“I’ll go,” he said. “And when I wake up, I’ll try to figure out what the devil is planning on doing to Novo-Svitsevo.”
The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin
LENGTH: 414 pages
GENRES: Fantasy, Historical, LGBTQIA+, Fiction
PUBLISHER: Random House Canada
RELEASE DATE: 7 May 2024
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Set in a Jewish folklore-inspired reimagining of 19th century Eastern Europe, this queer dark fantasy debut pits two estranged husbands and a daring spymaster on opposite sides of a civil war. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, C.S. Pacat, and Katherine Arden.
Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.
But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.
Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.
My Review
How will I know the Name? Dimitri fought to be practical, even if the pain in his body was enough to drive him mad.
Just as your sins are written on your bones, the angel replied, so will you bear the name of God.
So, like, I wanted to like this book. I really, really wanted to. It had such an interesting premise and the cover was absolutely incredible. Plus, I really love the title; The Sins on Their Bones – it just sounds so cool and unsettling at the same time!
But I didn’t. And I’m not saying that it’s a bad book, because I don’t think it necessarily is. I just don’t think it was for me. And that’s because of the almost constant horniness. And smut. Sorry everyone, I’m just not into that stuff! Plus, since it was constant there, it was difficult to skip past it without missing important parts of the story. I couldn’t stand it, it was so annoying. I hate it when books get hypersexual or horny, it’s just something I don’t find very interesting or engaging (it’s also the thing I hate the most about the ACOTAR series).
Another thing I didn’t like was some of the characters. I hated Dimitri at the beginning of the story. I found him and his whining to be annoying to follow. Yes, I understand that he was extremely traumatized. But did he really have to be that whiny? After his big character moment about halfway through, however, he ended up becoming my favorite POV character to follow. And that’s again due to the aforementioned horny stuff.
I don’t understand how Alexey could possibly be as sex driven as he was. Like, he was revived in a demonic ritual, and his body and all its processes were all altered and messed up because of that. His body temperature was cold and his blood was discolored. How the heck is his libido functioning that well?! And he was horny like, all the time. It was basically constant during his chapters. And he was supposed to be this evil mastermind type of guy that can’t be fooled, but the second (SPOILER) shows up he gives him access to everything. Because Alexey is just that horny.
I found Vasily to be pretty annoying too. But like, in a different way to Dimitri annoying and Alexey annoying. Well, not quite different to Alexey annoying. I hate pining when it’s constant. And Vasily was constantly – and I mean constantly – pining for Dimitri. It was so much that it felt like it eclipsed everything else about his character, because I’m having trouble remembering other aspects of his personality. I guess he was clever? I don’t know.
I liked Dimitri’s close-knit group of friends, though. I liked their dialogue and the way that they all interacted with Dimitri and each other. It was pretty natural sounding, and I found the interactions to be sweet. Their personalities were all pretty defined, which was nice to see after forcing my way through some of the POVs.
The only other thing that I really liked was the mythology and world building. I haven’t really read books with Jewish inspired aspects like this, so it was very interesting and refreshing to read. I found it to be pretty unique. But yeah, that’s all that I really liked about the novel.
The Sins on Their Bones is an interesting book with great world building and some great characters. But everything else about it bothered me in some way (it’s the horniness and sex – it’s always the horniness and sex). I think that other people who like unique fantasy based settings and smut will enjoy it, though, so I recommend it for you guys.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who decided to read this. I hope you have an amazing day/night!
See ya ~Mar
Conversations I Liked a Little
“Who gave you the right to tell me what to do?” Dimitri asked sulkily, trying to bat Mischa’s arm away.
“The Lord our God, and also you, you ass,” Mischa said.
“I’m scared,” he finally admitted, his voice gravelly and hoarse. “I’m so scared. I don’t want to lose another person I should be keeping safe. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“That’s the curse of ruling, my darling.” Annika ran her thumbs across his cheeks, wiping away his tears the way his own mother never had. “That’s the weight of the crown you wear. Loving the tools that you use to protect your empire. And some of those tools might break.”
“Ah.” Vasily chewed his lip. “You can’t pay in money. You have to pay in pieces of yourself.”
“Stop the carriage right fucking now.” Mischa made for the carriage door, but Vasily blocked them with an arm. “There’s no way I’m letting any of us cut off pieces of ourselves to read a book.”
“The boy’s the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo,” the head said suddenly.
“Yes, yes, you said something about that,” Aleksandr grumbled. “But that doesn’t change the fact that he can’t bleed on any of the books.”
“I know,” Vasily said, gripping Dimitri’s knee harder. “I know. But there’s nothing we can do for the dead. All we can do is try to save the living.” Dimitri shook his head.
“I agree,” he whispered, except he didn’t sound like he did.