Review: Your Blood and Bones by J. Patricia Anderson
Blurb:
Kill the monsters when they’re found.
No matter who they used to be.
The girl with secret feathers in her skin and strange bones jutting out beneath her clothes is resigned to her fate. Her deformities mark her a monster and the stories say monsters must die.
When her family finds out and turns on her, a village boy saves her and leads her on a frantic escape. The girl believes her death has merely been delayed—until he mentions a cure.
With the world against them and the monstrous change progressing, they must cross water, forest, and field to chase the rumor that fuels their desperate hope. But is hope enough to keep them going?
Review:
Everything about Your Blood and Bones horrified me. In the absolute best way. Let me preface this by saying that I am not a horror reader. I usually choose witty fantasy with schemes and heists and banter, leaving the darker, more emotional works for others. I don’t know that I’ve ever read anything as unsettling as Your Blood and Bones, but every moment of this raw, lyrical novella pulled me in. Each page brought me further into the beautifully disturbing story. I was mesmerized by the writing and terrified by everything Anderson puts her characters through. There are visceral descriptions of body horror, moments of which were unsettling to the point where I would need to look away if watching a film, but Anderson’s prose refused to let me look away.
From the first line, I was invested in the plight of our main characters, referred to only as “the girl” and ‘the boy,” who have a strange illness that slowly turns them into monsters. Feathers grow on their skin, their blood changes, and they’re hunted down by the villagers and any other humans who see them. I like named characters, but namelessness felt right for these two, and I connected emotionally with them from the beginning. They begin as acquaintances thrown together by their situation, but as they spend more time together, their trust in one another grows, and we see real character growth, watching them band together against the world, each willing to sacrifice themself for the other. They’re becoming so-called monsters, but as you read, you may start wondering who the real monsters are.
The magic system is fascinating, with blood playing a pivotal role in the magic the girl and the boy produce. They’re able to heal each other through blood, though using magic seems to quicken their monstrous transformations. I was confused by other some aspects of the magic system, as it seemed like they had quite a few different abilities, not all of which were blood related. The world-building is fantastic, even if only described in small moments as the girl and the boy travel, and I feel I have a good idea for the setting: a traditional fantasy setting with villages, horse-driven carts, and villagers who hate anyone different from them. The setting, however, isn’t the point. It’s all about the characters, and they carry the weight.
The pacing slowed as the story went on, and the second half, while still compelling, didn’t have quite the same ferocity pushing it forward. The setting changes from their travels to a home of sorts, and I missed the uncertainty of the road, though the girl and the boy have more of a chance to connect emotionally in the second half of the novella, when the conflict changes from merely surviving the next hour to surviving more long term, and the hopes they feel as things move in a positive direction. Some of the other characters beyond the girl and the boy were unmemorable, and there were some incredibly disturbing moments. I suggest reading the trigger warnings at the beginning of the book before proceeding.
As a whole, this was an amazing, eye-opening experience for me. Have I been missing out by avoiding the darker side of fantasy, eschewing harrowing emotions for quips? I’m not sure about that yet, but I do know that I’ll be checking out everything new that J. Patricia Anderson writes. Highly recommended.
Guest Reviewer Bio:
Dave Lawson is an Oklahoma-based fantasy novelist. He lives with his wife and their very good pup, Rowena, and has a penchant for dorky photos. He received an MFA in Fiction Writing from The New School in 2009. His first fantasy novel, The Envoys of War will be published in the Summer of 2024.
