This is an absolute jewel of a book, set in Hungary after the fall of communism. Young Emma, her parents dead, is claimed by her grandmother and goes to live with her in a small town. There Emma learns magic of all kinds--nature, blood, sacrifice, paper, food, animal, protective, love,--in her daily life with her grandmother and the ghost of her grandfather, that she is a born runner and artist, and the dark history of the town: the massacre that killed many of its citizens, the informers who spied for the government, the bodies that were "disappeared", the resentments and hat that run through the streets to her doorstep. This is a beautiful, harrowing, intense, imaginative, astonishingly moving and powerful and yet often quiet and still and contemplative novel. It is magic realism that is decidedly Eastern European; it feels old and as if it knows the cold and the bare trees. I want to give this book to everyone. I want it to replace Harry Potter in kids' hands. It is elegant and rustic and feels entirely real and is utterly amazing.

This is a beautiful book. I'm not a great fan of magical realism, but this book combined MR with politics and the end result is a beautiful work of art.

The protagonist is an orphan who goes to live with her Grandmother after spending 6 months in a school for orphans. Little does she know that her life is about to change irrevocably.
Grandmother is a powerful character who teaches her granddaughter her skills and the powers to observe.
Their journey of self-discovery is the gist of this book. There is mention of concentration camps, Second World War atrocities and communism, all weaved in seamlessly with the narrative of illusions and sleights of hand.

I only had issue with the third-person narrative throughout the entire novel. It does not help us get into any character's head directly. I don't know if the author intended this as a child's narrative or if this is the issue of translation.

Otherwise, beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC!
I loved magical realism and this book didn't disappoint--the world-building was really well done. The author did a great job of blending magic, history, and politics. The setting felt very grounded, and the characters are easy to connect with. The ending felt a little unfinished, but the book was a very different read than I’ve ever read—it was compelling and dark.

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did like this book but it was weird too. The chapters are each almost their own stories, with little bits carried from chapter to chapter. There is a lot of the past in the story and so sometimes I found it confusing when Emma was talking about school and the oranges and it was actually her old school, instead of the one she went to when she came to live with her grandma. Her grandma is a pretty cool lady, tough, and I am glad that she is helping Emma out after her parents died. This takes place just after the fall of communism, so there is still a lot of unrest and people blaming others for being informers.

This is a fairly dark book with mentions of the Holocaust and reeducation camps and the Securitate. That was a little bit balanced with the barely there magic that was cool to read about, like finding the missing hairband with a dust trail, or finding the missing map with the help of her Grandfather (he does that a few times).

This had a lot of plot holes though which left me confused and the ending needs some work but it could be pretty good.

The Bone Fire presents us the story of a teenage girl, Emma, whose parents are killed in a car accident and ends up going to live with her (until then unknown) grandmother, who happens to be a witch. All of this happens while her country faces a revolution fed by the rage against the dictatorship regime faced by Eastern Europe. It is an interesting mix of fantasy, historical fiction and coming-of-age.

As we can imagine by the genres it covers, the book is full of creative and good ideas but, while reading, I fell many of them were a little bit too undeveloped. Many chapters were spent describing Emma's everyday life situations that don't have a connection witht the story (ex: buying a swimsuit, playing skip rope at school, eating condensed milk) while they could have been more focused on the fantasy part of the book - especially the part of her grandfather's ghost living in the house, how she understood and accepted the fact that her grandmother is a witch or the quest of the athletic professor. I finished the book with many questions that I felt were not answered. The presentation of the characters was also slightly flat for me, Emma was very well constructed but I felt like I didn't really know or connect with the other characters.

Having said that, I need to mention that the historical part of the book was very convincing. The tension in the end of the book was palpable. It was also really interesting to see Emma visiting a soon-to-be-open supermarket with products available only after the communism fell in the beginning of the story.

György Dragomán is, definitely, a creative mind. Maybe this book was not my cup of tea, as I would have prefered somehing more fast-paced and less descriptive, but for the readers who are into witchcraft or for people who are from the same region where this story happens, it might be a good read.

I love magical realism, and that part of this book was really good. I also thought the characters were great. However, I personally don’t usually enjoy a lot of loose plot ends, and that was my only real issue here. I wanted to know the answers to important questions that never got resolved.

The Bone Fire is a book about which I cannot quite decide on my feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate what the author was trying to achieve with the blend of political drama and hints of old-world magic. However, I felt disconnected from the events and characters throughout, perhaps partly because of the way everything was related one-step removed from direct action. The whole time I waited for some overreaching plot element that never came, making this more a series of scenes than a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. It's a book where I enjoyed key moments but was left cold when reviewing the piece as a whole. As such, I am giving this three stars. If you like magical realism and are interested in life during and after communism, it's worth checking out, but this was not a story that captivated me, and not to which I would ever feel the need to return a second time.

The Bone Fire is, honestly, a really disturbing read, mainly due to the depiction of totalitarianism. It manages to transport you directly into the time and situation. And it made me want to research the actual facts because while reading those blend into the background. The politics are not the main topic, just the backdrop. The story offers magical realism and coming-of-age elements.
I loved the Grandmother, hated the parents. Emma is a lovable character as well and I thought that her transition into teenage/adulthood with all her experiences (parents and politics) was interesting to see and really well integrated in the plot.
I am generally a fan of magical realism and that is what got me into reading this book but I have to say that it was not how I would have expected it.
The book is weird, yes, but that contributes to its charme. Nevertheless it fell a little short for me in explaining or solving everything in the end. There were glimpses into either the real happenings (opening of the first supermarket) or Grandmother's memories that sometimes left me a bit at a loss. Maybe I really need to educate myself on communism and the end of it...

What really got me was the scene with Krisztina. Not gonna say more to avoid spoilers, but this was really deep and dark and emotional. Great part of the book!

It's a good book but the underlying topics are difficult and it is not an easy-going reading experience. In addition to what I would describe as incomplete magical realism, a lot of basic explanations were missing. All of that leads to me giving 3 stars.

This was an odd book. There was an air for mystery what was going on, and there are hints of magic. But the format wasn't for me.
There isn't any dialog. The story is told through the eyes of a young girl (I think she's 12 or 13), when characters talk it's a 'She says, Grandmother says, I say; and so on. That made it a struggle to connect to the characters, and stay invested in the plot.
No connection to the characters lead to no investment in the plot. It could also have been a translation issue since it was translated from Hungarian. Not sure though.
I can see how and where people have and do like his book. It just really wasn't for me.

Review to be sent in late February 2021 as per the request of the publishers that I received being accepted for the my request to read and review this title.