Slavic folklore has been popular in the YA genre for about a decade now, and <i>Bone Weavers</i> is a good example of how the market has reached the saturation point. Some of the earlier works like Bardugo's Grisha series really mine Slavic folklore for some of the more unique traits while others like Emily Duncan's Something Dark and Holy show a complete (and sometimes wildly racist and anti-semitic) mishandling of another culture. Polydoros's <i> Bone Weaver</i> doesn't cross the line the way that Duncan's work does, but it's an example of cultural appropriation where the writer genuinely doesn't seem to grasp the culture he's writing about. The book probably would have been more engaging if it wasn't shoe horned into Slavic folk culture. Instead the folk characters come across as mishandled and the plot points don't ever quite come together in a satisfying way.

More confusing is the author's note at the back of the book where the author notes his family came from imperial Russia (did his family move before the collapse of tsarist Russia? maybe through a magical time machine and manage to skip through Russia's history post 1917?) It's a bizarre claim and a weak way of trying to claim a connection to Slavic culture.


Thanks, NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

There's parts of this book I enjoyed and others that felt a bit slow for me.

I'm not the demographic for YA but generally enjoyed the book. It's gory and not for the faint of heart. It's a story about family and identity as well as death. Toma is a likable character and we follow her as she quests to save her sister, fall in love, and find out who she is.

Overall it's an interesting read.

Bone Weaver is an intense story centering on family, identity, and the struggle of surviving in a world that doesn’t believe you belong. This was a strong fantasy read; while it did have some things that detracted from it for me, the rest of the book made up for it.

The three protagonists in this one seemed interesting, though I felt I personally couldn’t connect with their interests/worries. I think overall it was because their backstory was so shallow. Maybe as the series progresses, but you have to hit me from the start.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling in Bone Weaver. Aden Polydoros’s characters were enjoyable and felt solid to me, as did their struggles. I felt drawn in immediately and stayed intrigued through the monsters, both human and of folklore, and the war torn landscape. This parallel to Imperial Russia holds up, in my opinion.

Toma, adopted daughter of a family of undead, crosses paths with the young Tsar, Mikhail, rescuing him after a plane crash. Toma's sister ends up being kidnapped by ennemies to Mikhail's throne. She leaves her peaceful land with Mikhail to retrieve her and help Mikhail get back to his throne. On their way, they meet Vanya, a commoner with magic powers. Together, they travel to the stolen castle in hope to restore Mikhail's powers and find Galina.

Here you have a story of found family with ups and downs, you have a real love triangle and a beautiful portrait of the slavic folkore. Monsters are not always what they seem. You discover that no side is completly exempt from cruelty, even the good guys have bad guys.

I found this book so well done. The story was flowing and dreamy. I would have loved a little bit more of Toma's backstory. I thought her mother's memories were beautiful even if sad.

Toma lives a very happy and peaceful life on the edge of civilization with her extremely unique family. Although none of them are directly related to one another, Toms cares for them as if they were her real family. To make things even more interesting, Toma is the only living, breathing member of her family as her mother, father and sister are all undead.

It seems that the Kosa Empire has always been embroiled in a nasty civil war. Toma does not have many memories of her real family or where she originate from and living so far from the war she does not have any real concept of what has been going on in the rest of the world. That is until two dirigibles crash not far from her cozy home. Toma manages to save a passenger from the first vessel and he just happens to be the Tsar of Kosa, Mikhail. Unfortunately, two other survivors manage to kidnap Toma's younger sister Galina to gift to the evil leader of the revolution, Kochei, where she will be studied and tortured.

Toma agrees to assist Mikhail in his travels back home as long as he agrees to help her save her sister. While on their quest, Mikhail and Toma meet the ever clever jokester Vanya, who has been exiled due to his magical powers. During their travels Toma starts to regain memories from her past and realizes that she has powers of her own that she never knew existed.

Aden Polydoros is an author I have never read before and I truly enjoyed the Bone Weaver. His storytelling is unique, the characters are well built, and his descriptions enhance the picture created in my mind. Even though the countryside of Kosa is war torn, Polydoros eloquently describes the sewing on Toma's clothes in such a way that I imagined the most beautiful piece of cloth with the most elegant stitching. I believe there will be more told of Toma's back story and an interested to learn more about her life, her really parents, and where she comes from.

This wasn't my cup of tea. It is just not written to my taste. I wouldn't buy this for the library unless requested.

Poly Doris is fast becoming my favorite YA author. The story is captivating and compelling with rich characters and world building. I’m so obsessed with every single aspect of this book and can’t wait for others to read it!

The Bone Weaver, written by Aden Polydoros follows Toma , raised by constructs, Vanya, a man with powers shunned by his people, and the Tsar, the three embark on a mission to change their world.

This is another book that I just enjoyed so much, it embraced a lot of Russian styles and the characters were so well written and compelling.

Toma's insistence to save her sister was heart-wrenching and amazing, and the fact that she got her companions to look at the world a bit differently was wonderful to watch. This is the tale of a journey taken to defeat the bad, and it was wonderful to read.

Particularly Vanya and Toma's growth and relationship with one another. Toma has a skill, a power, that she doesn't even know about, but she finally finds someone she truly connects with. The Tsar makes for a great, engaging character, but I for one am very happy for a different love interest for Toma.

This is another book that I really, really hope gets a sequel. The ending is satisfying, but also... I think that they have more adventures to tell.

I did receive a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a hard book for me. It was aggressively "just okay" until maybe the last quarter, when I started enjoying myself.

I liked the world building, but the writing just wasn't immersive to me. It felt like the book was just trying to shove each monster from the mythology into the story, rather than really showing how they interact with the world and make it different from ours. Some effort was put into it later on, but it could have been a lot better.

The politics were supposed to be really important, to both the world and the plot, and I like that the book tried to make it really gray, with both sides being bad, but in the end the treatment still felt too simplistic. The Strannik history was better done, it definitely pulled a lot from Jewish history without being exactly 1:1, which I like. But the current day political climate didn't feel fleshed out enough.

The dynamic between the three main characters should have been a real showstopper, but I never felt that connected to any of them. The emotionality just wasn't there. We kept being told the boys were so different from each other, and that Vanya was smooth and likable, but it was never that apparent. Honestly, I even got the two of the boys confused sometimes. Their dialogue didn't sound much different from each other. And I would have liked Toma's reckoning with her past to feel deeper and more emotional.

I give it three stars for never being totally bad, and for the last 25% being better, but overall I don't think I'll be recommending this book much.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I don't usually like books with zombies, but this book pulls it off. I really enjoyed the characters and the plot was intriguing, but sluggish and slow paced in certain parts. It is an enjoyable read.

Toma doesn’t think that her life is abnormal. She lives with her mother, father, and sister – not birth family, but rather undead who are still sentient and benevolent. But when a dirigible crashes nearby and she rescues a survivor, she realizes that there is much more going on in the world around her than she knew. And when the men hunting the person she rescued kidnap her sister instead, Toma must venture into the world of the living in search of her family.

This work takes place in a setting reminiscent of Imperial Russia, with rifles, dirigibles, and magic. I really enjoyed the choice of a historical fantasy setting. Just a heads up, there’s a glossary in the back of the book – it should definitely be utilized while reading this! There was no map though, which I felt was a bit of an oversight.

The main thing that stood about this work was the worldbuilding. The author incorporated eastern folklore throughout in a way that created an immersive, rich setting. I absolutely loved the inclusion of the different monsters and that they were regularly encountered or seen during Toma’s travels. This built tension, made the world feel three dimensional, and brough life to the story. But because there was so much lore and worldbuilding packed into the book, there were some aspects that felt underexplained – unfortunately there wasn’t much detail concerning the war or the undead in general, both of which had somewhat major roles surrounding the plot.

I really enjoyed the plot. It wasn’t complicated or especially unique, but placed in this unique world, it felt like something completely new. The characters were also well written. They had varying motivations and backgrounds and underwent solid development throughout the work. I did feel that the dialogue, mostly in relation to emotional situations, was a little simplistic in places – I would have enjoyed to see more of an exploration of the characters’ emotions throughout the work.

There were several themes that the author incorporated throughout this work in a meaningful way. Discussions of found family, identity, what makes a monster, and survival in a world that is against you were woven throughout the story, adding to its and the characters’ depth.

Overall, this was a strong fantasy read; while it did have a few things that detracted from it for me, the rest of the book made up for it.

I received a complimentary copy of this work through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I received an ARC for my honest review.

This book was a good book. Not my favorite. Not the worse. But, it was okay. Some parts of the text were fast paced, others were more slow. Overall, it was good.

I thought I would love this book. Based on the synopsis, it seemed interesting and like something I would enjoy.
Unfortunately, I found this a bit of a frustrating read. It was, in my opinion, overly descriptive to a fault without actually telling us things that would be helpful in understanding some of what the author was trying to portray.
I struggled to finish this book as I found it lacking for the most part, especially in the middle, but everything seemed jammed in the end where it does indeed pick up more. It felt like the book was completed but without actually wrapping up the storyline.

As a side note, I wish I had known there was a glossary ahead of time to utilize. Unfortunately with having the copy as an eBook, I didn’t realize it until the end and it would have been helpful.

I would like to thank NetGalley as well as Inkyard press for a copy of this ARC eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Bone Weaver was absolutely enchanting! Polydoros wrote a story that was so well written I found myself flying through the pages, unable to put the book down, pondering what would happen next. My favorite piece of this entire story was how believable the characters were.

The writing is clear and clean, and very immersive. The book hums along at a good clip, but the pacing makes sure we're given time to breathe between plot-intensifying moments. The story was absolutely engaging and the work that went into the settings was noticeable and superb. I felt absolutely transported and I'm so incredibly glad I was able to read an arc of this story.

I really enjoyed the concept of this fantasy book. From the start I thought it was super unique compared to other stories of similar genre. As much as I liked the concept I felt there was something missing in the writing especially when it came to character development. Everything was a bit unpredictable which isn’t always a bad thing, but in this case, I found the characters and the story pulling things in that didn’t make sense. I found it really hard to connect with the characters because I didn’t know enough about them! The writing was not bad, and I got some really beautiful pictures because of it. However, sometimes I think those picturesque moments trailed on a bit too long. Overall I enjoyed it but just wish there had been a bit more meat to the book!

In a journey of self-discovery, Toma traverses a civil war-torn world to rescue her sister from the men who kidnapped her. Though the various types of reborn and undead mark her path, and Toma befriends a village boy and the deposed Tsar, she quickly finds that the true monsters of her world are other humans. The power-hungry and vengeful men of both sides of this war will stop at nothing to get what they want, and so Toma must sink to their level before she can rise above them.

This story is full of rich worldbuilding and unique use of Slavic folklore and mythology. It was a bit of a frustrating read, though, because a lot of the magical aspects of the plot were not explained well. I think there was an attempt at showing instead of telling, but it didn't show us enough as readers to understand some of the intricacies of the undead or the war itself.

The three main characters are wonderful, and I of course adored Vanya entirely. I think that, without such good characters, I would have really had to slog through this book. But I cared about them enough to wonder about their well-being and read chapter after chapter.

I think this book felt like a prequel and not really the first book in a series (which I assume is what this is). The battles and war are the main meat of the plot and world, but we get very little of that until the end. I'm not really dying for another book, because it feels like this one was complete without actually addressing any of the major problems in the story.

This book is A TRIP! Toma is such a great main character and as she goes on this journey to save her sister with Vanya and Mikhail, it becomes something more. She starts to figure out who she I and who her mother was. I love when main characters come to love themselves through the novel. The author did a great job at creating this world that was easy to understand and very fun to follow and be in. The world was so interesting and I didn't know what to expect going in, but I'm so happy with it! I will be looking out of this author more when they publish their next one.

5/5 stars! Had such a book hangover afterwards. Would recommend to folks who love adventure and finding themselves.

**Thank you NetGalley for providing a review copy! I am voluntarily leaving this review!

An interesting story that draws from Slavic folklore. It's pretty standard quest fantasy with an overly-powered protagonist, but the universe is interesting enough to give it a pass.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.