I dnf't this book. I could not read any further because of the writing style. Gyorgy wrote this book in a very particular way that is not for me. In part I read there weren't any conversations. All of it was in the main character head like: my grandmother said this and that is what we do. I could not continue it was taking me out of the story and truth to be told I don't remember what happened at all.

I loved this very much! The characters, the actions and even the plot itself! Very inspiring for my own book too!

This was a really interesting story! Very moving and evocative, and a great suspenseful mystery as you unravel everything that happens.

This is a... weird book. There are so many ideas that were creative and intriguing, but many elements of the plot felt underdeveloped. However, I did like the main character, who was relatable without being cheesy and decisive without being stoic (her relationship with her grandmother was also incredibly interesting.) I also enjoyed the author's writing style and the way they crafted the environment of the story in such a way that felt authentic and poignant in equal parts. All-in-all, while I enjoyed the experience of reading, I'm not sure who I would exactly recommend this book to - I'm still digesting how I felt.

The Bone Fire was an interesting tale about a girl navigating her be life with her grandmother, with hints of magic and lots of mystery. I enjoyed reading about the magic, how real it was that if you weren't paying attention it could be just misconstrued as wishful thinking, and how it wasn't entirely about navigating the magic. That being said, I would have appreciated seeing more of the magic rather than hints of it. There were numerous times throughout the book I would wonder what the point of bits were, some of which didn't feel relevant to the overall plot or character development. I didn't feel for the grandmother as much as I wanted, so reading her flashbacks felt like they dragged on.

Overall it was a bit difficult to read and some parts felt like they got lost in translation but nonetheless most of it was captivating

It feels like a translation, and had a hard time keeping my attention. If you read translations and it doesn't bother you I recommend this one.

This book is very different from what I'm used to read, but I ended up enjoying it!
The story is very creative and has a peculiar writing style.
If you like unique reads this is for you!

My god, that was powerful. Heartbreaking and mystical all at once--this tale weaves subtle magic into the complex history of a war-scarred country. Emma, our brave and bruised orphan, is claimed and whisked by a previously-unknown grandmother to a distant town, ravaged by revolution. Here she finds a reality shaped by magic to be her only foothold against fear, power, and confusion.

Absolutely hypnotic, fantastic mix of characters, relationships, and imagery woven with incredibly skillful use of flashback to deliver a beautiful blend of strength, magic, and history.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I had no expectations for this book at all. I saw the cover and I thought the title was interesting enough that I said, “yep. That looks worth reading.” I had no idea what this book was even about as I picked it, and I was definitely not prepared for everything that came through with this book. It’s probably best that I hadn’t read the summary for it before agreeing to read it because then I likely wouldn’t have read it. I usually try avoiding books that have any basis in serious real world events. This book talks about WWII, the Holocaust, reeducation camps, etc. But I don’t regret picking this up.

I wouldn’t even know where to begin describing this book. It is such a contradiction. It was magical, but it was also disturbing. This is in part due to the fact that, more often than not, the story really makes you feel like you’ve been transported to the times they’re discussing. I have always found magical realism to be a great way to tell certain stories, especially stories like this that include such heavy topics, and it was done wonderfully.
It was also beautiful and yet heartbreaking. It’s hard to find a balance between them both, but this author has managed it stunningly. I also appreciate that while important to the story, the politics aspects were not the focus of it. I also absolutely adore Emma’s grandmother. And Emma herself is quite likeable and even relatable. I liked the way we get to see Emma growing through her experiences, and how well it all fit into the plot.

The only real downside for me was how abrupt and maybe a little unended the ending felt. While far from an easy read, it was an important one to me, and it was beautiful and painful. This was definitely a different kind of read for me, and I was very out of my comfort zone with it, but I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity to read it.

This tale of Eastern European post war life combines family secrets and a little bit of magic.

Grandma finds her orphaned granddaughter Emma and takes her to live with her in their village home. Emma's parents never told her she had a Grandma, so Emma takes a while to warm up to the old woman. Why would her parents keep this a secret, Emma wonders. Grandma's recollections of the war and possible sins of the family come to light.

Must be read with your best Eastern European accent to truly transport you to this era.

This was a very different book for me to read. It was in some places hard to understand. But over all it had a great feel to the plot!

This book had an interesting premise, but I didn't get it.
I was excited to have it, and besides that it was not by an English-speaking author but a Hungarian, I was super interested since its synopsis was compelling and I thought that the book series was super fast to finish because of how interesting it would be but it was not, It was slow, and to my point of view it was confusing in some parts, I do not know if it will be a problem of the translation in English or that is the original text, but it was very heavy to read since as I said before it was confusing and another problem was the point of view in which the story is narrated, lacked emphasis on dialogue and that contributed to not understanding.
Anyway, thanks to netgalley for the arc for an honest review.

This is a book about a girl who's taken in by her grandmother after her parents die. The grandmother is either crazy or a witch or both (I'm still not entirely sure). The book had nightmarish quality at time. I couldn't tell at times what was really happening. There was also a lot going on politically and culturally in the book. I would consider reading this again just to better absorb those aspects of the story.
Thank you to netgally and the publisher for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Couldn’t get into this book and it was a DNF for me. Books in translation are always a toss up whether they will work well in a new language. So it could bet that for me.

I ended up not finishing this book. While the story sounded interesting, I could not get over the writing. As this is translated, it's hard to know if it's the writing that was difficult or the translation. It was too much "I did this, then I did this. She did this and then this," which made it unreadable for me.

Chilling and suspenseful and yet still compassionate and optimistic, this story will take you into a world of magic. Full of heart, I definitely recommend this read!

I love magical realism and this book was full of it! The world building is excellent and makes the world feel realistic and like you're in the story. The author seamlessly blended magic, history, and politics together. The ending felt rushed however, but I've never read anything like this.

While this story is very creative and has a mythical writing style, I can't say I read this with ease or interest. The writing style is difficult for me to feel connected to. I felt dragged along as I went through descriptions of just about everything. A lot of the story felt flat and I strongly disliked the lack of dialogue in the story; it made it particularly hard to read. Clear quoted dialogue helps break up the description (to me) and provide me with an actual voice to the novel.

The book is entirely unusual, which is fine and it IS very creative, but I can't connect to the strange style. I felt like the characters weren't that human because of the way this story was written and, in turn, made it hard for me to care about the slow build-up of the plot.

The Bone Fire is strange and creative, but it is difficult to try to get through. It was not for me, unfortunately.

*** I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest opinion ***


I don't really know how I feel about this book, maybe I need to read it a third time, It was at times very confusing and hard to follow. Other times the writing seems flat and disjointed. It reminded me of those hooked on phonics readers, "The cat sat. The rat sat. The cat and the rat sat." kind of thing. I know part of that comes from being translated. Though I have read other books that were translated that had far less moments that pulled you from the story. It was difficult to immerse myself fully in this book and I think overall that is what I am most disappointed about. Between the halted writing and jumping plot it was a struggle to remain focused.

It was intriguing and had very interesting points but it was a lot in one more story.

This was cool. Not exactly what I was expecting, but it was very interesting and overall a fun read.