Ellis suffers from chronic pain in his shoulder from an old, badly healed injury. It’s so well done, and I think the above quote illustrates why. It’s not a purifier, it’s a part of living.”Īnother thing I loved is the disability rep. “Pain doesn’t make a person weak or strong,” she said. Death and pain were close companions, often twined around each other. Ryn knew something of pain she had seen enough of it. If I have to endure one more person telling be that I’m ‘so strong’ simply for living…” He shook his head. People think pain makes me weak – or worse, strong. Maybe I’m just starved for romance because I haven’t been able to find anything I’d like in a while, but man, I needed this. Ryn is the tough one and Ellis the quiet and kind one, and the whole friends to lovers dynamic was so, so sweet to watch unfold. On this, The Bone Houses more than delivers.

When it comes to m/f, I only ever like those rare romance subplots that don’t fall into traditional gender roles of a big, strong, protective man wanting to take care of the heroine. I also liked the small scope – the story is entirely centered on one little village and saving that, rather than the whole world.īut my favourite part was the romance. I can’t say I like zombies, but as soon as magic is involved, I don’t mind much at all. Being unfamiliar with Welsh mythology, I’m unable to say much more on the topic, but I did like the take on the undead. The plot is fairly predictable and at no point I was in any doubt where it’ll go next, but sometimes that’s what you need: comfort (weird to say of a book that deals with death and pain so much, perhaps, and yet). On one of her forays into the forest, she stumbles upon Ellis, a mapmaker dressed in fancy clothes who suffers from chronic pain in his shoulder. Ever since her father’s disappearance, she’s been the village gravedigger, taking care of the dead and protecting the village and her siblings from the undead (the titular bone houses) coming from the nearby forest with her axe. I nearly read it all in one day and it was exactly what I wanted and needed it to be.

I don’t know what finally persuaded me to give it a go, but I’m so glad I did. I had this book in my sights ever since it came out, part because of the disability rep, part because of the romance subplot. Neither occupation is particularly romantic, but I suspect the world would be a sorrier place without us.” A moment, and then he added: “Just as there is in gravedigging. “You speak of mapmaking as if there’s nobility in it.”

The bone houses