Your Blood, My Bones

I absolutely adored Kelly Andrew’s The Whispering Dark and was lucky enough to receive an exclusive sampler from Gollancz of Your Blood, My Bones and to say I was looking forward to reading the rest was an understatement. Just with The Whispering Dark, Your Blood, My Bones blew me away, quite simply this is one not to miss.

Your Blood, My Bones finds Wyatt Westlock returning to her childhood home, with the intent of burning it to the ground. But on her final walkthrough she finds Peter, her once best friend, chained up in the basement left for dead. Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her families farm. Semi-immortal Peter never stays dead for long, to break this horrid cycle he needs to end the Westlock line, which means killing Wyatt. But as the protective wards around the farm fail Wyatt and Peter are forced to work together to survive, or else they’ll tear each other apart.

I adore Andrew’s writing; she is proving herself an absolute master at creating a stunningly creepy atmosphere. Wyatt’s is a world you get simultaneously transported to and lost within. This is the kind of book that leaves the hairs on your arms raised. The sense of quiet threat and menace is palpable throughout and the story Andrew’s weaves had some brilliant twists and turns.

At the heart of this story is Wyatt and Peter, childhood friends who, along with James, spent their summers together at Wyatt’s family’s farm. Separated for the last 5 years they are more like deadly strangers to one another now, yet despite this is clear just how much they care for one another. Their’s is a beautifully written slow burn romance that left me in genuine tears. The duel POVs worked brilliantly throughout, as did the single POV from James near the end. It was also a real treat to see a Colton and Lane appear within Wyatt’s story.

I cannot recommend this one highly enough and can’t wait to read whatever Andrew writes next.

Kelly Andrew has done it again! I adored The Whispering Dark so I was extremely looking forwards to any of her next books, Your Blood, My Bones is another five star read for me!

I was a little nervous about going into this as I had gotten myself so hyped for it, what if I got let down? Luckily I had no such issues, I really enjoyed the plot of the book, it was interesting and it had me hooked from the start.

The characters were great and ended up with some amazing developments, Peter and Wyatt being our main characters and POV but also James too but only one POV from James.

As before, I am left wanting more from Kelly Andrew's and I'm very much looking forwards to her next book!

This. Book. Was absolutely phenomenal. I'm once again blown away by Kelly's writing- I'm trying to articulate this in a way that gives enough credit to it but alas, I am not a writer so this review is going to hinge on hopes and dreams and vibes.
I went into this book with a vague idea of what it's about- a trio, something in the woods, and that's literally it. And- yes we did get this- but it was SO much more. Why was I there at the end kinda grieving the loss of Willow Heath...... like hello????? 300 pages is all it took to stitch these characters and this place into my heart and make it feel oh so real (it was much less than that, I knew this book was going to become part of my personality after just the first chapter but I digress).

Anyways- the writing: wowowowowoow!! wow!!! From the forest, to the monsters lurking between its branches, to the complicated relationship she had with her dad ;her relationship to each of the boys (and them as a trio), to nature and her abilities- the writing was consistently lovely and horrifying all at once. It wrapped the tenderness of their first kiss in the anxious inevitability of their situation, and ribboned it off with the backdrop of the home that was also a grave for who they were and could have been. The way we say goodbye to different characters than we were introduced to when the story began- the amount of development, and untangling of long buried feelings, the dynamics shifting and evolving as the characters do- I'm feeling very big feelings right now. I love how their relationship (between each character and as a group) always felt slightly edged- even when they were bantering, or reminiscing, or having soft moments, it always felt like they were toeing the line of complete collapse. Like they're always just seconds away from disaster. It made for a desperately claustrophobic but also gut wrenchingly tender dynamic where they literally were the best and worst of and for each other. The way they're each trying to dissect who the other really is based on who they remember them being and who they're facing rn- the way these feelings were articulated makes me want to throw up (in a good way). OH AND THE PETER PAN INFLUENCES?!!!!!! No because she didn't just eat these up- she devoured!!!!! Their thing being him climbing up through her window and asking her to tell him a story?????? Just falling asleep listening to her talk????? When I say I bawled- and then when that came full circle because of course it did, when he asks her for a story and the happy ending is just them seeing the age of old and grey....*screams into the void*

“I thought maybe I could take some of the weight for you. I thought that, in spite of everything, we could kick our way out of this together. But it’s too heavy, Peter. You’re too heavy. You’re drowning me.” The way this line has me so unbelievably GAGGED!!

"He didn’t know how to tell her that she wouldn’t find a thing—didn’t know how to explain that all his hurts were packed inside, festering where no one else could see." - no one knows how I sobbed.

"But she couldn’t take another minute of lying there alone, her insides rotting. She wanted to be held." And she's honestly so real for this.

The characters- now, where do I even start with this :') It's interesting because you go into a book expecting to like the main characters and dislike the villain and yet here I am, deadlocked in a grey are where I love them and also think they probably could've lived very fulfilling lives if they had never met.
"The slipshod stitching on Peter’s abdomen was raw and angry. It matched her own, the scarring on her belly gone pink with scabs. It matched James, too, his torso pieced together like patchwork. They were the same, inside and out."
James thinking of them as belonging to him- pocketing them along with a stolen lighter and handfuls of sweets. This? Is most definitely not a healthy way to think of your friends and YET I found myself wanting to sob because all he wanted was something that was all his to take care of and find joy in-no strings attached. So yes it's slightly twisted and not healthy but he was also very much ready to and some may say he really did protect them with his life. Wyatt- my fave girl. She really was fighting for her life this whole book- growing up thinking that all she did was make things rot and ruin, and still gripping to her dreams with both sticky hands because she didn't want to be that- she wanted her happy ending and she wanted it with her friends. Head in the clouds and heart on her sleeve- I love her so much. And yes she was petulant at times, and needs therapy desperately, but she really just wanted to be happy and not have to stress about real life, and if that isn't reasonable idk what is. And Pedyr- my love, "...the little lost boy of Willow Heath. Pale and quiet as a ghost. Underfoot in a house stuffed full of strangers, never quite sure which of them he belonged to. If he belonged to anyone at all, or if he’d just appeared one day, small and angry and rooting through the kitchen cabinets." I COULD SOB! I DID SOB!!! A LOT!! (I had to rehydrate at the end of this book lmao I am not okay). The way he just wanted to go home? Just wanted A home???? He just wanted to hug his mum again and not be treated like a specimen? He just wanted to see past 18???? LIKE?!!!!! WHAT DID HE DO TO DESERVE THIS???? Honestly, bro shutting down whenever there's confrontation is so me, and tbh I could say things about his problem solving skills and communication or lack thereof but I'm not going to because he can do no wrong.
"A marble boy, mired in his own personal mausoleum. Her starved god. Her secret saint. Her killer. His hands were balled in trembling fists. A single tear tracked down the side of his face. He let it fall." AND WHAT IF I WAS NEVER OKAY AGAIN?!!!!
My point? who knows- but these characters are so complicated, so REAL, so very human that you can't help but love them and root for them even when one of them isn't himself and the other wants to murder his first love. They're working on it. It was so clearly a group who were thrown together by awful circumstance and forced to survive with and despite each other.
"The three of them grew together after that. It was impossible not to. They sprouted up much in the way trees did—first alongside one another, and then twined all together, their branches entangled.....Inosculation, where the trunks of multiple trees grew so close together that they grafted into one. That was them, he’d thought....He, Peter, and Wyatt, their roots so intricately knotted that none of them could tell where one of them ended and the other began."

The horror was of course- SO GOOD!! So creepy, so awful, but never in a corny way???? Like- just the mimic banging on the door over and over again had my stomach turning and we didn't even see the thing when it was doing that.
"She grappled for her cell phone in her pocket, flicking on the flashlight and raising it in front of her. A face lit silver mere inches from her own. It peered at her out of a keenly humanoid stare, its smile split from ear to ear. With a scream, she dropped her phone." So simply, but so effective- I'm not a horror reader but when it's a Kelly Andrew book I absolutely am. The descriptions of Wyatt's abilities was also so so so stunning - I freaking love how vivid they were, how they linked to her emotions - it was such a joy to read those scenes. That the natural manifestation of her emotions didn't always feel perfectly in line with what she was feeling which is such a fab little detail because it just adds another layer of complication into an already immensely complicated emotional stew that is these three characters.

I don't have a separate point here I just wanted to have this quote in my review because are we joking-
"She thought of him out in the hen yard, naming all the chickens. The way the goat followed him from room to room, chewing at his sleeves. The way he’d sharpened himself into something cruel, to hide the fact that all he wanted was someplace soft to land." Like- He literally just wanted a peaceful little life and I'm bawling again teehee

I also wouldn't be me if I didn't take a second to discuss how completely ruined this romance has left my poor, fragile heart.
Exhibits A through H:

"He didn’t hate her. He loved her so much that it was like holding his heart outside of his body.” I'd like to know what I did to deserve this kind of suffering-

"He felt her presence like a bruise, as though she’d been beaten into his bones."

"He tasted like tragedy."

'“I’ll follow you. If you leave, I’ll come after you."........He felt like he was being cracked open. Ribs split, his chest scooped hollow. He’d been pulled apart in so many ways, snapped and broken at the whims of men. None of it felt like this.'

"He would never forget the look in her eyes, even when all that was left was darkness. Even when the world burned."

“Horrible,” he agreed. “Beautiful. Perfect.” - this line- yeah this one really got me- LORD

"Loving Peter had always felt a little bit like poking at a bruise. Impossible to stop, even when it hurt. But nothing had ever hurt quite as badly as this—kissing him at the world’s end, surrounded by a living monument to all their wasted time."- I'm crying again LMAO

"Dahlia, you'll be okay." girl- she might be BUT I WILL NEVER BE AGAIN

Idk how she - and this is really the only appropriate word I can think of for how they make me feel- makes her romances sO viscerally gut wrenching like?? Not even joking anymore when I say I feel SICK lol,, Need I say more..?? no. ok,

ANYWAYS- onto more joyous things- the TWD cameo in this one was actually everything I deserved after this heartbreak- I also love how strategically it was placed in the timeline like here have this gem go giggle and kick your feet and cry happy tears oop no there goes your emotional equilibrium forever :D Like she really knew I would need all the emotional fortitude I could GET to prepare me for the last 1/3 of this book lmao - but it was so good to see my parents still alive and kicking- the "Lane is dating her sleep paralysis demon" line made me CACKLE- I really do love them with all my heart- the way his whole demeanour softened and he smiled when he called her Wednesday??? I might recover from this after all (I won't).

To conclude- I seriously haven't felt this gutted since I read Clockwork Princess back in 2020 (its been 4 years and I wish I was exaggerating when I say I cannot read any scene that mentioned Will without bursting into tears to this day) and that is honestly- standing ovation because I'm a crybaby but I also get over things super fast and I do not see myself moving past this for a very long time. I loved this book, I loved the story, I literally cannot think of a single thing I would change or wished was different. It's the perfect book. It did what it needed to do and I'm honestly so grateful - I'll hold this book very very close to my heart <3

P.S. I will literally (I'm so serious) never recover from "He smiled ruefully. 'Side by side?' 'Old and grey.'" This feels like when Noah Kahan said I wanna love you till we're food for the worms to eat, till our fingers decompose, keep my hand in yours- yeah, that's- I'm gonna go cry again. THE FACT THAT THIS WAS THE HAPPY STORY HE ASKED FOR?!!!! Goodbye I can't-

P.P.S. this is so random but the description "taller than a man. narrower than a root." has stuck in my brain and it's terrifying a I freaking love it (I also hate it bc tHERE's an image lmao).