Books That Burn reviewed The Bone Houses by Moira Quirk
Review of 'The Bone Houses' on 'Storygraph'
3 stars
Ryn is a gravedigger near a forest filled with "bone houses", walking corpses which have stayed in the forest and away from village... until now.
Ryn is trying to make ends meet in a town where the dead aren’t staying buried and older folks are turning to cremation. Ellis travels to her village on his way to get answers about his past. It turns out they may be the solution to each other’s problems, and together they journey through the forest into the mountains.
The worldbuilding treats all explanations as being needed by someone who is familiar with the setting, generally, but not the specific local history and current undead menace. This means all exposition feels grounded in the world without being overwhelming. However, wile the worldbuilding is specific (inspired by Welsh folklore), it isn't very deep. It gradually incorporates stories of what happened nearby decades ago as Ryn and …
Ryn is trying to make ends meet in a town where the dead aren’t staying buried and older folks are turning to cremation. Ellis travels to her village on his way to get answers about his past. It turns out they may be the solution to each other’s problems, and together they journey through the forest into the mountains.
The worldbuilding treats all explanations as being needed by someone who is familiar with the setting, generally, but not the specific local history and current undead menace. This means all exposition feels grounded in the world without being overwhelming. However, wile the worldbuilding is specific (inspired by Welsh folklore), it isn't very deep. It gradually incorporates stories of what happened nearby decades ago as Ryn and Ellis are traveling, but a lot of details are only lightly referenced. I love books focused on conversation and banter, and I don't mind the sketchy worldbuilding, but this turns the mood from travel companions into a romance at almost the final moment, which was disappointing. It's not enough chemistry to be satisfying if I want a book with romance, and too much of one if I just want a guy and a girl to be friends without being paired up. There's an animal sidekick, which is not a trope I enjoy, but at least this one kept leaving for long stretches.
The story takes a while to get going, spending a lot of time initially in the village with Ryn and her siblings. It smoothly incorporates Ellis's arrival and various interactions with the local noble who is making Ryn's life hell by demanding her house as payment for her missing uncle's debts. Ellis is a mapmaker, and eventually he and Ryn leave on a cartographical expedition after the village is attacked by bone houses. Once they do leave, it's a cycle of traveling (leaving the goat behind for plot reasons), sleeping, then interacting with someone or something and then the goat catches up again. It felt predictable (in fact I guessed at least three major twists before they happened, along with a smattering of minor events), but in a way that might end up feeling comforting on a re-read.
I love this take on zombies, and I enjoyed the characters separately but don’t think they have much chemistry together. A good book, but not a great one. Read this for a journey story about loss, letting go, and living afterward.
