Loud as Bones

4.5 / 5 stars Absolutely brilliant. The atmosphere, pacing, tension, and characters are all exceptionally well developed and beautifully written. I especially loved the vampire lore. I've never read or seen anything quite like it before. The part about the skulls was so emotional for me. My only real critique is entirely subjective: I generally don't enjoy explicit sexual content in the books I read. However, in this story, it felt completely justified. It served the character dynamics and reinforced the dark, visceral tone of the novel rather than existing purely for shock value. That minor personal preference aside, this is an incredible read. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves dark, macabre, and unique stories. Reference titles: Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen, A Dowry of Blood by S. T. Gibson, The Poisoner by I. V. Ophelia, Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu Trigger warnings: Body horror Confinement Death Gore Physical abuse Rape Sexual assault Sexual content Sexual violence Torture Blood Kidnapping Cannibalism Murder

DECADENT. 🩸 ROTTING. 🏚 OBSESSIVE. 🦴 A vicious sapphic vampire novella about desire, captivity, hunger, memory, and the horror of being wanted as something to possess. DG Woods takes vampire lore and makes it feel strange again. 😌🤌🏽 There are familiar pieces here—blood, obsession, immortality, seduction, the decaying gothic house, the dangerous pull of something monstrous—and Woods twists those elements into her own mythology with confidence. The romantic fantasy of the vampire becomes grotesque, intimate, violent, and claustrophobic. Desire becomes possession, immortality a trap, and the body a site of punishment, appetite, and control. Woods commits to the ugliness underneath the beauty. The writing is lush and sensual, with something grief-soaked and violent pressing through the atmosphere at all times. The house feels alive with memory, cruelty, and bone; it holds the story in its walls and gives the novella a strong gothic pulse from the beginning. One of the most beautiful and emotionally affecting pieces of the lore, for me, was what Woods does with the bones of lost lovers. I do not want to say too much and take away the experience of discovering it, but that detail pulled a surprising amount of emotion out of me. It felt original, intimate, and haunting—a small, strange invention that makes the world of the book feel entirely its own. I also loved the way Woods explores the ache of wanting someone who does not want you back, and the devastation of desire that has nowhere safe to go. The relationship dynamics in this book are obsessive, painful, and full of imbalance, and Woods lets those imbalances unfold with more mystery than I expected. There are emotional truths buried inside the horror, and the book keeps revealing them in ways that made me realize how much I had been misreading or underestimating certain characters. That sense of mystery was one of the biggest surprises for me. I had ideas about where the story was heading, and Woods kept pulling the floor out from under those expectations. Some of the most satisfying revelations were the ones I did not even realize the story was holding back, and the last 15% completely caught me off guard in the best way. The ending brings the plot together, but its real force comes from the character revelations and emotional recalibrations—the kind that change how several people in the story can be understood and make you rethink what you have been reading all along. My minimal critique: the structure moves in and out of different forms, and some worked better for me than others. There was a stretch around the middle where I felt myself struggling a bit with the pacing and shape of the narrative, though I never felt bored or disconnected. The book shifts its rhythm often, lingering in mood and language before snapping back into plot, violence, or revelation. For such a short novella, I was surprised by how much movement there was in the pacing, and even when certain sections did not hit as strongly for me, the story still kept me engaged. The final stretch adds complexity while keeping the horror fully intact; the violence remains visceral, the cruelty carries emotional weight, and the revelations give the whole novella more depth and strangeness. I loved how much care Woods put into the ending. It made the book feel more layered, more creative, and far more fun than I expected from something this brutal. This is bloody, claustrophobic, gothic vampire horror with its own sense of myth. Woods took familiar vampire stories and made them feel strange, grotesque, vicious, and alive (or undead?) again. I was genuinely surprised by how inventive this became, especially by the end, and I’m very much looking forward to reading more of her work. Please check trigger warnings on StoryGraph if you have triggers you would like to avoid. This is a very dark book. Thank you to the author/publisher for the ARC. All thoughts are my own. 💀🖤🦴

Wow, this was a wild time! Loud as Bones grabs you by the throat and pulls you straight in. It’s gross and sexy. The vampires are deliciously toxic. I loved the way the vampire lore is used to explore human desire, loneliness, obsession.

A deceptively deep delve into the experience of what it would be like to lose your entire present, past, and future as you fall prey to a ravenous monster - and rebuild your body and mind from the brink of certain death in order to survive. What parts of yourself would be left behind, and who would you become in the process? This novella looks at a pivotal snapshot of Iris's meager life; a rotting house in the middle of nowhere, a dead-end dream, and a relationship on thin ice. When the icy emotional dread reaches a crescendo, her world is suddenly ripped to literal shreds due to a vampire attack in the middle of the night. Her partner is dead. She is chained to a radiator and bled dry. But her body refuses to die. Clinging to the memory of her true love, she submits to the intruders as a thrall, determined to someday be strong enough to enact revenge. The bones of numerous victims she helps bury, and those of the vampire's past, whisper and wail through the rotting floorboards - tall tales and sharp secrets from the dead may be her only way out. A captivating, bloody tale that echoes of karmic dues. Actions have consequences. Some, take the shape of monsters.

This is a solid short read of horror, gore and vampires!

[I received an ARC copy in return for an honest review] D.G. Woods knows what she is doing. Her writing is skilfull, visceral, haunting; everything you want from a gothic horror story. I read this novella in a handful of hours, easily swept along in the bloody mess that is desire and grief and realising your life wasn’t what you thought it would be but still wanting to hold onto its scraps by the skin of your teeth. Her vampires were a wonderful mix of traditional, violent and grotesque, and uniquely sensual. I never knew what they were going to do next, and Iris was an achingly flawed MC, and I admired the rawness of her strength, that even as she spiralled further down into the nightmare she found herself in she remained stubborn, refusing to lose herself and her mind to the horrors that consumed her. (The bones were one of my favourite parts of the novella, such a tender but violating invention.) By the end I wasn’t quite sure how to rate this one, because on all technical levels it was brilliant, and I very much enjoyed reading it, but on a personal level it also didn’t quite hit for me the way I was hoping it would? So, officially I am giving this 4.5 stars, because it genuinely is that good, though perhaps on my personal enjoyment scale (for whatever that’s worth) it would be a 3.5/75? If you’re a fan of the dark and macabre, gothic tales full of animalistic desire and obsession that seeps down to your bones, then you’ll love this! (Though, perhaps check the trigger warnings first)

This is my second book from this author, and I am so incredibly grateful to be chosen for an ARC copy to review! Loud As Bones completely blew me away. Woods fully commits to heavy, genuinely creepy horror. It feels authentically gothic in a way the genre requires, where the decaying house is practically its own character, but it also takes place in the modern day. That contrast makes it all the more haunting, like it's happening right next to us and could happen to any of us. The horrors are truly horrific, and I loved that Iris is a flawed main character who isn't just focused on surviving, but also on revenge. There is a deeply poetic beauty to the brutality of her situation. I found myself highlighting so many incredible lines, like “Some things are made beautiful to be destroyed... Their beauty lives in how quickly they pass” and “The craving for death was one thing; the anticipation was another. The wait was worse.” - I have more in my kindle. This is an easy 5 stars because it doesn't tone anything down. It is a decadent, raw, and beautifully devastating sapphic horror novella that isn't afraid to get bloody and properly terrifying. In this world, “to be useless was to be forgotten, and to be forgotten was to be buried.” If you want a fast-paced, high-stakes horror read that handles trauma with absolute grit while still being stunningly written, you need to pick this up immediately. And the cover?? Absolutely gorgeous.

Okay. Alright... I am not either. First, I was graced as an ARC reader and all the feelings could be spoilers within themselves, so I will keep this brief. I had hunches. And then? BAM they happened, but never in the way I was anticipating NOR who or how many "people" I was anticipating them happening to. My flabbers were ghasted. I was nauseous in the beginning (please pay attention to the trigger warnings) and by the end? I was literally eating everything these pages could afford. If you love horror, erotic-horror, phallic vampirism, suspense, and a twist? Then reader... Please keep reading, as I have no other words to offer.

LOUD AS BONES 🦴🩸 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🌶️🌶️ DG Woods has done it AGAIN! Her writing style is so atmospheric and lush that it always manages to sweep me away!! 😱💖🫶 Loud as Bones is one of the darkest books I have ever read, and yet I still found myself completely engrossed in this novella, constantly questioning what would happen next. DG has such a unique way of unfolding a story that leaves you hungry for more, and I’m so glad I had the chance to read this one early!! Tropes: 🩸 sapphic vampires 🕸️ gothic atmosphere 👀 female rage 💖 polyamory Another thing I loved about this novella, and DG’s writing in general, is that I truly never knew what to expect!! Every time I thought I had figured out where the story was headed, I was quite literally completely surprised in the best way. Devastating, grief-stricken, and chilling all at the same time, this novella made me FEEL such a wide range of emotions!! One of my favorite quotes: “I was alone with my grief. Alone with the finality of death—all while the monster who’d brought it upon us stood there, admiring the late blooms.” Please make sure to check your triggers 💖🫶✨ Thank you so much to DG for allowing me to read this book early!!! 💖🫶✨

4.5⭐️ This was my third book by D.G. Woods, and at this point I can confidently say her books never disappoint me. I’m genuinely so grateful I got the ARC for this. I was especially curious about this book because it felt a little different from her previous work. Different how? Definitely more sexual than the kind of books I usually gravitate toward BUT that didn’t stop me from devouring it at all. It’s a very short novella, so I finished it quickly, but I honestly think this is exactly the kind of story that’s meant to be read in one sitting. It feels like a rush in the best possible way. Everything moves so fast, building into this beautiful, intoxicating chaos where one drastic thing happens after another. The pacing creates this dizzy, almost dreamlike atmosphere, and instead of taking away from the emotional weight of the story, it somehow makes the entire experience feel even more surreal and intense. And the writing style was beautiful as always. D.G. Woods has this way of writing that feels effortless to read while still being lyrical and atmospheric. I’ve always loved vampire stories, and anything even remotely inspired by Dracula immediately catches my attention. This book absolutely satisfied that craving for me. Another successful book from D.G. Woods, and I’m already excited to see what she writes next.