Hi everyone!
I hope everyone's been doing well. Welcome to another post for the month. Today I'll be doing a BOOK REVIEW for Bones of Ruin by Sarah Raughley as my Tour stop for the lovely Turn The Page Tours.
Bones of Ruin is brilliant YA Historical fantasy story, the first in a series, that I had a wonderful time reading, so scroll down to know more about the book and my thoughts on it, if you're interested.
Publisher- Simon Pulse Releasing Date- September 7th, 2021 Genre- Young Adult fiction, Historical, Fantasy
Content Warnings- on-page death, gore, cannibalism, sexism, racism, black discrimination, slavery.
Synopsis
As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture… She cannot die. Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t. To help them choose a leader for the upcoming apocalypse, the Committee is holding the Tournament of Freaks, a macabre competition made up of vicious fighters with fantastical abilities. Adam wants Iris to be his champion, and in return he promises her the one thing she wants most: the truth about who she really is. If Iris wants to learn about her shadowy past, she has no choice but to fight. But the further she gets in the grisly tournament, the more she begins to remember—and the more she wonders if the truth is something best left forgotten.
My Review
Bones of Ruin is an incredible, unique and complex 1st installment in a new fantasy series by author Sara Raughley.
As you can gather from the synopsis, the premise is very unique and different and packed full of conflict.
We follow the story through the eyes of our main character, Iris, who is an African tightrope- walker in London, working in a circus.
She has no memories of her childhood, past a certain day when she was just a kid and, the strangest thing if all- she cannot die.
That is not a word joke. She literally cannot die. She has died and come back God knows how many times and all she wants is to find out where she came from and the answers to her murky past.
Strangely, she ends up crossing paths with a man named Adam Temple, who she has a vague memory of seeing in the past. Adam is a part of an uber-elite club called Club Uriel and he promises Iris answers to all her questions if only she would participate in a secret tournament of "Freaks" like her, as as his champion.
She agrees to this deal and that's when chaos starts rolling faster.
The character Adam Temple, although a sort of secondary, character also has a lot going on. He blues the line between morally-grey and actually evil.
The book also has a lot of interesting themes of Dooms Day, resurrection, rebirth of the world and such. That's kind of the main plotline or the major arc of the book that will include all the books in the series, even though our main characters are not always aware of it.
The first book is more focused on introducing the world and characters to us, and has sort of a Hunger Games- like competition with characters that have really X-Men like powers. (😜 Lok at me name-dropping all the pop-culture references like a pro)
Another thing that I wanted to note was the love triangle trope. Now personally I realy am not a fan of that trope and the romance was not such a huge thing in the story anyway, but if you would like know- there is very much a love triangle in this story and although I didn't really care much for it, it wasn't because it wasn't done right.
Just that it's not my favorite thing and I kinda felt that it was unnecessary. The girl could just have not have any sort of romantic feelings towards one of the characters and the plot wouldn't have been affected.
But despite that, the book ultimately was fantastic. I had a great time reading it. Truly unputdownable. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a fast-paced fantasy story, with a sinister mystery to unravel.
About the Author
Sarah Raughley grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one. She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to SF/F TV to Japanese Role Playing Games, but she will swear up and down that she was inspired by ~Jane Austin~ at book signings. On top of being a YA Writer, she is currently completing a PhD in English, because the sight of blood makes her queasy (which crossed Medical School off the list). She is represented by The Bradford Literary Agency.