The Sins on Their Bones
Laura R. Samotin
Publisher
Published May 7, 2024

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About The Sins on Their Bones

Dimitri Alexeyev used to be the Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo. Now, he is merely a broken man, languishing in exile after losing a devastating civil war instigated by his estranged husband, Alexey Balakin. In hiding with what remains of his court, Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily Sokolov, engineer a dangerous ruse. Vasily will sneak into Alexey’s court under a false identity to gather information, paving the way for the usurper’s downfall, while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good.

But stopping Alexey is not so easy as plotting to kill an ordinary man. Through a perversion of the Ludayzim religion that he terms the Holy Science, Alexey has died and resurrected himself in an immortal, indestructible body—and now claims he is guided by the voice of God Himself. Able to summon forth creatures from the realm of demons, he seeks to build an army, turning Novo-Svitsevo into the greatest empire that history has ever seen.

Dimitri is determined not to let Alexey corrupt his country, but saving Novo-Svitsevo and its people will mean forfeiting the soul of the husband he can’t bring himself to forsake—or the spymaster he’s come to love.

My Review

I agreed to review this book before realizing that it was an adult novel, but it’s endorsed by several of the YA authors that I love, so I wondered if it would be a good crossover.

The main characters are in their early twenties, so they’re solidly adults. Their emotional maturity made them seem young to me, but at least in Dimitri’s case, that’s really part of his character and how sheltered he has been.

Exploration of Abuse and Trauma

Each chapter follows Dimitri, Alexey, or Vasily’s perspective. All three think about sex a lot. Sometimes at what seemed to me to be weird moments. At one point, Dimitri sits on a rooftop, thinking he may end his life, and a few minutes later, he wishes he could cheer someone else up with sexual favors. I think that in that scene in particular, it’s supposed to show that Dimitri’s past abusive relationship has sort of programmed him to “fix” things through sex, so maybe that’s not a great example. The sexual tension did feel pretty constant, though, which I think was just too much for me personally. I kind of found it wearying.

While the central plot of the story is about taking down the man who removed Dimitri from power through dark spiritual means, many scenes focus on the abusiveness of the relationship between Alexey and Dimitri. Despite the fact that Dimitri has literally just lost a war with Alexey, he longs for him and craves the companionship they share, even though it is pretty toxic.

While hard to read, that longing does make sense in terms of my (limited) understanding of how a trauma bond can work. Even Dimitri’s need to have someone reenact the abuse cycle does make a certain kind of sense. It’s just really dark and hard to read. It also made it difficult for me to really connect with Vasily’s character since he’s the one helping with the reenactments.

Faith, Folklore, and History

The characters have Russian names, and some other Russian words are used for titles and other elements. The primary faith of the people of Novo-Svitsevo appears to be Judaism. Characters celebrate the Sabbath and spiritual leaders are called rebbe, a term for a Jewish spiritual leader.

Characters encounter angels and demons in different rituals. I don’t know enough about Jewish beliefs to know whether all of the names and references are made up or what’s drawn from faith or folklore.

The only thing that confused me about the spiritual part of the book was that sometimes it seemed that, in the morality of the story, it was a bad thing to involve demons or angels in your life in exchange for favors. At other times, characters seemed to make those choices more casually or with the understanding that the end justifies the means. It seemed a little weird that they would so quickly jump to playing with the same fire that was burning down the whole kingdom under Alexey’s rule.

Conclusion

I liked the elements of the story that connected to Jewish faith and folklore and the Russian history-inspired elements. I don’t think I’ll personally continue with the series, but I think readers who enjoy dark fantasy with spicy romance will enjoy it.

Content Notes for The Sins on Their Bones

Recommended for Ages 18 up.

Representation
Dimitri, Alexey, and Vasily are gay. Another character is nonbinary.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Several scenes depict explicit sex between two men. Some show abuse or reenactment of abuse. Characters also think about sex pretty frequently.

References to a man sexually abusing a child.

Spiritual Content
Inspired by Jewish faith and folklore. Some characters celebrate the Sabbath. A few contact demons and angels for aid. Several characters pray to God and converse in prayer.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. References to battle violence. References to torture. Some scenes include body horror. Several scenes show abuse between domestic partners.

Drug Content
Characters smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. In a couple of scenes, characters use cocaine.

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