A twist on sleeping beauty, set in a world of magic, Witch Hunters and Treasure Hunters.

Fi and Shane are on the same mission, but with different goals. Fi is trying to find a cure for her lifelong curse; Shane is searching for an escape from her past and treasure to keep surviving (axe in hand).

I absolutely loved this. Shane was my favourite character. A strong female character that is not afraid to speak her mind or protect herself/friends. I would definitely recommend.

‘The Bone Spindle’ brought me straight back to childhood and classic fairy tales I grown up with. I especially remember this one being told to me as a child, always enjoyed this one and as a huge fan of retellings, I was excited to read Leslie Vedder’s take on it.

‘The Bone Spindle’ was a nice retelling with plenty of adventure and sassy characters. Overall it was a good first book in the series (or duology), but it felt like it was more aimed at younger YA readers.

While it wasn’t as dark as expected at moments, I still have enjoyed it, and I’m curious what happens next with Fi, Briar, Shane and Red – while we learnt quite a bit about each character in ‘The Bone Spindle’ many stories are still unsaid and curses unbroken, so there’s still a lot of to explore.

Being such a fan of fairy tale retellings, I've wanted to read The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder ever since I first heard about it. A gender-reimagined retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a sleeping prince, plus a separate f/f storyline - it couldn't be more up my street. However, I was actually really disappointed.

Let's start with the positives. I really liked the premise. I loved that it was a prince that needed rescuing, and it was a woman that needed to do it. I liked how Vedder dealt with the problematic issues of the original story - someone being kissed (or worse) without their consent while asleep - by Briar Rose's spirit being able to appear to Fi once they've been bound together. A kiss is needed to break the sleeping spell, but it doesn't have to be true love's kiss; just a kiss from the girl who is bound to Briar Rose, a girl who is drawn to the bone spindle and pricks her finger. With Fi and Briar able to interact, the non-consensual element is removed; Briar is actually very eager for Fi to find him and kiss him, to wake him up. His body is trapped by the sleeping spell, but his spirit is free to roam the castle, and now he's bound to Fi, he's able to transport himself to wherever she is.

I also really liked the backstory of the curse, because it's so much more than just a fairy who was snubbed by not being invited to a Christening. It's about the Spindle Witch, who saved Briar's life as a baby in exchange for spells that have been hidden for centuries, who doesn't receive her payment of the spells that have been hidden for centuries because the magic kills the Queen, and the King refuses. But the magic binds Briar to the witch, so she plans to use her dark magic on him when he turns 16 to get them. To stop her, three other Great Witches come together to put Briar and the people in the castle to sleep, to save them from the Spindle Witch, until such a time as a girl comes to break the spell. There's more to it, but that's the basic gist. The prologue of the story tells us Briar's story, and it's so cool and intriguing, I was really excited for how it would end.

This is a world where sexuality isn't something anyone bats their eyes at, which was awesome. The story is a mainly dual narration; while Briar gets a chapter every now and then, it's primarily told from Fi and her partner Shane's perspective. Shane's complicated backstory gives us something wonderful. She is heir to a small island nation, Steelbright, and is to become War King after her father dies. But War Kings need heirs, how does that work when Shane is a lesbian? Arranged marriage with a woman from an allied country, who, when the time comes, will choose an appropriate man from her country to impregnate Shane. We're not told how, but given everything else, I would assume it's not awful. But I love it! First of all, the heir is a woman, and secondly she's a lesbian, and this is not an issue in regards to her ruling. Of course there are complication that come with arranged marriages, but this is the first time that I've ever seen anything like this, and it's bloody fantastic!

But, sadly, the rest of the story isn't. I'm a big high fantasy fan, and as such, there were things that really grated on me, because they didn't fit a high fantasy. You can't have a historical inspired world, and then throw contemporary elements into it. It's jarring. Descriptions of clothes would fit the historical inspired setting, until "pants" were mentioned. The way they all talk is too contemporary. I'm not saying the language has to be archaic, but there is a level of expectation. Shane should not be greeting Fi with "Yo!" No-one should be falling on their "butt," and no-one should be calling anything or anyone "cute." They go against high fantasy conventions, against a high fantasy reader's expectations, and I really didn't like it.

Then there were the characters themselves; I just didn't warm to them. Shane was incredibly snarky, and Fi is really quick to lose her temper. They're constantly bickering, and it gets old really quickly. They always have each others' backs, and they very loyal, but the bickering just gets to be too much. And then there's the romance. It's practically love at first sight; all of the characters barely know each other, but they fall hard and fast super quickly - though Fi does try to resist for her own reasons - but I cannot get emotionally invested in a romance when there is no real foundation for it. And Brair's chapters where he's pining over Fi are so cheesy, I was so glad there were only a few from his perspective.

And the story only really properly starts 70% into the story. Once Fi is pricks her finger and is bound, most of the story is spent trying to get hold of border passes to get into Andar to actually start trying to save the prince. There are various obstacles in their way, but the majority of it seemed pointless and unnecessary. It was mainly for us to get to know the characters and learn about their backstories, but there has to have been another way. I spent the majority of the book waiting for them to actually get moving. And it's a shame because that last 70% was actually pretty good! Much more interesting, faster paced, a lot going on. There was an element regarding a certain character that was really predictable, though. But I'm intrigued by it, because most of the story I was thinking there were things that also made me think of Little Red Riding Hood, and now I think maybe that will be the focus of the sequel, The Severed Thread, based on what little description of it there is. Despite not liking the characters, and how jarring the contemporary aspects were, if The Severed Thread is a lot more like the last 70% of the book, I'd be tempted to try it. But I think I'll wait for more information and maybe a few reviews before I decide.

The Bone Spindle wasn't for me, but I think it was a wrong book, wrong reader situation. Do check out some other reviews before deciding whether to read it or not, as a lot of people have really enjoyed it.

Trigger/Content Warnings: This book features blood, gambling, arson, almost drowning, emotional abuse, and violence against women.

Thank you to Netgalley and publishers for this eARC

The Bone Spindle is the Sleeping Beauty story reimagined, however in this story it's a cursed Prince and our lead hero is female.
I loved the way this story played out and is far one of the best retellings of sleeping beauty I've read.
I loved Fi and Shane's relationship and whilst it would have been easy to turn it into the usual trope, I'm thankful the author stayed clear of that.
Linking Fi with Briar was perfect and again I'm so glad the author didn't take us down the usual girl falls for the Prince, they live happily ever after road.
The Bone Spindle is a novel that just kept giving, the adventure, the twists of betrayal, the ending that wasn't expected was all fantastic.
I really enjoy standalone novels but in this case I really hope there's a book 2.
There's so much more to explore, like that Butterfly curse!

I really recommend this gets put on everyone's reading list. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4.5🌟
Wow this is such a solid debut that I didn't believe it actually was a debut!
The Bone Spindle is a gender swap retelling of Sleeping Beauty and just from the blurb I knew i was going to love it and I wasn't wrong. I was hooked from the off with the characters, the world building and the magic. I loved the twist on the original fairy tale and I honestly couldn't put it down. It was jam packed with drama, friendship and mystery and there was a little bit of low key romance to keep me happy. I really enjoyed seeing the friendship bloom between Fi and Shane. They make a great team always having each others backs and a good bit of banter to go with it. I hope we get more of Shane and Red in the next book. They definitely intrigued me as a couple. I am so eager for the sequel I can't wait. If you love retellings then you need to pick this up you won't be disappointed.

Loved the concept for this one. The idea sounded amazing – Sleeping Beauty meets Indiana Jones with a sapphic relationship thrown in. Brilliant. But it was one of those recent YA books where the plot is very linear, the world is a little thin (this is a debut author mistake and most debut authors make it – not building the world enough because you’re worried about slowing the pace down too much plus not realising that the internal journey is as important as the external action) and the characters weren’t given enough space to really become themselves. So this will really work for some people, but for others (like me) it just won’t be satisfying because what we’re after is a lush world, characters we can fall in love with and subplots that cleverly interweave with the main plot. It’s a solid debut and much better than most YA debuts that are currently being released, but not really for me.

The Bone Spindle is the perfect book for everyone who loves ya books, retellings of beloved stories and queer characters!

The writing was detailed but not too overwhelming , the pace of the story is just right, not too fast but also not too slow so that you get bored.
The characters are probably the best part of the whole books! Fi & Shane are super fun and relatable characters you gonna fall in love with!

Over all the book is a fun and adventures read which incredible world building and loveable characters.

This was such a great retelling- I can’t believe it was a debut book. It was an amazing and enjoyable read that I read in one sitting! I absolutely adored the main characters- especially Shane- and I think that they were all very well written.

I love how this book was a gender flipped retelling of sleeping beauty, with strong female leads instead of the usual ‘damsel in distress’ trope in lots of fairytales. It was amazing to see the female characters saving the Prince rather than the other way around!

The multiple POVs element in this book was also really fun to read since I love books with different characters perspectives. Personally, my favourite POV was Shane’s because she’s such a strong, badass character!

The LGBTQIA+ rep was great to see, and I’m very intrigued to see if/how Shane and Red’s relationship develops in the next book! I’m also excited to see what happens between Fi and Briar. Their dynamic was very insta-love and fairytale-ish so I’m intrigued to see how it all pans out in the next book.

I can’t wait for the sequel. I NEED it right now! I’m going to buy a physical copy of this book since I loved it so much and impatiently wait for the next book in this series. I 100% recommend.

5/5 ⭐️

OK, I was drawn in by the cover and I have now bought myself the physical book, because I really enjoyed this.

Sleeping Beauty retelling, meets Indian Jones, sign me up. The world building was great and I found myself absorbed in the writing. Definitely need to sequel now!

The Bone Spindle is an action packed fantasy adventure that for the most part didn’t feel like a fairytale remake to me. It could quite easily be an original fantasy novel if I didn’t know anything about Sleeping Beauty, and I loved this take on retelling a fairytale. For those who are all about the fairytales, don’t worry, there is plenty of fairytale goodness in The Bone Spindle too. However, Vedder hasn’t made The Sleeping Beauty mythos integral to the protagonist’s lives. The protagonists aren’t Aurora, or anyone related directly to the fairytale; they’re treasure hunters!

Fi is a bookwormy historian who would much rather spend time hunting down ancient treasures in old ruins than having anything to do with fairytales princes. But when an accidental prick of her finger binds her to Briar Rose, a prince who’s been asleep for a hundred years, Fi finds herself in a world of magic and Witch Hunters. Her life is already complicated enough, and I loved that the tag line on the cover is so deeply sarcastic. Kiss the prince, break the curse. If only it was that simple.

But who wants simple? Simple is dull! And Vedder definitely does not do dull. Fi is accompanied by Shane, a fellow treasure hunter who has been Fi’s partner and her competition at times. The result is a lot of snark, a begrudging acceptance of aid on Fi’s part and a partnership that grows into a stronger friendship. Like Fi, Shane has her own secrets and her backstory is fascinating. Throw in a random mystery witch that Shane keeps running into and there are so many juicy things happening in The Bone Spindle.

The genderflip of the whole fairytale genre, especially of this particular fairytale which relies heavily on the whole damsel in distress trope is brilliantly done. I couldn’t help but think “this is a more ideal world” when it comes to gender and sexuality, while reading this novel. Even in families where succession is an issue, sexuality is not an issue. While I grimaced at the idea of a lesbian woman from a royal family having to sleep with a man to secure an heir rather than adopting a child (hence the “more” ideal, rather than ideal world), at least two women could marry and rule. It was refreshing not to read a fairytale retelling that rehashed the same bigotry over and over.

Briar is an intriguing character who doesn’t seem to know exactly who to be, or who he is. That’s to be expected when you’ve been in a magical sleep for a hundred years and everyone you know is dead. Like Fi and Shane, there’s much more to his story than just being the cursed prince and on top of everything he’s grieving a loss he never realised he would have to experience. What he expected to happen when he awoke, I’m not sure, but his kingdom in ruins and the life he knew to be everyone’s ancient history was probably not it.

Vedder manages to keep everything balanced, and I didn’t feel that there were too many moving parts. Instead, it just felt like an extremely interesting story and universe that I devoured. I can’t wait to see where the story leads in the next book!

This YA fantasy sounded so promising, pitched as Sleeping Beauty meets Indiana Jones, but let me down so badly!

Content warnings: minor violence and injury; mention of house-fire; discussion of abusive relationships.

I requested this ARC because of the Indiana Jones comparison in the marketing – I am always here for stories with a tomb raiding, puzzle-solving, bad-archaeology vibe to them. Unfortunately, I felt hugely let down on this front. Despite a huge amount of repetition throughout the whole book that Fi was famous as the coolest, best treasure hunter around, there is exactly one scene of this, and it takes place right at the beginning of the book. After that, there is nothing – no puzzles to solve, no mysterious old temples or crumbling tombs, no booby traps and no treasure. The whole thing is a set up to push Fi into the main plot, which is a very basic quest to reach the castle where Briar Rose sleeps. Even when my hopes had been continually dashed throughout the book, I still hoped that the castle might be a big end-piece puzzle dungeon, like any respectable Indiana Jones homage, but nope. They just walk right in. The whole treasure hunting aspect of this book is wildly oversold.

What we have instead is a competent YA fantasy at the younger end of the age bracket that honestly fell completely flat for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad book – I just really failed to connect with it, and I can’t quite work out why. It’s flat. I found the characters boring, even though they’re actually quite well-fleshed out. I found the pacing too fast, even though actually there are large swathes where little happens. I found the world shallow and the magical history kind of underbaked, even though there’s plenty of exploration of it. I drove myself up the wall reading this book, because I just could not figure out why I wasn’t having a great time! I even pulled out my editor brain and started looking at it on the sentence level, but there was nothing technically wrong with it! Who knows. Just a mystery mismatch, I guess.

There are some flaws I can pull out that are more concrete, which might be informative. Most prominently, this has not one, but two romances that are wholly insta-lovey, and the character work is simply not strong enough to support that; both Fi and Shane fall head over heels with people they’ve just met and start talking about fate and acting irrationally. Shane and Red’s relationship annoyed me more than Fi and Briar’s, because at least we had some scenes from Briar’s perspective, and we got to see plenty of conversations between them (plus, I can make some excuses for fairy tale romance if it’s lampshaded, as it is here). Red, on the other hand, just pops up occasionally as a sexy, cool thief who flirts with Shane and vanishes; this isn’t helped by Shane being an angsty, whiny person to begin with, so when she’s left behind she gets worse. I rolled my eyes everytime we had a flashback to her past – she manages to be naive and full of swagger at the same time and I thought her backstory really didn’t give her a good enough reason for her issues. While I love that we’re getting more sapphic leads, I didn’t think that Shane added anything to the book; I would have enjoyed this so much more if it was just Fi’s perspective, as she’s a much more interesting and believable character.

I definitely think that The Bone Spindle suffered a little bit from a dissonance between the content and the tone. On several occasions it felt like the content wanted to be a bit darker (Fi’s relationship with her controlling ex, the subplots about curses and destiny and free will, the witch hunters that populate the world), and I would have loved something that explored those elements more, but it was held back by a very young-feeling narration and a light-heartedness that felt a little forced. Something that particularly annoyed me was the ongoing subplot about Shane’s “wanted” poster – I don’t know if this was a nod to Tangled or not, but the joke that it didn’t look like her was repeated so often and really took a lot of the tension out of the actual “wanted” part. Also, that whole side of things was ridiculous and highlighted the poor worldbuilding – people constantly recognise Shane (and Fi to some extent) and I just didn’t see how that could work in a medieval world with no special communication methods. How is she so famous for being a teenage huntsman-for-hire that random people in taverns go ‘oh hey, it’s Shane the huntsman!’ all the time?

Oh, one more major bugbear of mine – this is the first book in a series, and not the kind of series where each book stands by itself. No, none of the marketing tells you that (though there’s a little #1 on Goodreads if you look closely). Don’t go into this expecting much to be resolved by the end of the book, you’ll be disappointed – I’m so fed up of publishers doing this!

So overall, as you might be able to tell, this book wasn’t for me! Having said that, I didn’t exactly have a bad time reading, though some things annoyed me – it’s definitely readable and as I say, competent. It’s just one of those books where the more I think about it, the more I feel let down – there are books out there that do every element of this better and more cleverly. I think this would be good if you were looking for a very quick, very fluffy popcorn read – and weren’t too fussed about the lack of Indiana Jones vibes. It’s tricky to give a rating to, but I’ll give it a generous three out of five stars.

This book was really captivating and held me from the very first page. One of the things I loved instantly was the description and tone of the book - historical, but with an undeniable fantasy element. We entered the story in the middle of a darkened tavern, depicted as 'dingy' and 'roughing it'-- really setting the mood for the adventure to come.

Fi, our quiet, history-loving treasure hunter teams up with Shane, who is quite the opposite - a brash, axe-wielding Huntsman with a a lot of sass. The two intend to take on just one quest together and go their separate ways once they've found the treasure, but things don't always go to plan.. Stumbling across a ruin who's walls feature the words of an old legend, they find themselves thrown into a journey to find the Prince and awaken him from his 100 year old slumber.

Each chapter throughout follows one of our three main characters in turn, something I really appreciate in order to see all sides of what was happening. I think this was done particularly well, as each character had a very distinctive personality and it was easy to pick apart who was taking lead. Our characters were really well executed, with snippets of their backstories added in too (which I hope to see more of!) and lots of twists and turns that added to the suspense over whether or not they would make it to our slumbering castle.

The relationship building between Briar and Fi was very subtle and slow-burning, which was a welcomed and refreshing change to the commonly written insta-love trope. Seeing their connection blossom and their fun banter come out more as the adventure progressed was lovely.

There were some fight scenes along the way and I really enjoyed how they were done, the writing was great and kept us moving while also keeping it quite thrilling. From witch hunters to giant spiders and spying crows, it was definitely exciting.

The whole plot was very fast paced and we weren't left waiting, it kept me on my toes and the twists were really unpredictable. I haven't stopped thinking about this book and I am eagerly awaiting a sequel!

(Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder Children’s Books for and eARC in exchange for and honest review)

My favourite part of this book was definitely the world building, lore and setting. I loved learning about the history of the world and all the things to do with magic, curses and witches. It helped create an really unique retelling that, whilst still having similarities to the original tale of Sleeping Beauty, was still creative.

I loved the whole gender flip on the original story and really liked the two main characters, Fi and Shane. They are both treasure hunters and had this whole Indiana Jones vibe surrounding them. Even though Fi does have a bigger overall role plot wise (with the whole breaking a curse thing), Shane was still given time to shine and was still vital the the plot. My fave character however was definitely Briar. He brought the comedic aspects and i really loved him. I also liked the romance he had with Fi but I thought the relationship between Shane and Red felt a little rushed. I would have loved for those two to have a more slow burn romance!

The flashbacks throughout the book were useful in giving us more insight into the background of the main characters but there were a few to many and it did end up breaking the flow of the plot. I did really enjoy the plot though. It was fast paced and mysterious with a couple surprises i did not see coming.

Overall, i thought it was a great retelling despite having a couple drawbacks and i’m interested to see which direction the second book will go.

Loved this book, the story, the adventure, the characters especially Shane! I loved th bond between Shane and Fi and how it grew throughout the story. I also really enjoyed how Red turned out, I had an idea she was in some way connected but not in the way it turned out. There are so many twists and turns and the adventure is so reallllll! However, some parts are super drawn out, I feel like bits were overly described or drawn out to add length and a hand full of times I did feel myself getting a little bored or wondering if to skip parts.
Never the less I would read the next book, however just hope it’s a little kore fast paced!

The beginning is interesting, even if we are thrown lots of information to absorb very quickly before the story starts, but the intrigue just slowly disappeared. All the relationships developed a too quickly for me and none of the emotional beats hit as I wasn’t particularly drawn to any of the characters. It felt like I was being lead by the hand from plot point to plot point, everything being explained to me too much. I think I’d have liked it a lot more if there was more of everything. I also feel like maybe the fairytale elements just weren’t working for me and a wholly original story would have appealed more, but that’s a me problem.

Trigger Warnings: Blood, Violence, Emotional Abuse

This review may contain spoilers.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, however, this in no way influenced my opinion. Thank you to the publisher Hachette Children’s Group for providing me with a copy.

So, I actually had an arc of this from netgalley, but my paperback copy arrived early, so I decided just to read that. This was one of my most anticipated releases of this year, while I enjoyed it, I am a bit sad that I didn’t love it more. My main issue with this was the pacing, it was very rushed and too fast-paced, I feel that there should have been more of an introduction to the characters at the beginning. What I did enjoy about this novel was the characters, in this novel we have two main characters – Fi and Shane who team up to break the prince’s curse. I loved both of their characters a lot, they were both strong-willed and determined. I also really liked the character of Red who appears throughout the story several times and the chemistry between her, and Shane was so great to read. I do hope that Red will play a bigger role in the sequel, and we get to find out more about her. Throughout the novel, we got flashbacks into the pasts of both of the main characters which I loved as it gave us an insight into why Fi and Shane behave the way that they do. There was a plot twist near the end of the novel involving Red that I didn’t predict so that really took me by surprise.

Overall, this was a fun YA Fantasy with intriguing characters however the beginning felt very rushed. If you enjoy fairytale retellings, then I recommend checking this one out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

The Bone Spindle is a sort of mish-mash of traditional fairy tales, taking elements from stories like Sleeping Beautyand Red Riding Hood and putting them together into a more modern narrative. I enjoyed the character interactions, particularly the relationship between Fi and Briar Rose with its emphasis on consent. I did guess the twist fairly early on but still enjoyed the plot and would be interested to read the next book.

I went into this book only knowing that it is a gender reversed Sleeping Beauty retelling.
I was happily surprised to find that it is much more than just that.

This book gives us not one, but two strong female MCs. When I say strong, I dont mean their physical strength per se (though it is that as well), rather it is their personalities that shine through strongly.

Shane and Fi are imperfect and a bit rough on the edges.
While Shane is brash, impulsive, "hit first, think later" kind of a girl ; Fi is more analytical, focused and research oriented person.
Despite their opposing personalities and pasts, they stick with each other through all the difficulties..

While this book does focus on each of our MC's love story, the main focus was given to the friendship between the two girls, and I simply adored it!
There are very few books out there that highlight female friendships in such a wholesome, relatable manner.

We follow Shane and Fi as they go on the Ultimate Treasure Hunt, where the "Treasure" is a prince cursed to sleep for eternity.
It was so exciting to follow these two as they made their way through all the hurdles in form of bounty hunters, dark magic, curses, arrogant exes, and forest full of thorns hell bent on killing them.

While I did feel that one or two things came a bit easily for our two treasure hunters, it was still a lot of fun to read about their adventures.

This is perfect for the readers who are new to Fantasy genre. I would also highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good adventure.

The bone spindle is said to be a genderbending blend of Sleeping beauty and Indiana Jones, and in all fairness, I think that's the only way to sum up this YA novel!
Fi reluctantly partners up with Shane, the tough Axeman for hire to go in search of treasure. The two partners are mismatched from the start but when fate sends them to rescue Prince Briar Rose from his curse, the two need to trust each other in order to survive witch hunters, curses and a very creepy ex!
So the characters! Fi is basically Indiana Jones! She loves history and books and yet can still throw a rope like a boss. She has a wonderful backstory that helps stop her romance story from becoming too dull and predictable.
Shane is a complete badass, crass, tough but loyal to a fault, again she has a fantastic backstory and you can't but help adore her.
I really liked having Briar Rose's POV too. It was wonderful seeing how he coped with his curse and how he fell for Fi.
The best thing about this book is how is changes the usual tropes of the fairy tale and turns them on their head. The two protagonists are both strong female MC's though total poles apart. The world they live in is completely accepting of no bounds love. This is the first book in a series, I'm not sure if this will be a duology or a trilogy but I can't wait to read the next instalment. This is an incredibly strong novel for a debut.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

The Bone Spindle is a rip-roaring, thrilling and fast-paced retelling that I tore through.

I love a good fairy-tale retelling and Vedder has crafted a great one here. Essentially, this is a gender flipped Sleeping Beauty that also features a key sapphic relationship. It’s just an incredibly fun read, with plenty of hijinks and adventures to follow along. I loved Fi and Shane’s differing approaches to treasure hunting, with both of their skill sets meshing together really well. There’s a real sense of joy at the wonder of history, shown through their quests for historical artefacts.

I loved how Vedder never really relented in terms of pacing and action. Every scene helped move the plot forward and there was always an undercurrent of danger lurking, even in a dance scene. This made it a very fast and entertaining read that could easily be devoured in one sitting. That being said, I just wanted to spend even more time with these characters. I loved their distinctive voices and how snarky their narrations were at times. The inclusion of Briar Rose’s narration was also really interesting and gave a bit more nuance to what we might be expecting from the seemingly hapless victim. His and Fi’s connection was heart-achingly sweet, though there’s plenty of room for some of it to be explored in the sequel.

A special shoutout has to go to Shane, who was easily my favourite character. She was brave, bold and determined in her willingness to stick by Fi. Their relationship really cemented my love for this book as although it was platonic, you know they’d go to ends of the earth for each other.

The Bone Spindle is an entertaining, action-packed retelling that shines brightest in its characterisation.