Your Blood, My Bones by Kelly Andrew

Blurb:

A seductively twisted romance about loyalty, fate, the lengths we go to hide the darkest parts of ourselves . . . and the people who love those parts most of all.

Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she's just inherited -- to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement -- Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family's property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can't really live, either. Not while he's bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There's only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.

He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt's parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter -- the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who's sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.

Review:

Wyatt Westlock had never intended to return to the farmhouse she grew up visiting each summer, but when she inherits the farmland after her father’s death, she intends to go back and burn it down. Unfortunately, while Wyatt is finished with the farm, it’s far from finished with her. Trapped within its basement is one of her oldest–and most traiterous–friends, Peter, who’s been a fixture of the farm for as long as she can remember. And the last time she saw him, he tried to kill her.

Worse, he plans to kill her again.

Having suffered from dozens of ritualistic deaths on the farm, Peter is an immortal simmering in rage and the dreams of returning to a place where he can reunite with his parents. However, doing so requires the payment of blood. Specifically, Wyatt Westlock’s blood. Unable to remain dead for long, his only hope for finding peace is killing her.

With nobody to direct them and threats emerging from the forest that haunts the edges of the farm, Wyatt is forced to bargain with Peter until she can restore the Wards her ancestors put in place to defend the mouth of Hell on their property. But with death on Peter’s mind and an impossible task set before Wyatt, and more dangerous creatures emerging from the woods, their deal is all but doomed.

I’ve become a fan of Kelly Andrew’s work after receiving The Whispering Dark in the October 2024 (I believe) Owlcrate Adult Book Box, and I’m glad to say I’ve never gone back. Your Blood, My Bones is the second book I’ve ever read by her, and it was just as if not more enjoyable than her first publication. 

Beautifully haunting and terribly chilling, Your Blood, My Bones is the type of extraordinarily spooky read that will keep readers awake at night–and wanting more. It’s one of those books that is incredibly unique despite being in an urban setting, which is so, so difficult to pull off in modern literary works.

Something I love about Andrew’s novels is her masterful penmanship over prose. Each line feels intentional in a way that’s solely Andrew, in that I’ve never read a book that feels so gorgeously constructed than a narrative by this author. It’s like every word is dipped in honey-flavored poison, and I as an addict cannot get enough.

Another factor about Your Blood, My Bones (and Andrew’s works in general) is that the characterization is immaculate. The characters feel real and raw, they feel eerie and misunderstood, they feel raw and impeccable. It feels like you truly get insight into the minds of the characters in the novel, and in the most original, odd ways.

In particular, I enjoyed the dynamic between James, Peter (or Pedyr), and Wyatt in this novel. It’s such an authentic, vicious, tight-knit friendship forged by time and trauma and wanting that it seems real. Andrew doesn’t avoid the contention that surfaces between these (and other) characters, and her attention to detail for their every interaction and how their backstories entwine is unparalleled.

And of course, I couldn’t write a review for a Kelly Andrew book without mentioning the uncanny, eerie, dreary, dark, borderline gothic atmosphere. Your Blood, My Bones doesn’t skimp on the darkness–not in themes, and certainly not in setting. Although the location of the book is fairly “normal” in the practical sense, it’s made strange and mysterious by way of the history, the events, and the description of the setting itself. Plus, who doesn’t love a good old spooky forest in a horror-adjacent narrative?