Title: The Bone Houses

Author: Emily Lloyd-Jones

Seventeen-year-old Aderyn (“Ryn”) only cares about two things: her family, and her family’s graveyard. And right now, both are in dire straits. Since the death of their parents, Ryn and her siblings have been scraping together a meager existence as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren, which sits at the foot of a harsh and deadly mountain range that was once home to the fae. The problem with being a gravedigger in Colbren, though, is that the dead don’t always stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as “bone houses,” and legend says that they’re the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.

My son asked me what my book was about, I hadn’t got that far into it so I’ll tell you what I told him.

In time far past there was a gravedigger and her siblings whose parents had perished. She dug the graves of the dead in a small village fenced by iron to keep in the zombie like dead people called Bone Houses in the forest. Enter Ellis, a map maker who was charting a map to a village, who is set upon by a bone house and together, Ryn and Ellis try to solve the mystery of why they are escaping the forest.

I am a scaredy cat at heart and this was spooky so am glad I didn’t read at night!! The characters Ryn and Ellis were what made this book for me! They were just so cute and adorable! It was like they fit together so well because of how they are, how their lives have been shaped and the fact they don’t really fit into a box.

The writing was so good, loved the Welsh folklore coupled with the witty bits, the gorey bits and the lesson learned is that real life people can be far worse than the not living!