As an avid reader I always plan out my reading for the year ahead, trying to ensure I get a varied mix of different genres as well as balancing review requests (which often come with a deadline) alongside books I’ve had on my reading list for a while. It never works out exactly as I intend because as any reader knows there are times when we choose the book and there are others when the book chooses us.

Your Blood and Bones is an example of the latter, the striking cover jumping out at me whilst I was attending the World Science Fiction Convention in 2024 (a huge thank you, by the way, to Palmer Pickering who organised the incredible Freebies Library and to the authors who generously made their books available for free (yes, for free!) to support this). I’d seen this book being discussed on social media and as I held it something in my head told me I needed to have this. I have no regrets!

The book is a novella, making it a short but impactful read. On an island which draws parallels with Iceland (although this is a fantasy setting) people live in fear of discovering monsters within their midst. Sometimes their children begin to change as they grow older, strange feathers and odd bones protruding from their flesh. At the first sign of such a transformation the villagers put these monsters to death, turning on these previously cherished members of their community to protect themselves from evil.

But are the monsters evil? The story is told from the perspective of a young girl who has just entered womanhood. She is from a wealthy, well-respected family who love and care for her – until the physical changes she was hiding from them are discovered. As her family and the rest of the village hunt her through the night with burning torches the girl is terrified and desperate, forced to flee for her life. A boy a year or two older than her, who is also undergoing the same slow transformation, comes to her aid. He tells her there is hope and a cure for their condition, if they can only escape from the island.

There are some interesting stylistic choices in this story. None of the characters involved are ever named, so we only get to know the principal pair as ‘the girl’ and ‘the boy’. We only see the story through the girl’s eyes, very much making this her tale even though the plot revolves around the pair of fugitives and the romantic feelings which begin to grow between them. At times I felt this created some distance between the story and the reader – leaving me wanting to know more than Anderson was prepared to reveal about both the characters and the world they inhabit. The nature of the magic in this world is also mysterious and defies explanation, the pair drawing on their power over dead animals through blood and smoke.

For completeness, I should point out there are aspects of this novella which some readers may not be so keen on. The tale features body horror, self-harm and a fair amount of gore, especially considering there are only 151 pages. Your Blood and Bones is anything but a light read. To be fair, Anderson provides a content warning before the novella starts, so this was something I went into knowing what to expect. However, there are times when this tale is pretty gruesome.

This might be a short book but after I finished reading it I was unable to stop thinking about the story. There are so many themes raised by the tale and Anderson doesn’t leave you with any easy answers. Your Blood and Bones asks questions about the way we judge people who are different and whether it is ever right to change who we are to try and fit in with what society expects. This story is also about the power of hope, and what we’re prepared to do in the name of attaining our dreams. The ending is particularly powerful but I don’t want to give anything away as to what happens in those final pages.
Overall, I thought this was an excellent story. You could easily read Your Blood and Bones in a day or two. However, I guarantee you’ll be thinking about it for much longer once the book is over.