DNF Early Review – Bonesmith (House of the Dead Duology, Book 1) by Nicki Pau Preto (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Length: 460 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release Date: July 25, 2023
ASIN: B0BHTNQJDD
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the House of the Dead duology
Source: eGalley from NetGalley for Review
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr—a ghost-fighting warrior—is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defense against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.
Determined to reclaim her family’s respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers—a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place…and the House of Bone’s sworn enemy.
As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there’s more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they’ll need to work together to combat the real danger: a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the House of the Dead duology. I got an eGalley of this book to review through NetGalley
Thoughts: I stopped reading this about 25% of the way in. I enjoyed the first chapter, but things got very slow and hard to follow after that. The author is constantly stopping the story to explain random world elements in detail and it really stops the flow of the story and makes it hard to stay engaged. I also thought this was going to be more of an action-packed fantasy based on the description but things get incredibly slow after the first chapter.
This book follows Wren, a bonesmith who fails her qualifying trial to become a valkyr and gets sent to the Border Wall to serve in disgrace instead. While the first chapter is fun, the story quickly devolves into long explanations of smithing and politics of a huge world that we don’t really care about yet. Then we get to watch Wren wander listlessly about the Border Wall complex and get excited about a visit from the House of Gold prince…here is where I stopped reading.
I really struggled with the way this was written. It was hard for me to read and follow and I kept having to go back and re-read portions of the book because I realized that none of what I had read had really been processed. This is partly because mid story the authors sinks into these detailed descriptions of magics, things, and politics that haven’t been introduced into the story in any way that matters. So, I would start reading and be like, why do I care about this right now? And then the story would restart and I still wouldn’t know why that diversion had been made.
I also did not like the characters or plot at all. None of these characters are likable; they are cruel and one-dimensional. I pretty much despised them all. I enjoyed the action in the first chapter but was also perplexed about why the plot played out the way it did. Wren is top in her class and when she is sabotaged in the trial the judge doesn’t listen at all and is just like “You’re out of here”. Ummm…I mean okay. Seems kind of crazy to me and more like just a convenient way to get Wren to the Border Wall than any sort of actual plausible story.
My Summary (3/5): Overall I did not like this. The writing was hard to read and there was so much exposition about weird world details that jarred you out of the story. I found the characters intensely irritating and the plot implausible. I stopped reading at 25% in and gave this 3 stars because when I DNF a book that early I give it the benefit of the doubt that it must get better. This book is getting a lot of high reviews and I guess I just disagree; this was not for me…at all.
