Reviews with content warning for Death - Bone Crier's Dawn

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Bone Crier's Dawn by Kathryn Purdie

10 reviews

chainsiren's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

4.5

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journeythroughthechapters's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I had a lot of fun reading this. I think this was a pretty solid ending to this Duology. If you love endings that tie in a bow then you'll like this. In the first book I didn't get why we followed all three characters. In the end I didn't mind and it works. Sabine's character development was a journey. It was confusing but I honestly loved it in the end. She was a bit of a mess in the middle haha. Overall would recommend if you want an easy fantasy to digest.

Content Warning
Grief, Violence, Death, Animal Death, Abduction

Representation
POC (side character)

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valericks24's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A very satisfying ending

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kaydie96's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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bubothereader's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I don’t want to say much because this is a sequel.

I liked it well enough. The plot intrigued me—though I found it a bit unbelievable. The characters’ development annoyed me for a while, but she gave good reasoning for it later that I felt made those changes okay.

The atmosphere is great per usual and the magic system is interesting. But, overall, I wasn’t blown away. Definitely not a read it all in one night kind of book, but still pretty good.

Side note: Some of the magic system scenes were way too graphic for me, which wasn’t fun.

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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book had me really conflicted when reading. It started off horribly at a 2.5 star read, but did get to a 3.5 in the second half.

I really struggled with the characters in this one. A lot of my issues from the first book were back and worse. It felt like no one in this whole book, no matter the characters' ages or experience, had no emotional maturity or common sense. I found myself constantly frustrated and wanting to DNF. It got better at the halfway mark, but that will be too late for a lot of readers.
The plot wasn't bad but it could be predictable and plot points just happened because reasons and it had to to progress the story. Much like how the characters got better in the second half so too did the plot and ended in a nice way.

I am very glad this is not more than a duology as I don't think I could handle another book. I'm also unsure how to recommend this. If you were like me and struggled with characters in the first book, I wouldn't recommend reading this. If you really liked the first book though and want to know how it ends, go right ahead. I think those who liked the first will also enjoy this and will want to see how it all ends.

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holdenehlinger's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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stargazerklh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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caidyn's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

And, this duology is done. I liked this a lot better than the first book in some ways, probably because I could see how the first book set the stage for the finale in many ways. However, my big critique (and this is just me) is how I can see just how Christian the book is. God/Light in all of us and how it can overcome evil/Satan/darkness. It's not a big deal, but it made me roll my eyes. I still enjoyed the ending but it was predictable.

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spearly's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

oh this literally came out today and i just finished book one. cool.

_____________

Tu ne me manques pas. Je ne te manque pas. You’re not missing from me. I’m not missing from you.

The phrase he taught me has been my mantra since I’ve come to Beau Palais. Soon I’ll be with Bastien. I won’t need Old Gallish words to hold his memory or help me visualize his sea-blue eyes and dark tousled hair. He’s alive. He has to be.

plot holes plot holes plot holes. hypocrisy. evil queen is evil for no reason. idk man.

SPOILERS because I gotta get some things off my chest.

SERIOUS SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WANRED.

First of all, for the first half of the novel, I felt like I was having deja vu. It's pretty much the exact plot of the first book.

Gates open. Something happens, gates close too soon, the dead swarm the living for 2 weeks until the gates open again at the soul bridge. Our MCs can't travel anywhere because of the vicious chained. People lose their Light. Our MCs are wholly unprepared for the ferrying at the soul bridge and shit goes wrong. In book one, Bastien is stabbed and Ailesse is kidnapped. In this book, Ailesse is Stupid (with a capital S) and falls for her mother's lie.

The entire story is gotta sneak into the palace. oh it's not safe, gotta go to Bastien's hideout. okay now we gotta back to the palace and save Cas. oh no we're up against the chained again, I wonder where we'll be safe?! ok, back to the hideout. oh we forgot some books at the palace, guess we gotta sneak back in. oh dang, it still wasn't safe? you don't say! oh going back to the palace put Cas back in danger, which in turn puts Ailesse in danger? NO SHIT. ok, back to the hideout.

What...happened...to the original plot of the movie (i know it's a book, this is a quote from tiktok) This think went round and round in circles until finally something new happened and Ailesse gets sucked into the underworld.

Which... wtf. Ailesse really fell for her mother's fake sincerity and promises? Even Sabine saw through it. all you need to do is touch my hand and i'll teach you how to break the soul bond. it's like Ailesse just conveniently forgot that her mother's original bargain called for Ailesse's life. This whole thing made no sense?!!?!? Why would Odiva "sacrifice" herself to the underworld and then just... trick her daughter into switching places? What was the purpose??? Ailesse was practically about to enter the Underworld gates ON HER OWN at the end of book one and Odiva ran into the gates herself to stop her. so????

Her plan made 0 sense, too. Give Tyrus unchained souls, kill her own daughter, get her lover back. Okay, fine. But then apparently the bargain isn't complete in book 2, and now Odiva still needs to funnel ALL unchained souls from Paradise? Bring the afterlife together? I thought Odiva was just giving Tyrus unchained souls in book 1 to try and appease Tyrus and not have to kill her own daughter? Oh but actually, suddenly she doesn't just want her love back, she wants to rule the fucking world. WUT. I can (grudgingly) accept soul-deep love as a motivation, but Odiva's quest for power made her lose ALL the humanity that kind of made her a faceted villain.

SO MANY PLOT HOLES.

And the plagues!! It was established in book 1 that the recent plague wasn't actually sickness, but rather, the chained sucking the literal life out of people because the Ferrying ceremony was cut short. But here, everyone, even the bone criers, make it seem like there was a plague and the chained fiasco? I DON'T GET IT.

AND THEN WHEN THE GOOD GUYS FINALLY WIN, AILESSE LETS HER AWFUL MOTHER AND ODIVA'S AWFUL LOVER GO TO PARADISE?!?!?!? IS THERE NO JUSTICE?!?!

This book was a bloody mess. I got what Purdie was going for - an epic tale of desire vs. duty, loyalty vs. righteousness, sisterly love vs. motherly love. It could have been great if it wasn't so confined to the same 3 settings and crude villain motivations.

The best part of the story was Sabine, who grows into her role as matroné of the Lauress, who must resist the doubts cast on her from her clan and her own grace bones, who must shed her own insecurities of being second to Ailesse in everything including love. The unwavering support between her and Ailesse was refreshing, especially in YA, and especially because for a few chapters, I honestly thought Purdie was setting her up to be a new villain.

Anyway, that's my rant. Read this if you can stand it.

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