Book Review: Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

Your Blood, My Bones Book Summary

Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew is a horror romance about Wyatt who goes back to her family home after her father’s death, ready to burn it all. Instead, she finds her childhood best friend Peter shackled in the basement. To get free from her family, he needs to kill her. For Wyatt to prevent an event of terrible consequences for the world, she needs to kill Peter. However, the feelings they had for each other as children resurface as they unpack family secrets, stand against the ever-closer monsters from the forest, and face another person from their past.

Your Blood, My Bones Book Review

Your Blood, My Bones is a joy to read — and not for the reason I expected it to be. While I normally don’t care about descriptions one way or another, Kelly Andrew’s prose was luxurious and delicate. She wove such an intricate world in Willow Heath that it was hard to ignore. Every description only added to the atmosphere, the cinematic quality of it all. 

The plot of this book is part mystery, part horror, part romance, which worked surprisingly well together. Somehow, you’ll get to viscerally feel what these characters felt, you’ll get to understand their childhood without it even taking up too much page time. This book is heartbreaking on so many levels, inherently melancholy and nostalgic.

And the romance is such a sweet slow burn, with so much tension and tenderness that it’s palpable. There’s a lot of emotional baggage in there, and all of it gets unpacked and it’s delicious. The primordial creatures lurking around Willow Heath were horrifying but fun to read about. I’ve never read this type of horror, but I think I might start looking for it more. It’s thoroughly creepy and thrilling.

Highlights

• Fantastic, atmospheric prose
• A fun world with loose and wild magic
• Excellent characters
• Romance that will steal your heart
• Great horror and creepy vibes

Here are a few more things you should know about Your Blood, My Bones before you read it: 

• It’s written in third-person POV from Wyatt’s, Peter’s, and James’ perspective
• It’s set in the same world as Kelly Andrew’s debut, The Whispering Dark, and there are spoilers for that book at the end of Your Blood, My Bones
• It’s loosely based on Peter Pan, though it’s not a strict re-telling (the characters are inspired by Peter Pan, and there are easter eggs)
• Trigger warnings for Your Blood, My Bones are gore, death, child torture (not on-page, but described somewhat explicitly), child neglect and endangerment.

Books Like Your Blood, My Bones

1. The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew

If you want more of this world, I recommend reading The Whispering Dark by Kelly Andrew. It’s her debut novel, some of whose characters appear in Your Blood, My Bones as well. It’s about Delaney and Colton, who both go to Godbole University and may or may not be connected somehow. They both want to stay away from each other, but a death on campus sees them allied to find answers. 

2. The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

The Raven Cycle is a smidge older, but still a great series to read. It features some similar elements to Your Blood, My Bones, like having primordial magic in our world, ghosts and undead people, characters with strange abilities, etc. It also has romance that is similarly slow burn and sweet, tons of friendship and characterwork, very mysterious vibes, etc. The first part of the series begins when Blue meets the ghost of the boy she will either kill or fall in love with, and then she meets him in real life too. He’ll die in the next 12 months, and Blue is determined to stay away from him. But when his hunt for an old Welsh king starts to look interesting, she joins his friend group and together, they uncover some terrible secrets.

FAQs