Book: Tallow and Bone by Rhiannon Hargadon
Reviewed by Halliday in the Books
Rating: 3/5
Amity Merriweather is a witch. She inherited the gift from her mother, but it often feels more like a curse. Once living a life of luxury in the English courts, everything changed when someone discovered their magic. They are now on the run across the ocean in the new American colonies. All her family wants to do is survive, to find a place where they can live in safety.
During an escape, the members of the family become separated, but plan to regroup in a town nearby. Its name is Salem, Massachusetts. From the very first moment, Amity can tell that there is something “off” with the town. She can’t quite put her finger on it. More concerning, she can’t put her magic on it either. Usually plants and the earth respond to her eagerly, but it’s not the same in Salem. Instead, when she reaches out with her magic, she feels something she never has before, and it is far from pleasant. She would love to discuss it with another witch and hopefully learn more. However, Amity’s magic had endangered her and her family already in England. It’s apparent almost instantly that Salem will not have a friendlier attitude in that regard.
This is a book self-describing as a dark romance, set within an actual historical tragedy that left scars that are still visible hundreds of years later. It is not light. The narrative seeks to squeeze out every single drop of darkness onto the pages. At almost every turn, the worst thing that can happen does happen. Even the moments of relief are “only” the second worst happening instead. Not every reader is going to reach for this kind of book, and for those readers, this book has earned its warning label. Its content warnings are myriad and diverse. However, if a reader is looking for an emotional journey that will put their heart through the ringer, Rhiannon Hargadon is more than qualified for that job.
For a book this dark and heavy, the pacing was much slower than I prefer, however. Much of the time, that is due to the first-person narration repeatedly cycling through the same thoughts. It makes it much harder to see any growth in Amity’s character over time. If anything, it ends up making her much less sympathetic as readers watch her repeatedly make both immoral and illogical choices when other options were readily available. In fact, of our three primary characters, only one of them comes across as a decent human. Suffice it to say, the narrative does not reward goodness.
Those who read historical fiction with an eye for detail will likely struggle with this one as well. Some of the actual victims of the trials have been recast as fictional characters in order to tell a fuller fictionalized story. Without the included author’s note at the end, that could have come across as erasure, but Hargadon does make her respect clear in her note. More distracting for me were the anachronisms that exist in every chapter. Most of them pulled me out of the story right as I was starting to feel immersed. These are everything from plumbing to wedding attire. Characters make references to literature and cities that wouldn’t exist for another 150-200 years. Some could be creative liberties, but more often it came across as incomplete research.
A particular example that coincided with one of my special interests was the appearance of the famous pirate Benjamin Hornigold. Narration heavily insinuates he is a pirate at this point in time. Creative liberty can absolutely place him in Massachusetts for a story even though there’s no record of him setting foot New England. On the other hand, at the time of the Salem Witch Trials, he would have been thirteen years old at the most. He did not turn to piracy until almost 20 years after the trials ended. Hargadon has also written a retelling of Blackbeard, who sailed under Hornigold before gaining his own ship, so that distortion was especially distracting.
Overall, Tallow and Bone likely would have benefited greatly from another round of developmental edits. Between the inaccuracies, the world did become very vivid, and it carried a lot of interest for me. If you’re the type of reader who is more capable of overlooking those, and you’ve been seeking a book that wants to tear your hearts to shreds, this could be it. Definitely check the trigger warnings first.