Nicole's Reviews > Ghostsmith

"𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘢 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘩, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘺𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘨𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴."

Welcome, my new favorite duology! The House of the Dead was such an incredibly little series that I’ve been obsessing over since I read Bonesmith last summer. It concludes here in Ghostsmith with an action packed book full of family drama, friendship tension and of course a whole lot of bone slicing.

This one felt a little more straightforward in terms of plot. Our group had a one track mindset to go and stop the corpse queen and avoid the dangers back at home. I still think Nicki does a great job of balancing character story with plot story. I think sometimes people tend to lean more one way or the other, but it all meshes so well. We get the addition of Hawk, Wren’s brother, to the party. (Yup they’re both named after birds.) one of my favorite moments was him teaching her about familiars. That little bit of bonding and Wren learning different aspects of her nature was a really great character moment.

I don’t want to go into too much plot detail because spoilers, but suffice it to say I was hooked. I love this horror laden world where the dead walking around is so common. It really comes to a head here. And of course my BOYS. Leo is my favorite kind of snarky princeling type still, and yet we really see him grow and become more of a strategist of the group. Julian, my love, always so broody.

In the end, this was a really fun YA series and I was happy to fall into the world again. I’d love to see some spinoffs or novellas someday. Or just more stories set in this universe because I’m not ready to release my death grip on it. 🦴💀

Thank you thank you thank you Simon Teen for sending me a beautiful finished copy to review!