die. But Bone Criers Ailesse and Sabine—along with Ailesse's love, Bastien—are working to chart their own course and rewrite the rules of the afterlife. If they don't break the soul between Ailesse and her amouré, she could die—just as Bastien's father did.
Sabine struggles to maintain her authority as matrone of her famille—the role always destined for her sister—even as she fights to control the violent jackal power within her.
Bastien is faced with a new dilemma as the spirits of the Underworld threaten the souls of his friends—and his father.
Ailesse attempts to resist her mother's siren song as she's drawn into her own version of the Underworld. How will she save her friends once she's cut off from their world?
The best way I can really describe this book is simply this: *sigh*.
Okay, so, I listened to the audiobook of The Bonecrier's Moon before coming to this, and I'll admit, the second time with the story left me less satisfied than the first, but it was still okay. But it still had an interesting world building and I wanted to know what was going to happen with the plot. I liked the characters well enough and Bastien x Ailesse was pretty good, plus, I liked Sabine, and I was curious about Cas since it was obviously set up he wouldn't be a bad guy but also kinda was in the fact he was an obstacle?
Add all of that to the summary of book two, and I went in hopeful.
I'll give it this. The last 1/3 of the book? Almost 4 stars because it was basically everything I hoped for, but a 3 stars overall because there are some aspects from the first 2/3 that dragged it down. It builds so much on that world building that I loved and drew me to this series. There was an intriguing plot there that I was constantly eager to see unfold.
You know why I cannot say the same thing for the first 2/3 of the book? Because that which was not just a re-skin of the plot was just... forced and absolute cringe.
Seriously. Another "rescue Ailesse from captor" situation where the captor isn't actually bad. More dead roaming around stealing Light due to failed ferrying. The only interesting bits were ruined by the fact that the Sabine storyline just wasn't really fleshed out and felt really forced where we were basically told "Sabine is gonna act outta character because of the Jackal, but the execution is so off that you just gotta deal with being told this is happening."
Ailesse wasn't any better. She made more sense, but she just seemed so two-dimensional with how she treated everything.
Then her and Sabine's relationship... Ugh.
Honestly, 90% of the plot at the first 2/3 of this book was just Miscommunication: How To Destroy All Relationships. Like, literally, sit all these people, the other Bonecriers included, make them talk honestly, and bam. Plot is done. Granted, it wouldn't lead to the ending as it did, but it would be a lot less head bashing.
Also, Sabine gets a romance... It's so painfully rushed and forced that I wanna bash my already bleeding head off cement.
By the way, this all happens in the start of the book. You want to know when the actual parts from the summary start happening except in part Sabine's section? Half way through, if not 2/3 the way through. So legit we sit through probably a majority of the book getting rehashed the plot from book 1, cringe drama from lack of communication... And then we get to the fun stuff promised in the blurb.
I did enjoy stuff once the stuff from the blurb actually took effect. Again, may have been 4 stars if we weren't still dealing with some out of character development stupidity and Sabine's cringe romance route. It is also only in this part of the book that Bastien actually feels like a character again! Seriously, he was just there to be a jealous guy for the first part because he had no actual clear goal really.
The end had a lot of fun fights, character tensions, discoveries of the world and furthering of what it could be. I was actually invested in the end, and if the entire book had been as strong as the ending, it would be a strong 4 stars. Maybe even 4.5.
However, it isn't. It is a really messy conclusion to the duology that felt like she just needed to pad things out to get to the end. 2.5 stars rounded down to 2 because there are some 3s I have that are just too far above this book to put them in the same category.
