★ 06/06/2022
Nineteen-year-old white-cued Laurel Early battles supernatural forces on her family’s tobacco farm in Kilcoyne’s visceral horror debut. Laurel’s late mother Anna, who was a pariah in their rural Kentucky town, used her magic to grow healthy crops. The magic Laurel inherited, she believes, is less practical: when she touches a deceased animal’s body, she sees its death. After dropping out of college in Ohio, she returns home to help her uncle Jay run the farm alongside best friends Isaac, Ricky, and Garrett, all coded white. Increasingly strange and terrifying events—animals found brutally killed but uneaten, a giant monster made of bone, and Anna’s ghost issuing warnings—prompt Laurel to consult local outcast Christine, who reluctantly helps Laurel harness her magic. Laurel and Ricky’s combative romance and Isaac and Garrett’s tentative courtship are expertly developed, and their complex relationships with the “mean-mouthed and close-minded” townsfolk, the land itself, and each other are realistically thorny. Using an ominous third-person perspective, grisly horror elements, and distinct setting, Kilcoyne delivers an exceptional examination of life, death, and grief teeming with beauty and menace. Ages 13–up. Agent: Erin Clyburn, Jennifer De Chiara Literary. (July)
A William C. Morris Award Finalist
One of Kirkus' Best Books of the Year
The Montanian Book of the Week
Bustle, "The Most Anticipated Books Of July 2022"
Epic Reads, "The 18 Most Anticipated Books to Read in July"
Crime Reads, "Summer Fiction Preview: 19 YA Novels Perfect for Mystery and Thriller Fans" and "23 (More) Horror Novels to Look Out for in 2022"
"[A]tmospheric and evocative. Grounding depictions of the natural world are as vivid and lush as the descriptions of haunting horrors that are beautiful in their gruesomeness... In Kilcoyne, YA horror has found a new standard-bearer." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Using an ominous third-person perspective, grisly horror elements, and distinct setting, Kilcoyne delivers an exceptional examination of life, death, and grief teeming with beauty and menace." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An eerie Southern Gothic tale full of dark magic and haunting imagery, this novel is one part horror and one part coming-of-age saga, with a little bit of fantasy thrown on top." - Paste Magazine, "The Best New YA Books of July 2022"
"...excellent new horror." - Lit Hub
"An eerie and intense YA Southern gothic." - Buzzfeed
"..Wake the Bones is a novel for young adults that doesn’t pretend people in their late teens are the same as ten year old children... Those weird cusp years are the hardest to render honestly, but Kilcoyne has done a phenomenal job—especially in dealing with how affection and sex play out among a close-knit group of friends." - Tor.com
"Eerie." - Buzzfeed, "Get Ready, Because These Are All The Best Books Releasing In July"
“Dark, gripping, and gorgeous, Wake the Bones will lead you into the woods and keep you up late. As lush and sweltering as a Kentucky summer... Elizabeth Kilcoyne is a force.” - Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author
"Raw, emotional, and deliciously gross, Wake the Bones is a read that will cling to your subconscious long after its final page." - Lauren Blackwood, New York Times bestselling author of Within These Wicked Walls
"Deliciously vile and viciously emotional, Wake the Bones is a debut you'll want to savor but will be forced to devour whole. Kilcoyne richly imagines a world where life and death are all tangled together, and love and loss are the true magic. I was held captive to the last haunting page and I hoped there was no release." - Courtney Gould, author of The Dead and the Dark
"Wake the Bones is an eerie southern gothic with dark magic, haunting atmosphere, and an engaging plot that kept my eyes glued to the pages." - Alexis Henderson, author of The Year of the Witching
"With atmosphere as close and thick as summer heat, Wake the Bones is an unflinchingly gruesome delight. Kilcoyne’s lush, spellbinding prose kept me racing through the pages—and examines the ways small-town horrors soak into the very earth." - Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic
"Seething with shadows, summer, and uniquely southern magic, Wake the Bones is a powerful debut that captures the ache of home being a place you simultaneously love and loathe." - Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
07/01/2022
Gr 10 Up—Back home in her small town after a failed year of college, Laurel Early seems to be falling back into farm life with her best friend Isaac and the Mobley boys, Garrett and Ricky. Additionally, her new side hobby of creating bone jewelry is connecting her to the nature of the forest and keeps her mind occupied. But when her family's past comes back to haunt her, Laurel must face a gruesome creature to protect those she holds most dear. Magic is at play, and the creature demands blood—the question Laurel has yet to figure out is whose. Kilcoyne's debut takes a small-town setting and twists it into a dark supernatural landscape stalked by an unnatural beast. Lush descriptions of the environment are covered with intricate details of decay and horror, building a tense world for the characters. The macabre monster targeting Laurel is not only a physical terror, but a great illustration of multiple characters' familial grief as a devil parasite that's relentlessly consuming life and weighing them down. Influenced by past darkness, Laurel and Isaac's evolving relationships with each of the Mobley boys brings light to their dim outlooks, reshaping their view on how wide and open the world truly is. All characters are described as white. Sensitivity content warning is included at the beginning for abuse, violence, suicide, and more. VERDICT A southern gothic horror sure to thrill, and thoroughly creep out, readers.—Emily Walker
★ 2022-04-13
Nineteen-year-old Laurel and her friends grapple with a curse on their town in this Southern gothic debut.
In the small farming town of Dry Valley, Kentucky, Laurel faces her family legacy. Her mother had strange gifts before her mysterious death in their old well, leaving Laurel to grow up orphaned (and with a less useful gift: As a taxidermist, Laurel can read death stories from bones). When she and her best friends–turned–farm co-workers discover a grisly scene by the reopened well, it’s only the beginning of the seemingly impossible—and increasingly dangerous—happenings. While confronting the past, Laurel and her friends, all distinctly drawn, also look to the future and who they want to be—for Laurel and Ricky, it’s a charmingly bristling courtship dance. For Laurel’s best friend, Isaac, and Ricky’s brother, Garrett, it’s more complicated. Garrett, happily a country boy, loves Isaac, but Isaac can’t let himself love Garrett back as, to survive and escape Dry Valley (and an abusive situation), he knows he must leave. The characters, who default to White, are easy to get invested in as personal stakes climb so high that survival isn’t a given. Told in the third-person, the novel’s poetic language is atmospheric and evocative. Grounding depictions of the natural world are as vivid and lush as the descriptions of haunting horrors that are beautiful in their gruesomeness. These passages never slow the plot and frequently enhance the tension and suspense.
In Kilcoyne, YA horror has found a new standard-bearer. (Horror. 13-18)
This audiobook starts strong with atmospheric descriptions and compelling characters setting the stage for a dark story. Laurel Early tried to escape her small farming community in rural Kentucky but now finds herself back home on her uncle's farm. That's when the horror begins. Bailey Carr narrates with good pacing. The eerie story involves dark magic, a haunted farm, dead animals, and nightmares from the past. An overarching question is presented: what to do when the place you call home terrifies you? Despite the story getting a bit convoluted toward the end, Carr is spot-on as she voices a wide range of characters and paints vivid depictions for listeners. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
This audiobook starts strong with atmospheric descriptions and compelling characters setting the stage for a dark story. Laurel Early tried to escape her small farming community in rural Kentucky but now finds herself back home on her uncle's farm. That's when the horror begins. Bailey Carr narrates with good pacing. The eerie story involves dark magic, a haunted farm, dead animals, and nightmares from the past. An overarching question is presented: what to do when the place you call home terrifies you? Despite the story getting a bit convoluted toward the end, Carr is spot-on as she voices a wide range of characters and paints vivid depictions for listeners. K.S.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
