Librarians-and-Necromancy Fantasy with Small Town Charm in a City of the Dead
The others believe in blood and bone. Ree believes in books.
She manages the libraries and draws maps for the denizens of her hometown, a secret society of necromancers hiding in a sprawling underground crypt. Though they look down on her for not practicing their craft, Ree has bigger ambitions than raising the dead. She’s going to resurrect therianthropy, the ancient magic of shapeshifting. Or at least — she’ll do it if it really exists. And if she can find the books that prove it.
But Smythe, a chatty historian from the world above, stumbles into the crypt and takes a curse meant for Ree. Now she has to find a way to save him, keep the townsfolk off her back, and convince her necromancer parents that shapeshifting is a viable career path.
Ree is certain that if she and Smythe combine their scholarly skill sets, they’ll find the right books to solve their problems. But Ree’s search for power might put the entire town in danger, and her father and the other townsfolk want Smythe dead lest he reveal their home to a world that hates them.
PUBLISHER: Witch Key Fiction
YEAR: 2022
LENGTH: 424 pages
AGE: Adult
GENRE: Fantasy
RECOMMENDED: Highly
Queer Rep Summary: Lesbian/Sapphic Secondary Character(s), Gay/Achillean Secondary Character(s), Ace/Aro Main Character(s).
BOOKS AND BONE is a story of transformation and cost, of hard choices and terrible bargains when there seems to be no way out. Ree is a resident of Tombtown, but she has no plans to be a necromancer like her father and most of the town, nor a priestess like her mother. She has her heart set on a kind of magic which hasn’t been seen in centuries and might never have existed at all.
As a worldbuilding choice, I like the detail that any person with a capacity for magic could do any kind of magic at all, but once they do magic from a particular school, even once, they’re locked in forever. Narratively it’s a way of ensuring that there is a real importance to Ree's choice not to do any magic no matter how much she has been pressured. She has her heart set on something that might turn out not to be real, but if she gives in and misses her opportunity, she’d never forgive herself.
As the first book in a series, this was a very satisfying end which ties off this chapter of Ree's life. It also lays the groundwork for many more stories of Tombtown. There’s a specific character to this place, creating a distinct impression of that world without locking it down too much. BOOKS AND BONE ends, having laid the bones of a problem which will need to be resolved later, setting up the sequel to build on it either directly or tangentially.
I like the dynamic between Ree and Smythe, the whole story is delightful, and I enjoy the way the ending seems especially true to the characters involved.
If you like this you may like:
- The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
- Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
Moderate CW for xenophobia, bullying, kidnapping, confinement, blood, gore, violence, injury detail, death.
CWs from the author: Contains undead, mild-moderate fantasy violence, and fantasy threat.
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