The Sins on Their Bones is a tender, heart wrenching story about rebellion, love, and toxic relationships. It’s one of those books which scoops you out and leaves you weeping. That’s how good it is. Keep reading this book review of The Sins on Their Bones for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I was so excited for The Sins on Their Bones and my expectations were absolutely smashed through. Talk about a book which is the epitome of “all my enemies started off friends”. It’s about a person we love, who used to know us so well, who has this power to wound us, and who hurt us, wrapped up possession and toxicity in bows. The versions of us, of each other, that are gone. And these character dynamics ripped my soul out.
Because while The Sins on Their Bones is a story about rebellion, power, ambition all with found family and friendship, it’s also about characters. What we would do if we thought someone was holding us back. There are times when we have to leave people behind to grow, but then there are also times we are just wrong, so committed to this path to our destruction. The Sins on Their Bones balances these layers of power and ambition. Of blasphemy, mysticism, and the compromises we make for the ‘greater good’.
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It’s tender. About the echoes of someone, the haunted moment where you feel a touch and assume it’s someone else. Those memories of someone, a love, a person we used to be. At the same time, it’s about toxic relationship and abuse, the guilt and survivor complex we have, and the differences between love and possession. Find this stunning debut, The Sins on Their Bones, on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.