"She reminded him of an ocean - beautiful, with enough salt to kill a man. He suspected it would take a knight or a hero of legend to impress one such as her."
— The Bone Houses
The Bone Houses is a young adult dark horror fantasy novel published in September 2019 by American author Emily Lloyd-Jones.
The book follows characters Ryn (a gravedigger) and Ellis (an apprentice mapmaker), as well as their pet goat, as they go on a quest to solve the mystery of "bone houses", zombie-like corpses coming to life and rising from the ground. Along the way, the characters develop a romantic attraction and Ellis learns the truth about his past.
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers released the first edition on September 24, 2019. Subsequent publications included a paperback and an Owlcrate exclusive edition.
This book contains examples of the following tropes:
- Awkward Kiss: While in a delapidated castle, Ryn shares a kiss with Ellis, who reacts with surprise.
- Curse: A central plot conflict in the book is a curse causing the dead to rise, affecting Ryn and her brother's gravedigging business.
- Deadpan Snarker: Ryn often makes caustic, sarcastic and snarky remarks, typically of the morbid variety (e.g. describing the "bloated corpse" Ellis would find of her if she drowned in a river), but Ellis is strangely drawn to this.
- Hiding the Handicap: Ellis at first tries to hide his debilitating nerve pain, due to an old shoulder injury, from Ryn. He takes herbal remedies to lessen the pain.
- Pretty Boy: Ryn actually takes on the more masculine traits in the book, while Ellis is this fragile but attractive boy who does cartography.
