Quick Synopsis – Kathryn Darkling is set to hang and is trying to divulge her sins to a local clergyman. Her story is told, split between the present, post-WWI, and the past, pre-, and during WWI. Her ambition to become a doctor turned into something much darker as she is haunted by the ghost of the one person she failed to save.

Song This Reminds Me Of – Bodies by Drowning Pool

Rating – 2.5 out of 5 ⭐, rounded to 3 for Goodreads

Review – Kathryn Darkling is going to hang; all that’s left to do is confess her sins to the local clergyman. Our story is told between her present and past, spanning the early to mid-1900s. When she is a young girl, her brother crushes his finger in a washing machine cog. Kathryn remembers a book in her father’s library called “Bone Rites”. She believes that by taking her brother’s crushed bone and performing a rite, she can protect him from all harm.

As Kathryn grows up, she continues her fascination with bones and decides to attend a newly opened medical school for women in Edinburgh. It’s here where Kathryn as a character really starts getting fleshed out. She develops a crush on a classmate and even disguises herself as a man so she can have access to cadavers. When WWI breaks out, Kathryn thinks she’ll be able to join the fray by serving as a field doctor. Life has other plans, and Kathryn is thrown into the chaos of war. Her own mind is tormenting her, as she is haunted by the ghost of a boy she couldn’t save. Kathryn descends into madness as she tries to avenge the soul of her personal ghost.

This book wasn’t really for me. It had a lot of elements that I really enjoy, but I just couldn’t get invested in the characters. I didn’t really care what happened to anyone in the book. I did find the historical elements and the depictions of queerness to be top-notch. Kathryn’s time in Paris after the war has ended is a great interpretation of how one can get utterly lost in their grief.

So much of what her character motivations are driven by an obsession to the point of madness. While this did make her interesting, and she was self-aware that what she was doing was wrong, she never really comes out of her shell to me. I felt like when I finished the book, I was just on to the next thing; nothing about the book really stuck with me. Overall, this was just an ok debut for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Aurora Metro for the advanced copy.

All opinions expressed are my own.