First, this cover! I love it!

This one is such a different story - dark and uniquely twisted featuring sci-fi, fantasy and maybe what could even be a little horror and toss in some political drama.

Mistress Charm, runs the brothel, but she is also held by a mindlock and is that special someone to the Emperor. On his deathbed he charges her with figuring out which of his sons murdered him. He leaves her in charge of determining who will replace him, this is her last mission and then she is free, or is she? Her main concern is for her workers, her boneghosts; not quite human but not quite anything else either.

I really wasn't sure about this one in the beginning but I ended up liking it. There were things that I would have liked to see done differently. I appreciate some of the narrative here and the plot was intriguing however, I felt it lacked consistent quality.

I feel like any details would giveaway things and I don't like to spoil. I went in this one blind and I think everyone else would benefit from that as well. So I'll leave this warning: necromancy, pedophilia, abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, murder, mind control, experimentation (some are only mentions and some are on page).

Thank you to Tor Books, NetGalley, and Sara A. Mueller for the advanced review copy.

A BIG thank you to NetGalley, to Tor Books, and to Ms. Mueller for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

I cannot believe this was a debut book. Sara Mueller's writing is so dynamic, so lush, so addictive, I found myself swept up in the story and up far too late at night to keep reading it.

Honestly, to describe this book more than the dust jacket does is to spoil. There isn't a lot I can say about the plot without possibly giving something away. Basically, Charm is the madam at a bordello that caters to the nobility and elite of Boren, and specifically (and personally) to the Emperor, every Tuesday. Right at the beginning the Emperor is poisoned and charges Charm with discovering which of his sons did it, reasoning that the one who did would likely be the next Emperor. In exchange, Charm and all her "boneghosts" will be freed of the mindlock (sort of a psychic/mental control device) that the Emperor had implanted into Charm's skull.

This was amazing. There were so many layers of detail and such deft political maneuvering. I have to say, this book is not for the faint of heart or easily triggered. There is a lot of darkness here. Nonetheless, I think this is probably one of my favorite books I've read this year, easily. I know it will stick with me long afterwards.

This is a spoiler! Be warned!

[I would like to know, perhaps, what exactly became of "the lady"? And perhaps a little bit more precisely what her former role in Inshil was? I mean, I can extrapolate from the clues but it's still a bit hazy. And, I would have liked some closure on Luther. I made some assumptions but it's not enough; I want to know what the NEW new Emperor (can't spoil it, even in a spoiler!) is going to do with/about him.]

Really, really amazing. Loved it. 🤩

The Bone Orchard was breathtakingly written. I'm not sure my heart ever stopped racing. The gothic feel and the "who done it" thriller aspect play so well together on the page. The political aspects tossed into the mix give Charm a very interesting, and at times, dangerous, game to play trying to weed through lies to find the truth.

Charm is many things; a witch, a whore, a businesswoman, a rebel, but she is also not entirely herself. She stays in Orchard house, overlooking her bone ghosts Pain, Pride, Justice, Shame & Desire, girls not entirely real but the elite of Borenguard pay healthily to spend time with them nonetheless. All except Charm who is the Emperor's alone. But when the Emperor dies under suspicious circumstances, Charm is the only one with the ability to find out which of his sons planned his murder and avenge him. If she does this she will finally have her freedom, but she will also be denying the parts of herself she thought lost, and soon she will have to choose between saving the parts of herself and avenging the murder of the Emperor.

I'm going to start off by apologising for how disjointed this review will be. There was so much about this book that I loved, the magic system, the characters, the political machinations as well as the themes that are dealt with, and as separate parts these were all excellently done, however as whole I just felt there was a little too much going on, not quite enough explanation, and because of that I really struggled to invest myself in the story.

As usual I'll start with the characters and Charm is certainly one of the most unique characters I've come across. The last in a long line of necromancers, she was taken from her Kingdom and put to work for the Emperor where she created her 'children' out of Bone's grown in her Orchard. She is controlled by the Mindlock in her head, something that all 'psychic' citizens must have to ensure the safety of themselves as well as others, but after the Emperor eases her lock to let her look for his killer Charm starts to unravel, she starts to have hints of things, events, feelings that she doesn't remember happening. She's an incredibly intricate and unique character for reasons that I can't really go into because of spoilers, but she's incredibly strong willed and protective of the girls she has created, and the she knows how to play people, be they low or highborn, making sure she is kept up to date on all the politics and inner workings of the city.

Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain are all as unique as their names would suggest, and they each bear their own scars, both physically and mentally. Were never 100% sure how these women came to be, how they were created, where their personalities come from, and this is one of the mysteries weaving through the plot that I was wholly invested in. With this being part political fantasy as well there is a large cast of political players from Princes, to members of parliament and they all play an integral part in the story. Mueller drops hints throughout the book to the multiple mysteries we are dealing with, but it isn't until you get to the big reveal that you realise just how impressive her foreshadowing was, and how integral our characters are to the overall story.

It did take me a hot minute to get my head around the magic system that Mueller created. There isn't really any easing into it, it's more a 'learn as you go along' which is one of the reasons why I didn't feel 100% invested in the story. But it was definitely worth the wait, and once I got my head round it I just thrived for more knowledge. It's extremely intricate, with the country having to deal with people who have psychic powers who previously had gone mad, they now, thanks to stealing the technology, have mindlocks, instruments that are inserted into the psychics brain, controlling not only their powers, but their thoughts, actions and even memories. Charm herself is a necromancer, but also able to read people though physical touch, something that comes in incredibly useful when searching for the Emperor's killer.

The Bone Orchard is an incredibly dark book, dealing with some strong themes such as rape (off page) as well as physical/mental abuse & the treatment of sex workers to name a few. It's a book that highlights the depravity of humanity instead of hiding it, and shows the fragility of our minds and bodies, but also the strength we can show when the need arises. There's a lot of parts of this book that I loved, and really moved me, that I can't mention because they contain spoilers, but the dark atmosphere of the story and the scheming, tenacity and resilience of the characters was one of the reasons I loved it so much, and definitely one of the reasons I continued reading, even when I felt like I was in over my head.

There's multiple mysteries, as well as story lines weaving through The Bone Orchard and I think, because there were so many, I found myself caring more about some than others. This took me out of the book a little, and because of the intricacy of everything that's included I just felt a little overwhelmed in parts. That's not to say that the mysteries weren't woven well, in fact the question of who exactly the women were, how they were made, where they came from was one that had me completely hooked throughout the story and the one that, once answered, packed one hell of an emotional punch. While there is a little romance, this is more a story about ourselves, and the parts we like to hide from, the ones we would rather live without, but the parts that we wouldn't be able to truly live without.

As a whole, I found this book packed a little too much punch, and definitely felt overwhelmed in parts. However, all of the separate parts, the mysteries, the magic system, the characters were all expertly done, and I was certainly glad that I stuck with the book, even when I didn't truly understand what was happening. It's certainly a slow burner, but the darkness it exudes was just too enticing to pass up & I will certainly be eager to see what the author brings out next.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty complicated story so I'm going to leave a pretty simple review. The concept of this was unique as hell but the execution was a bit on the weak side. I think The Bone Orchard would've really benefited from another round of editing or two but the story is interesting if you can look past that.

An extraordinary and somewhat psychotic journey into the self through a fantastical lens. Almost indescribable.

Charm presides over Orchard House, the foremost gentlemen’s club in Boren, where those with money and inclination can find an excellent meal and amiable company, whether it be at the card tables with other members of the nobility or in the rooms on the second floor with one of Mistress Charm’s boneghosts. Charm herself is the mistress of the Emperor, who took her as a captive from her homeland of Inshil many decades ago and set her up in this stately home now turned into a bustling enterprise.

But Charm was not always in the hospitality business. Back in Inshil, she was considered one of the greatest necromancers of her age, capable of growing entire human beings from the bones she carefully tended from her orchard. In order to imbue these boneghosts, as she calls them, with an animating force, she must splinter off parts of her own personality, resulting in her staff consisting of women named Pain, Pride, Justice, Shame and Desire, each embodiments of the relevant part of her psyche. Some parts are now more independent than others, but almost all of them have reconciled themselves to living in Boren, even if a small, secret part of Charm constantly longs for home.

So when Charm is summoned one evening to the Emperor’s bedside, she’s shocked to discover that he’s dying, and that he suspects one of his four sons of poisoning him. He promises her her freedom if she can find out who did it and avenge his death. Charm agrees, even as she reels at this massive change to the terms of her existence:

QUOTE
The lack of her emperor at the center of Boren was a gaping hole in her orderly life, jailer though he had been. She wanted him to talk to, and she hated it. He had been her captor, but also her steadiest company for so long. And now he’d put freedom just tantalizingly out of reach. So close she could scrabble at the edges of it. And he had known she would. Until her fingers bled.
END QUOTE

Trouble is, all four of the Emperor’s sons are horrible people who could each have easily ordered his assassination, if not actively taken part in it themselves. Charm must use her formidable talents as well as her unique position in the demi-monde to figure out not only who killed the Emperor but why, even as civil war threatens to tear apart the country that she – or at least a strong part of her – has reluctantly begun to think of as her own.

This was a fascinating, complex tale of court intrigue and Baroque machinations in a Gothic dark fantasy setting of vivisectionists and necromancers, plying their morally ambiguous trades. The politics are sweeping and believable, and the magical science intriguing, suiting the plot elegantly. It is not, however, for the faint of heart. When, for example, Shame is attacked by a raging patron with a cheese knife, Charm places her in a resurrection tank to heal, but is horrified to discover a complication some days later:

QUOTE
Mold was creeping beneath the skin on Shame’s face, veining the porcelain fairness with deadly midnight blue. The edges of her wound had bloomed open under the pressure of the growing mass. Whips of the cheese mold floated free like grotesque tentacles in the empathy fluid. The contamination had spread across the bridge of Shame’s nose, the color beneath her skin mimicking bruises. It had crept down into the major blood vessels in her neck, and from there it had transformed her breast into a grossly swollen, lumpy tumor.
END QUOTE

I always love when a book blends science with magic like this, gruesome as the results may be. My absolute favorite part of this promising debut novel though was the clever construction of the many-layered mysteries. From the secret of who killed the Emperor to the stunning revelation of why, I was thoroughly impressed with the way the mysteries, even the seemingly smaller ones, were carefully obscured and revealed throughout the course of this tale. The characters can be somewhat difficult to like – in large part due to Sara A Mueller’s understandable need to give them each the weight they deserve, warts and all – but the resolution is emotionally satisfying, making for the perfect kind of gateway book for people looking to branch out into reading new genres, whether from mystery to dark fantasy or vice versa.

Nothing in this story was expected! Bones growing on trees, bodies built in empathy fluids, souls shared or transferred, having immortality elixir as a daily vitamin, and mindlocks storing away memories and giving control to those who installed that… and this is only the physical things that fit the unexpected bill

Charm is “locked up” in a house: call it a brothel, call it a lab, call it a witch’s lair. That house can be anything and everything Charm makes it to be because that’s the only place she rules, only place she feels safe. Her ghost babies are there. Even though she loves them, she stills works them in places that fit their identity: pain, desire, pride, shame, justice. Charm is property of the emperor of this place and she is tasked by the same king to find who killed him

Find the culprit will open many Pandora’s boxes for Charm. She will need to face everyone who wants to get rid of her outside her own kingdom and also the ones within. When all the dots are connected, you will see that this is story of an abuse, a torture, a self actualization and a process of letting go.

Thank you Tor and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Orchard is a standalone fantasy that brilliantly combines elements of the fantasy, sci-fi and mystery genres. This was a darker novel with so many twists and turns. It was unlike anything I have read before and I feel The Bone Orchard is going to be a book I'm going to be recommending for a long time.

Soooo yeah, based on the synopsis, Mistress Charm is going through it. Her life is not her own, she's trying to solve the mystery of the emperor's murder, all four of his sons are the literal WORST and are breathing down her neck, and to top it all off, Charm is just trying to run her business and cash a check!!! Needless to say, it's been a busy time at Orchard House.

Even though I loved all of the things mentioned above, those story elements don't even begin to scratch the surface of what The Bone Orchard is actually about. This novel is a deep exploration of trauma, power dynamics, and the lies we tell ourselves just to survive. It's about how Mistress Charm reconciles with her dysfunctional coping mechanisms. I thought the author did a great job of tackling these darker, more complex themes. Charm is a warrior and her story is heart breaking. I don't want to spoil anyone but Charm is an incredibly complex woman who just trying to figure herself out, much like how we all are trying to do the same.

I loved this book. I don't think The Bone Orchard will be for everyone because it's very character driven and atmospheric but I thought it was truly unique!

2.75
Thank you NetGalley and publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Im not sure what to say about this one. I was close to not finishing it, but I pushed through. I think the premise is a good one just not well executed. The author tried to pack too much in to this story, and often the transitions weren’t smooth. One paragraph would just to multiple topics without warning. Made for a difficult read.

The next great gothic novel. Orchard House stands out as a character in of itself. The prose is utterly breathtaking and I eagerly await for what Mueller has next in store for us all. An utterly enthralling book I didn't want to ever put down.

Days after finishing The Bone Orchard, I'm still fascinated and impressed by the world building. The idea of re-animation and necromancy was enough to pique my interest. But Mueller goes a step further and has these bone ghosts that surround Charm - Pain, Desire, Pride, Shame, Justice, etc - and turns them into almost shades of Charm. Like pieces of her that splits off, that compartmentalize, that inhabit spaces surrounding her. And, finally, Mueller goes even further by introducing this idea of a mind lock.

A process which works with some sort of psychic ability and serves as a tool of obedience over someone. However this entire process is critiqued in The Bone Orchard as we find out how other societies treat psychics. Whether they revere them, honor them, or - like here - where they imprison them within cages in a semblance of protection. The Bone Orchard is an impressive feat of world building. At the same time, it's full of court politics and secrets.

DNF at 45%

The Bone Orchard is a blend of historical politics and science fiction which creates an intriguing fantasy world. Unfortunately, this just wasn't the right book at the right time for me. I couldn't wrap my head around the world and the intricate world building. I will likely pick it up from the library in the future because I think a print copy would help for my reading.

Orchard House is a gentleman's club in Borenguard run by Charm. The workers of Orchard House are boneghosts; lab-grown not-quite humans that Charm created. Charm is summoned to her Emporer's deathbed and charged with uncovering which of his sons has murdered him for the power of the throne. Through her work and family of boneghosts, Charm slowly discovers more about the players nearest the late Emporer and who might have had the motivation and desire to get rid of him. But will her past come back to tear down everything she's built before she gets a chance to enact revenge for the empire?

A beautifully crafted and unique story, The Bone Orchard is a gothic horror whodunnit unlike anything I've ever read. I love the way the author slowly reveals the details of Charm and her boneghosts, allowing the reader to piece together the puzzle of this society and story along with the characters. It doe a beautiful job of displaying what happens when you underestimate the women in such a patriarchal society, and how almost all of the most powerful players in this political game are the women. This is a book that I think would get even better on a reread, and I would love to pick apart everything meant by the crafted language throughout the novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

DNF
I love the concept of this book but with being a very writing style oriented reader, the second chapter was so jarring and plainly unconvincing of emotion that I just couldn't get behind it. I feel like the context we were given read as dry and forced. Plus the writing to me felt like a very much telling you what the character feels instead of showing and it's just a stylistic choice I'm not a fan of. Maybe I could try it in the future but this wasn't for me....

Magic, murder mystery, necromancy, and the emperor’s mistress. The story follows Charm, a witch and the emperor’s concubine, she also owns a brothel. She is part whore, part madam, and part scientist. In her brother she is held as a prisoner and a survivor, she painstakingly takes care of her children ( aka parts of her that she grows in a lab and names Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride and Pain, all of whom work at the brothel). Charm herself is the only mistress that serves the Emperor, every Tuesday on the dot, she serves him. However on this particular Tuesday she is called to see him, and discovers that he is dying. In this world people are trapped by mindlocks, essentially mind control. Charm has been trapped under the emperor’s for decades. On his deathbed he tasks her with discovering which one of his awful sons has murdered him and also offers her her freedom when she does. Now Charm must navigate the complicated political field that has come now that the emperor’s sons are all vying for the crown and discover who has murdered the emperor if she wants her freedom... except maybe she also wants her revenge. This story had me at the beginning but began to lose me 20% in, I felt like the magic system was a bit confusing and the overall whodunit was okay. It was definitely an interesting premise but it sort of lose me with the execution of the story. Overall, definitely give it a go if you’re looking for a gothic who-dunit witih magic.

*Thanks Netgalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I received an ARC from the publisher and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I had heard a lot of great early raves about The Bone Orchard, especially from Katee Robert, whose taste in SFF tends to align with mine. And this book is wonderful conceptually, and it does deliver well on that.
The world as we’re introduced to it is rather dark and gritty, and we see it from the perspective of Charm, the emperor’s mistress. The way it depicts sex work is well done, not shying away from the treatment of them (or women in general), while also unpacking it and not depicting it for the sake of shock value. I do think there are some moral and ethical gray areas here, and how you feel about it will vary, given there is depiction of pedophilia, although it is committed by a villain.
Charm as a character is compelling, and I really felt for her. She has some many facets and fragments to her personality due to what she‘s gone through, and I love the parallels to bones and the fragmentation there.
In addition to the brilliant, if a bit intense character work, there’s an intriguing mystery. I admit I wasn’t as invested in that element; I did sometimes feel like it could feel a bit scattered, and some threads were not fully woven together to the fullest extent. As it is a debut novel, I can excuse some of the craft elements, in hopes that Mueller will grow her talent and potential in future work.
I enjoyed this, and while I would caution people to be aware of the potentially sensitive topics before going in, I would recommend this to anyone who likes darker fantasy.
CW: sexual assault (off page), sexual abuse of a minor (off page), domestic violence (on page), suicide and suicidal ideation, death, murder, gore, body horror, emotional abuse, mind control, mental illness, human experimentation.

I was really surprised to end up DNF-ing The Bone Orchard – it was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022, and I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. The prose was compared to Jacqueline Carey’s in the pre-release materials! But something didn’t quite work, and when I got to the halfway point and realised I had no interest in how it ended – well.

It’s really hard to explain what about this didn’t work for me. It’s specifically the prose – it’s…too fast-paced? I don’t know the technical terminology, but reading it was like…a paragraph would abruptly change halfway through to focus on a new thing. Or there would be a jump in topics between one paragraph and the next, with no transition. Details were shared in random places, jarring the flow of the writing. It’s kind of subtle; it took me forever to realise what was making me uncomfortable and disinterested.

Plot-wise, the story seemed to be packed full of All The Things, with not a whole lot of room for any of those things to get much emotional development – so I really didn’t care about almost any of it. Also, even once I was halfway through the book, I still had no idea who the Emperor’s murderer was – I didn’t have even the most tentative theory, it felt like there was no evidence one way or another on any of the suspects – and the book kept introducing new characters and issues and objects and expecting me to be immediately invested in them, despite not giving me much to work with. There were so many little sub-plots or threads going on, but even though I could follow most of them, none of them felt important, and most of them didn’t feel very relevant to the main story. (Possibly it would all have come together in the second half of the book, in fairness.) I had no idea why x, y or z was supposed to matter, which was frustrating in the extreme when the characters treated the thing as Very Significant.

The premise of Mistress Charm and the bone-ghosts, the true nature of them all, was very cool, but the execution felt a little clumsy to me, particularly the dynamic and interaction of Charm and The Lady.

I probably could have put up with all of that if the prose was actually Carey-esque, but as implied, it was not. The jerkiness especially was just not something I could put up with – it was incredibly grating, and the effect just got worse as the book went along.

2.5, rounded up

The Bone Orchard is a brilliant adult gothic fantasy book with magical worldbuilding, fascinating characters, and a thrilling & dark story that explores women's place in society, the treatment of sex workers, power, and powerful women who manage to fight & win against all odds.

It has a magical horror/thriller feel and is a story that talks about a lot of themes that can be triggering for some including rape, death, & abuse. Despite all that, it's also surprisingly entertaining, beautifully written, and a rare fantasy book that'll make you think. Can't wait to read more of Mueller's works.

Thank you for the ARC!

my rating: 3.5 of 5 stars.

Overall, I enjoyed the unique concept created in The Bone Orchard. Dark, full of political machinations and necromancy, Mueller’s debut is filled visually with decadent descriptions and intrigue.

Imagine a courtesan, who is also a necromancer. One who grows and regrows her children—pieces of her she names: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain, in order to appease the many dark desires of her customers.

In this world, Lady Charm is also the favored concubine of the Emperor and is unexpectedly summoned to his deathbed where he charges her with choosing which of sons will carry on the empire—only first she must discover which one is responsible for his murder.

The beginning is a bit confusing as you try to separate and understand the workings of Charm and the Orchard House. Bone magic and conspiracies combine for a subtle unraveling of the mystery.

Although I really enjoyed the dark atmosphere and writing, my one complaint is that even though readers become familiar with Charm and her boneghosts, the concepts felt confusing and vague, especially in the beginning. It may be that this was done with the purpose of creating a mysterious atmosphere but in the end, it left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed.

Overall, an enjoyable debut that I would recommend to dark fantasy readers looking for something new and unique.