The bone houses by Emily Lloyd-Jones

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (‘Ryn’) is a gravedigger in a small village, but with the disappearance of her father and uncle and the villagers cremating their dead, both her family and her job are in jeopardy. Meanwhile in the forest the dead, known as Bone Houses, are starting to rise and seem to get worse when Ellis, a young mapmaker, arrives in the town. When Ellis offers Ryn money to guide him through the mountains, she hopes that it will help the family’s finances and perhaps solve the problem of the Bone Houses. Together they embark on a perilous quest to find the mythical cauldron that if destroyed, could stop the dead from rising.

Fans of horror will relish The bone houses, with the descriptions of the terrifying zombies rising, but will love the zombie goat, whose appearance lightens some of the dark action. Ryn and Ellis face the dangerous journey with courage, each helping the other overcome weaknesses, and both grow in knowledge about themselves. Ryn’s loyalty and love for her family shine through the book and her hope to find her father is heart-rending. Ellis must work through the chronic pain in his shoulder as well as the emotional pain of not knowing why he was found alone as a child in the forest. Their journeys to maturity and understanding are just as riveting as the quest to find the cauldron.

The slow burning growth of feelings between the two is handled sensitively, while the perils that the two face keep the reader in suspense. Can the pair find the cauldron and stop the dead?

This is an ideal book to promote to readers who like horror mixed with mythology and was awarded a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults in 2020. The cover with its wonderful gold skull will entice readers, who may like to read The drowned woods, a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults in 2023 and a companion novel by Lloyd-Jones also set in Wales.

Themes: Horror, Zombies, Quests, Welsh mythology, Cemeteries.

Pat Pledger