I was really excited for The Bone Witch, but I just couldn't get into it. I almost stopped about half-way through but decided to push on in the hopes that it would pick-up, but it just didn't. I finished the read, but do not plan on continuing with the series.

Rating a book for me is pretty much a no go when i dont finish the book, to give a star rating to something i DNF is pretty harsh. But i struggled to get into this book when i had such high hopes for it. I thought the premise sounded amazing and i was so sad that the switch in story telling ended up being so jarring to me. I do hope to at a later time revisit and see if i cant enjoy it the way i had hoped.

Tea had no idea she was a Bone Witch until the day she accidentally raised her brother from his coffin in the middle of his funeral! She didn't quite bring Fox back to life in the traditional sense of the word but his spirit is back and his body is now much more indestructible than it was before. Although people often seek out Bone Witches when they are in need of help they are also treated with suspicion in most villages so Tea is lucky to be accepted as an apprentice to another Bone Witch called Mykaela. Tea and Fox travel with Mykaela to the city where Tea will begin training in magic skills to become an Asha.

The story is skilfully told in two parts, there is young Tea who is a little naive and desperately trying to find her place in the world, she is eager to learn and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals, then there is an older Tea, one who has obviously seen more of the world and who has become jaded because of it. She is a harder character and one who is set on revenge for the wrongs she has suffered and she is telling her story to a travelling Bard. The two stories unravel alongside each other and it was really interesting waiting to see how the younger version of Tea would eventually become the older one.

I've seen a lot of mixed reviews for this book but I enjoyed every minute of it. The main complaint amongst my friends has been that the story was a little slow to unfold and they struggled with some of the language but I personally though the writing was absolutely beautiful. Yes this is a fairly slow story but the world building is so rich and detailed that I just loved spending time exploring it. I can definitely see why the story is compared to Memoirs of a Geisha because Tea's apprenticeship was very similar to Geisha training. This is a fantasy world but it's definitely based on Japanese culture and I think Rin Chupeco did a brilliant job bringing those two elements together.

The Bone Witch is a very promising start to a new series and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the sequel to find out what happens next.

I adored this book. It struck just the right balance between fantasy and folklore. The characters were engrossing and it was easy to get into the book because the author made them so interesting that you had to find out what happened to them.

This book was so beautiful. Told in alternating views of past and present, you read about a girl becoming a respected and feared death witch in her own community. The dichotomy between the past and present makes me want to know what happened well past the pages given.

Unfortunately, I DNFed this book in the first 22%. It just didn't grab my attention.

The descriptions are often too long and the pace of the book slows down about half wat through. . While the world presented is interesting it wasn't enough to keep me interested.

What I Loved:
'The Bone Witch' tells the story of 'Tea' who was given the gift of necromancy. Because of this gift, she is ostracized by those around her. She is than brought to a live with other Asha (witches of varying types).

High fantasy usually isn't one of my go to genres. I am more of a real world kind of gal. However, the premise (i.e. necromancy) of this story along with the fantastic cover, made me decide to give this one a shot.

I loved the character of Tea. She was both amazing and touchingly vulnerable. Her character was well-developed and relatable. I felt myself rooting 'Tea' throughout the book.

Since I am not much of a high fantasy reader, I generally am not used to world building so this was initially a lot to dig through. Once I got through the details the setting really brought me into 'Tea's' World. The description (especially of the clothing) was vibrant and truly amazing ( I want a hua for myself). I also thought it was unique the way Chupeco gave each kingdom a unique personality. Each kingdom had unique dress, customs, and rituals.

'Tea's story was unique and created an interesting tale for me. It had a interesting perspective and created a fairytale feeling .
I loved that the underlying story. I also loved that real world issues were explored inside the fantasy setting. 'Tea's' ostracism by those around her was definitely one of those issue. Tea couldn't help who and what she was born as but this didn't stop those around her for judging her because of it.

What Left Me Wanting More:
I was a little confused by the alternating POV. The POV's are 'Tea's' during her Asha training and an unknown narrator who speaking about 'Tea . Much of what is mentioned in the second POV is never explained.
The second half of the book did drag a bit for me. It felt as if some of the Asha daily life routine could have been skipped.
I also was constantly confused by the Eight Kingdoms and the cities within. There is a map at the beginning and a break down of each kingdom at the end that helped me sort things out a little.
The ending did leave me hanging a bit. Hopefully, the next installment with time up some of these loose ends . There is a twist at the end that was a little difficult to pick up on. Again, hopefully this will be explained it book two.


My Final Judgement:
'The Bone Witch' is a high fantasy novel with an amazing backdrop, complex characters, and timely topics. I loved it and it has inspired me to dive into more high fantasies soon. I can't wait to read the next installment of the series. Hopefully, future books will tie up some of the cliff hangers. (less)

Great book! Had me not wanting to put it down. Could not wait to see how it was going to end.

World building was fantastic yet again. I will always be blown away by this authors writing style.

I had high hopes for this one and maybe that was the biggest issue for me. It didn’t win me over as I had hoped. It felt like there wasn’t too much of a story but lots of description of everything. I get that at times that is needed, however with this book I felt it was overly done – sometimes it’s good to leave it to the reader’s imagination.

This will not deter me from reading book #2 when it’s released. I have a great feeling that this is one of those books, you either love it or not so much and unfortunately I fell in the latter. I have friends that loved it so please don’t hesitate to give it a try and see for yourself. Happy reading!

Why did I wait so long to read this?!? The heroine wasn't perfect, but I fell in love with the story. Excited for the sequel.

Another case where the cover fooled me.

I had heard mixed reviews going into this one, so I decided to take a chance and see what I thought of it. Unfortunately, my overall rating came out pretty low. This book was just so....boring.

Tea (pronounced Tay-uh) is a rather unextraordinary girl when we first meet her. But then, she accidentally raises her brother from the dead at this funeral and suddenly this whole world opens up and we discover that Tea is in fact a bone witch. She then gets whisked away by an elder bone witch to get proper training, taking her zombie brother with her. And there ends the actual plot of the story. Everything that happens after this is pretty much just descriptions of places and outfits and places and outfits and more outfits. Oh, did I mention how much the author liked to describe outfits? I mean, I get world building. And in a book like this, world building is important. But you also need some plot and action to go along with it.

The book was also told between past and present point of views from two different people. This was not very clear when I went into the story and I was a little thrown off. The only warning we had that these sections were different were because they were in italic. But what did those italics mean? Was it a dream? Was it the past? Was it the future? Was it even still Tea? Well, I came to learn that it was the future and it wasn't told by Tea.

I found myself skimming a lot of the book because I was just tired. Like I literally fell asleep twice while reading this one. The only character who stood out was the zombie brother Fox and there was just too little of him to keep me interested.

Also, was there a love story somewhere in there? I saw some reviews talk about one, but I could not find it anywhere.

So if you tend to like your reads that lean more toward just descriptions and worlds, then this one is probably for you. Sadly, I found this one lacking and it did not keep my interest enough to continue the series.

This book has been sitting on my to-be-read shelve for so long and the reason is probably because it has so many pages. I tried to love it, I really did but at the end I couldn't find myself able to fully enjoy it. I got over 50% of the story and then I started skimming the rest. There were so many unnecesarry details and no real answers. At first I really liked it and it was interesting but then Tea came to the city and all went to hell. She spends three years nothing but being a cleaning laidy and she learns nothing about her magic, how to use it and how she can own it, so it doesn't end up owning her. So yeah...that was not what I had in mind that would happen when I started reading this book. Basically I felt like nothing happened the whole time she was in the city. I know that something must of have but by that point my attention and interest was long lost on this book. There is some action by the end of the story and Tea shows her powers, so that was a plus. Also I liked that we got the present and the past POV of Tea's story. But other than that, there wasn't much to my liking. I don't think I'm going to read the sequel but if you can get past the 50% mark and are still enjoying it, then go for it.

This review is long overdue. Sorry...

I was really excited about this book. An interesting fantasy premise, inspired by Japanese geishas (I think), if the geishas were badass magic users and fighters, in addition to being master entertainers. The world-building is superb, and I really appreciated the thought that Chupeco put into her world.

But I had a hard time with the pains the author took to being mysterious, and the slow reveal that happened for various plot points, in order to be more mysterious. And after awhile, the achingly slow reveals caused the long descriptions of asha life to seem tedious as I waited for more plot.

Still, I was intrigued enough that I will probably continue with the series. The back-and-forth between the two time periods was a bit annoying, but at the same time did make me want to find out what happened in-between, as well as after.

Chupeco's world building is stellar, as is the character development. The tension builds to the nearly cliff-hanging ending, leaving the reader satisfied and yet wanting more. The magic is different and clever. Recommended.

Was unable to download the galley in time, before it was archived.

Rin Chupeco's "The Bone Witch" is bursting with masterful world building, with zoroastrian demons, a geisha like society, and magic. Both an adventure and a "memoir" Tea ensnares both the reader and the storyteller with her tale as she takes the first steps towards a grimer destiny. A truly, deeply, Fantastic beginning to the series.

I wanted to love this book, I really did, but I could just never really get into it. The beginning was great, but it quickly faded off for me. I usually love world building and amazing descriptions, but I felt like that was all this book was. If there was really a plot in there, I missed it through all of the descriptions. Overall, it's not a bad read, just not one that really grabs you, pulls you in and doesn't let go. Maybe at another time in my life, I would have enjoyed it more. I have heard great things about this author, so I do plan to check out her other books in the future. A huge thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the review copy!