I really wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I was drawn in immediately. The story goes back and forth between present day as Tea talks to the Bard who has come to learn her story and the past when Tea first learned that she would become a Dark Asha.

Chupeco has created a rich world with many layers and political intrigue. Magic is common but the gift of the Dark Asha is looked at with fear and disdain. Tea's back story is interesting and slowly builds you up to present day. You watch her grow from a scared 12 year old who accidentally raises her brother from the dead to a skilled kick ass woman at 17.

As the story unfolded I became more and more invested in the characters and really wanted to get to know a few of them a bit more. Since this is the first book in a series I'm hoping that more will come from some of these other characters that Chupeco has given us a taste of.

Everyone in this world has a heartglass and the color of the glass tells you how you feel and also determines what you will be. There doesn't seem to be any room for someone to make choices of free will in this world since you are pushed in the direction your heartglass leads you.

There are many different themes throughout the book that really seem directed at following your own heart and not so much what society thinks you should do.

I really liked this book and look forward to the rest of the series.

This book started off a little confusing until I realized it was the traveler telling the story . There were many new expressions and categories that kept me on my toes. The world in this read definely had me thinking feudal times and I was not real attracted to the treatment and "assignments" of the witches in training. Felt like they were taken to a brothel and the "Madam" profited off their entertainment of the men who ruled the lands. Good world building but not really my cup of tea.

This book's a little difficult to rate. I struggled to get into it a little at the beginning, and found it slow in places, but also really enjoyed it? It's also hard to describe. It's something like a villain's origin story or Memoirs of a Geisha meets AHS Coven (but YA, obvs)?

The book uses a nice framing technique, Tea (the protagonist) is telling her story, while setting up for the sequel, so there's a bit of foreshadowing and hinting going on from the start. The flashbacks (the main part of the story) cover the period of Tea's training and apprenticeship as a Dark Asha. Because of this, sometimes the story has quite a 'and then this happened, and then that happened' feel as it covers day-to-day activities, day-in-the-life type stuff. You feel even without the 'present day' elements, that this is a first instalment, setting up for the action of a sequel.

On the other hand, the low action plot doesn't matter, because you'll be too busy admiring Chupeco's writing. The language itself is beautiful, full of elaborate descriptions of drool-worth foods and stunning clothes. Especially the food, oh my gosh, the food! The Asha culture, politico-social structures and magic system is also really well described and interesting to see. The more inter-country politics are a lot broader, and gone into in less detail, but there's enough to really set the context of the Asha and Tea's place in the world.

There's also some great relationships in this book. My favourite is Tea's relationship with her dead brother, Fox. There's an understanding and supportiveness between the two that I don't see often in books so I really enjoyed that. Tea also has great relationships with her mentor Mykela and the other asha (although there is the stereotype 'high-school' bitch too...) Oddly, although Tea's romantic relationships are really stressed in the 'current day' as her motivation (meeting her two love interests on the same day, 'the man she loved' being killed) for action, it doesn't really play much of a part except in passing. It's pretty obvious who they are, but what little we see on page is nicely done.

This review will go up on my blog, Foxes and Fairy Tales on 5 April 2017.
https://foxesfairytale.wordpress.com/2017/04/05/review-the-bone-witch

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In every chapter we have 2 points of view: Tea in the present, telling her story to a bard, and Tea in the past learning to become an asha. The premise is interesting and immediately as you start reading, you wonder to yourself about Tea's situation. You will not get an answer to the question that forms in your head in this installment, just so you know. The end of this book really pulls you in, but I wish the momentum that I felt at the end started a bit earlier in the book.

The story is very slow building. We follow Tea in her studies, which is very similar to a geisha or gisaeng, I think. She learns how to sing, dance, play instruments, but she also learns self defense and attack skills as well as ways to hone her magical abilities. Men hire her at tea houses for conversational and artistic entertainment and the more renown she becomes, the higher the price they pay for her company. Also, part of what she earns at the tea houses goes to paying back what her asha-ka, or the house that she belongs to, has already paid for her training. Reading how Tea learned these techniques and how she rises up the ranks was interesting, but it wasn't enough to glue me to the book until I finished, at least not until the last 10% of the book.

I do believe that if some of Tea's journey to becoming an asha were condensed, it would've propelled the story a bit faster. Part of what slowed me down is that there isn't a lot of action in the story. Nothing really pulled at me to come back to the story and I would step away from it for days at a time. Another thing that bothered me was that more than half way into the book we're told that Tea's name is pronounced Tay-uh. Personally, this was very confusing and I couldn't get myself to pronounce her name the way it was supposed to be pronounced. If this pronunciation was introduced at the beginning of the book, this wouldn't have made me stumble every time I read her name after that pronunciation was introduced.

Truthfully, this book took a lot longer to get through than I thought it would. I feel though that now that the story has gained momentum, the next book should move much faster and I am interested to see more of Tea's journey and get an answer to the question that I have had since the beginning of this book. I did enjoy this, despite my issues above, and am looking forward to the sequel.

The Bone Witch caught my eye because I loved Rin Chupeco’s writing in her The Girl from the Well stories. She has this way of making things have this haunting feel to them that really brings the best out of stories like these. I really enjoyed her writing once and again as well as the story itself.

I love how this story is told. Present Tea is relating the story of how she got to where she is to a bard. It was interesting to go back and forth because you start to see Tea in a different light as things begin to match up. I loved her as an MC. She was just such an interesting character, especially for the fact she often mentions that it feels good to draw from the dark magic. As the story goes along you start to wonder what side is she one. Is she good or bad? The lines all seem blurred. I loved how intelligent she is, even if at times she can be impulsive. I love her fondness for her brother and her Asha sisters. I also really like that Tea wants to do the right thing by her friend, who is a boy but loves to dance and sing more than be a soldier. She understand why he has to be forced into a role he doesn’t want.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read Memoirs of a Geisha, but I have to say the Willows reminds me of that a little. I guess the Asha are similar to Geisha except of course they have magic. They also have their own political world outside that of the kingdom politics and each House is kind of like it’s own kingdom. The Asha system used to be a bigger part of the political game I think but then they started to veer off in their own agendas. We spend a large amount of the story with Tea learning to be an apprentice and the ins and outs of the world. It’s very intriguing. I also love the time that is taken to describe all the different outfits and adornments. An Asha’s Hua can tell a lot about her.

I find the relationship and the Oracle to also be intriguing. It’s only lightly explored in this book but I’m curious to see how much more details there are in the next book. As Tea walks this line between what is considered to be good and evil (I think the considered is important), I want to know what part the oracle is really playing.

There are some other great side characters. Like the Heartforger and his apprentice, the different shop owners and of course other Asha. Of course there is the light love interest, again it’s not deeply explored...yet.

So the ending….leaves you like, okay I need the next book. It’s a cliffhanger of sorts. I really liked it though and am looking forward to see more of the story.

The first time I saw this book was on a Goodreads giveaway. The description looked enticing and I really enjoy reading about women necromancers. -cough- "Sabriel" -cough- I also read somewhere, maybe from the author, that this was supposed to be like "Memoirs of a Geisha" meets "The Name of the Wind." I totally felt I had to get my hands on this book after reading that.

That being said... I did see certain aspects of these two books in "The Bone Witch." It certainly was about a kick ass geisha who travels to a distant land to learn how to be a proper bone witch. (So geisha and magic school- covered.) She also travels with her dead brother, whom she raised from the dead. The whole book is basically her not-so-humble beginnings to being a witch and a small gimps to the present where there are hints of wars and fighting to come, but the majority of it was left for, hopefully, a second book.

This book was extremely descriptive. The author really put a lot of effort into the world-building. Sometimes I felt the need to have a master chart and descriptions of things next to me so I can reference it when certain things came up in the book. For example, I almost had to make a chart with the heartsglass color meanings. It took me to almost the end of the book to have them memorized. I loved the concept, but it got a little confusing at times. I love a lot of description, so this didn't put me off.

I really wanted to enjoy the overall plot. It had a lot of potential, but I felt that there wasn't complete development. Also, there were a few aspects that confused me and left me with questions. Some of these aspects might be covered in a second book, but if there were more to the plot in the this book then it wouldn't be so confusing. Also, Tea's love interests put me for a bit of a loop. Not that I'm against the choice at the end of the book, but I was totally surprised... in the confused way. Plot twist? Who was she channeling when she wrote that, M. Night Shyamalan?

Everything considered, I enjoyed this book. There were a lot of aspects I liked, and with a bit more development in the plot it would have been 4 or 5 stars. I look forward to reading the next book in the series and hope that it will provide more clarity on the confusing aspects of this book. (I could write a essay of questions for Rin Chupeco, which I think she'd answer because she seems pretty cool.)

A young girl named Tea, lives quietly with her family in a small village. Her life is ordinary except for her love of reading and her thirst for knowledge. Tea reads tales of magic-wielding Asha, who fought wars against the Faceless, dark witches and fearsome creatures. Magic is accepted in her world and her sisters possess magic of a benign nature.

But Tea’s magic is very strong and she inadvertently raises her brother from the dead. This ability propels Tea forward into the select group of Asha witches known as the Bone Witches where she is taught to control this exceptional skill. These witches are feared and dreaded. They are also highly regarded as valuable assets for the protection of the world.

While Tea prepares herself for a life protecting everyone, dark forces are preparing to destroy her. Tea must learn to protect herself as well as her fellow Bone Witches in order to fulfill her obligations.

As with Rin Chupeco's previous books, I have to give a ton of love first and foremost to the cover designer. The Bone Witch stares at you off the shelf and demands that you pay attention to it. It begs you to read the synopsis, and be wooed by it. Then, you'll pick up the book and see that it is about a new world full of monsters, magic, and necromancy. A world where everyone wears their heart around their necks, and witches of all sorts live among the common people. A world where our protagonist finds that she isn't always welcome.

Yes, The Bone Witch definitely started off with a bang for me. The first line is perfection but, more than that, the first few chapters really draw you into the world that Chupeco is building. This story is told in flashbacks, as Tea remembers the child that she once was. It was a stunning way to do things, because you can see the innocence that she used to possess set starkly against the fierce and hardened woman that she is now. Each chapter pushed me further into Tea's life, and I happily followed along.

The one downside to this way of story telling, and I definitely know that this was partially because this is a first book and needs to set the stage, is that it is slow. As I mentioned above, the first few chapters fly by. Tea's abilities come to light, she's torn from everything she once knew, and set onto a path that she never expected to be on. Past that though, a lot of narrative ensues. Things slow down and, quite honestly, I ached for the flashbacks because I wanted more action. I wanted more of my fierce and cold bone witch, and her amazing powers. I wanted less of tea parties and polite conversation.

However, the benefit of telling the story this way is that it sets a detailed stage for the story to come. There are lot of characters introduced that, while they aren't that important this time around, you can tell will make a difference in Tea's further adventures. Since this book focused heavily on Tea's time as an apprentice, I see that she'll be growing into the next story. I can't deny that I was a slight bit disappointed that we missed out on more action, but I'm honestly also still really eager for more. I'll be picking up the next book for sure.

Tea lives in a world where witches are commonplace. Tea, however, is different from the witches in her family, which was showcased after her brother died when she raised him from the dead. Tea’s gift relates to the dead – to necromancy. She is a Bone Witch. The most feared but important witches in the kingdom. However, Tea needs to control and hone her gifts which means she has to leave her home and train to become an asha under the watchful eye of an older and more experienced witch, Lady Mykaela. However, while in the city, she learns that the kingdom is on the brink of war with an enemy called The Faceless and everyone she has ever cared about are in danger.

The Bone Witch is a slow-paced, but an atmospheric, original, and dark high fantasy which is PERFECT for fans of witches and magic. As I mentioned, it was slow paced at times, but it had such vivid and rich world-building that made up for it – full of culture, folklore and mythology which is a breath of fresh air for fantasy.

In The Bone Witch, people wear their hearts around their necks, they are called heart glass. When their heart glass turns silver, they are deemed to be magical and, if they are women, they are trained to become asha. Each asha can draw different runes which align with different elements. Tea is a Bone Witch because she can raise the dead and she deals with dark magic. Asha are trained to become skilled warriors but are also trained to become entertainers and refined women. They learn to dance, sing, play instruments, etc. So if you want a fantasy with kick-ass women who are also feminine, then The Bone Witch is for you.

In terms of characters, I loved Tea. She isn’t your typical protagonist and she isn’t considered to be the hero of the story as she’s the villain in many people’s eyes. The Bone Witch was told in two alternative timelines, one where Tea was finding out about her magic and training to hone it, and one where she is a powerful witch feared and ostracised due to something she did, which we have yet to find out. I loved this, where you slowly are starting to learn how Tea became the witch, and the dark asha, that everyone fears. But really, she is just finding a way to try and save her people but because she has fell too far into dark magic, she’s deemed too dangerous and branded the enemy. She’s the anti-hero protagonist I’ve been waiting for and what we need more of in YA, especially fantasy.

Fox is also a great character, Tea’s brother, and I really loved their sibling bond. Which was made even more pronounced because she raised him from the dead so they are now connected in more ways than just being brother and sister I loved the protectiveness and the love the two had for each other. There were also hints of a romance, but it wasn’t at the forefront of the story.

Overall, a unique, atmospheric, dark and magical fantasy that I highly recommend.

RATING: ★★★★☆

This was such a wonderful read!
I was very much looking forward to it ever since I read its book blurb and saw its amazing cover art. Isn't it the most impressive book cover? The book blurb sounded very interesting and very promising. There was no way a YA fantasy lover would not be curious about it!
Had the book kept its fast pace through out I would certainly have given it a 5 star. But at some point half way through the book I had to stop for a little while as I found it dragging. That did not last long though, and only a few pages further it was 'all happening' again, which is why it still deserving a high mark.

One of the most interesting features in The Bone Witch is that the story is told from Tea's perspective, but from the future. She has been banished from her home and is somewhere remote with a very different heart from the heart she once had. In between chapters the reader get glances of a much older Tea, with secrets and a heavy heart. Those chapters are rather dark and heavy. And of a younger Tea, who is still learning to master her skills. Brave and with an almost happy-go-lucky attitude.

The main character in this well written story is as you probably guessed Tea. Very early into the story she finds out she is a bone witch, or an asha when she 'accidentally' brings her brother back from the dead. Luckily for Tea (since bone witches are not loved in her home town) another bone witch is nearby when Tea resurrects her brother and comes to the 'rescue'. She takes Tea and her brother away so that Tea can be properly trained in her craft. Her relationship with her brother blossoms through out the book and it is one of the main things I looked forward to while reading it. His deadpan not-funny-at-all jokes are oddly and strangely enough: heartwarming!

We are introduced to many different characters through the story and it is hard to talk specifically about each one of them. The main focus was definitely Tea and no one else.

We have a prince, Kance, who is very kind and sweet but perhaps a tad clueless. Tea is infatuated with him from the very begging but not much happens between them. Romance really is not on the radar in this book. It is obviously with its ending that it will be on the next book, but it isn't here.

There is the ever overprotective Duke, Kalen. His job is to protect the prince and he takes that duty very seriously. He is worried about Tea and the potential relationship between her and the prince. Tea and Kalen are my favorite characters, I kept wanting to know more about him and considering the ending I am sure I will!

The King's brother is an apprentice to the forger of hearts. A sweet and very clever boy who I am hoping to see more in the next book too.

And than there are the ashas that Tea is both leaving with and learning from. They become her sisters and her family away from home. They protect her and she protects them. The relationship is certainly not always easy, but it is most definitely entertaining. All ashas surrounding Tea have very different personalities and are therefore unique in their own away. It is impressive to me that Rin Chupeco managed to give so much heart and soul to so many different characters in one book!

I would most certainly recommend this book to anyone that loves young adult fantasy. It delivered in every way.
I am anxiously waiting for the next book in this series.

It all started when her brother’s body was sent home from the war. Tea loved him so much she couldn’t bear living without him. So she didn’t. Some magic manifested itself within twelve-year-old Tea, and she raised him from the dead, revealing herself to be the first new bone witch in decades. An older witch of her kind found Tea, and the training began.

The first thing I noticed about The Bone Witch is that it wasn’t as dark as it sounds. Let me be clear, it is dark; there are demon creatures, living dead, dark magic, and betrayals. But most of the story follows a girl through her training to become what most magically-gifted girls were trained to do—be an Asha. These women spent years learning traditional art forms, including dancing, martial arts, and magic, in order to be entertainers for the upper classes and occasionally warriors, assassins, and bodyguards. Except that Tea was the only bone witch (necromancer) her age and had to learn to control her power before she accidentally did something dreadful. Long story short, the world-building was fascinating. The threat of evil was woven throughout all of it, culminating in a dramatic ending that begged to be continued.

The story began with a traveling Bard finding an older, renowned Tea and listening to her story over the course of several days. Every chapter, the narration turned back to this pair, as the older Tea filled in details about the world, dropped clues, and hinted at a greater evil the younger version of herself did not know about until the end of the story…or series?

Meanwhile, Younger Tea learned, grew, got herself into trouble, and started to fall in love. Through her experiences, the story touched on gender equality, religious differences, temptation to do evil, dehumanization of those of a different class, and other difficult topics. Why shouldn’t a talented man be allowed to become an Asha? Why were bone witches treated as subhuman simply because they held greater, more dangerous power than other people with magic? Whether these topics were addressed well depends on your perspective.

The Bone Witch was a fascinating read, filled with gorgeous culture, intriguing magic, and memorable characters. The magic was extremely dark at times, but the desire to continue reading held me captive to the end, and continues to do so as I await the next novel.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and FFBC Book Tours. All opinions are expressly my own.

Review originally posted on The Book Adventures of Annelise Lestrange :)

I received this copy from the publisher through The Fantastic Flying Book Club in exchange for an honest review. Let's go :D

The Review
Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader =)

The Bone Witch is, hands down, the most beautifully written book I’ve read in 2017. The lyrical narrative, rich in descriptions and feelings, gives the reader that sensation of being with Tea as soon as we close our eyes. The characters are well built and in constant grown, which was really nice. The magical aspect, world building, it all was fantastic. My only critic is that this book could have been about a hundred pages shorter – sometimes, the description went a little over the top and dragged the plot. Still, I can’t wait for the next book and give this one four proud stars =D

The narrative is majorly first person styled, from Tea’s point of view, but there’s a catch: Tea is telling the story when she’s older and we can see glimpses of the “present” Tea as she introduces us to her past. I found this to be ingenious, as I’m not a fan of first person narratives overall exactly because the main character tends to get overwhelmed by things (not their fault) and irritate me. As Tea is older, wiser, she tells us about her wonder alright without all the “OMGs”. It worked wonderfully for me, haha! Also, Chupeco’s writing style definitely won me since page one, even when I wanted to slap her for losing time in some weird descriptions and forgetting the plot, haha!

And talking about the plot. I must warn you guys that this book is HIGHLY introductory. Seriously. You learn about Tea, the kingdoms, the world, the functioning of things, the magic, and theeeen we move on to a spark of plot just to be left hanging and wanting the second volume. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you, like me, is an anxious wrack, wait for the second volume to come out before picking up this series or you’ll end up frustrated ;)

The characters are very tricky on this book, to be honest. They are so real that I found it hard to understand their motives in an overall manner until it was “too late”, haha! I think Fox and Mykaela were my favorites, because to this moment, I feel like I haven’t figured both out? Oh, Fox is Tea’s undead brother and the coolest thing ever, if you ask me and Mykaela is her mentor in the asha world. Tea herself isn’t a bad protagonist, but as the book has this heavy introductory feeling, I found it hard to connect with her and feel her personality. Maybe we can try again on book 2, hahaha!

I also need to make a note on the magic inside this story. Chupeco did A HELL OF A JOB creating all of this and omg, I’m so in love. I wish I had my own heartglass, I wish I could be a Dark asha like Tea (I always liked the dead better than the living; they’re quieter and never let me down), I wish I could have breathed the magical air and fought the daevas and other monsters. Seriously, Chupeco, can I be inside the next book?

And now, the moment you all were waiting for: QUOTES TIME! This book is filled with wisdom that we can take for life, so I had a really hard time choosing my favorite quotes among everything I highlighted, ugh!

“You think in the same way men drink, Tea. Far too much – under the delusion it is too little.” – Tea’s father

~*~

“Sometimes, you can’t help who you love or for how long.” – Rose, Tea’s sister

~*~

“You can’t make the better of the dead, sweet child, though I reckon death could make the better of us.” – Mykaela

~*~

Only then did I see how terribly old the woman was. Not from the passage of years, but from seeing too much of what most would rather see little of. – Tea’s thoughts

~*~

“Sometimes, it is good to remind ourselves how bitterness tastes.” – Tea

*~.Cover Analysis.~*

This cover is magical. All the golden swirls, the shades of purple, the girl alone in the mountain, the center of the skull… I’m in love. There’s magic, there’s mystery, danger, beauty… Everything! Also, the simple font used in both the title and the author’s name did the rest of the magic, as a flourished font wouldn’t go well with all the swirls in gold. A master piece in covers!

~*~

Overall, if you like beautifully written books, fantasy, witches and slow paced books, you just can’t miss The Bone Witch! =D

What a world. If there is one thing The Bone Witch does not lack, it is world-building. There is so much happening inside this gorgeously covered book. From decadent food and gorgeously woven hua to mapped out kingdoms and dangerous monsters, I was enveloped in this fantastical, beautiful, and daunting world. And I want to read more about these Bone Witches, Heart Forgers, and dangerous beasties that Tea is meant to rid the world of.

While I thoroughly enjoyed The Bone Witch, I found the novel to take quite some time to read through. Chapters were long not in page length, but in copious amounts of detail attributed to every hua the asha wore or every piece of food that graced a scene. I found these details were taking away from other elements of the story, and even the plot. There came points in my reading where I didn't want to read about another beautifully crafted hua,  I wanted to know more about the lore, the Faceless and False Prince whose names keep getting dropped, the daeva, Tea's homesickness, her family, her relationship with her undead brother, her relationship with the Prince. I just wanted to know more than what I was being given. To which I hope book two provides more of.

The Bone Witch is gorgeously crafted when it comes to passages and quotes. But my favorite parts of this book were the exchanges between Tea and the bard. The anti-heroine I want to see and read more from could only be found in the short snippets of present day, when told through the eyes other than Tea. I enjoyed the juxtaposition to watching Tea grow up through her own eyes while reading how an outsider perceives her in the present-day, after events undisclosed had unfolded. But I wanted more, because I found out so much more about Tea and the world-of-story from these chapter preludes. And I have high hopes that book two brings more of present-day Tea into the narrative.

LOVE horror for teens! This is one of the most popular genres at my library and there aren't nearly enough books to satisfy my YA readers. This is a great, magical & spooky read that will find a lot of fans at my branch.

The Bone Witch suffered from a few cliché tropes here and there but overall, I quite enjoyed it. It’s not the best fantasy book I’ve ever read, but I would be interested in reading the sequel.

Tea was a fairly likeable main character. Okay, at times she was a bit boring and a stereotypical overpowered heroine dithering over what to do, but I was really intrigued by her story, and how she ended up having a black heartglass in present day. We got a few hints (the chapters were set up in a way where bits from the present day were matched with what was happening in past – think The Name of the Wind) but a lot was still left a mystery, and I do want to find out what exactly happened. For example, Tea stated that she had visited the Oracle 28 times, but we only saw a handful of visits in the book. I am wondering when the rest occur (and why!), because there isn’t that much of a time gap between the present day and the story from the past.

I have to say I wasn’t a fan of the romance, but luckily, there wasn’t much of it. There was a hint of a love triangle with Prince Kance and his cousin? Guard? (I have honestly forgotten his name), but I wasn’t really interested. I’d rather have learnt more about heartglasses. The whole idea of giving your heartglass to someone else if you loved them seemed entirely too risky to me, especially since there wasn’t really a benefit, and I would have liked to have learn more about this practice, as well as more about heartglasses in general and the different colours they could be.

Plot-wise, admittedly, not a lot happened. As I said before, the book was split with some scenes from present day, and some in the past, and I was reading mostly for clues as to how Tea changed from a seemingly innocent girl who was just trying to bring back her brother, to a killer who had no qualms about hurting people. Present day Tea was a lot more interesting that past Tea but we didn’t know what caused her to become that way or how things changed so drastically. Not a lot actually happened in the past scenes to show why this occurred, but there were some signs that got me interested. While I had a lot of issues with the pacing of this book and some of the characterisation, I think I’ll read the next one purely because I want to know what happens to Tea to change her so much.

Overall, this was a fun read to pass the time, and while it had its issues, if you like this sort of split narrative with a continuing mystery, you may enjoy this book.

Uniquely Mesmerizing…
free copy

The Bone Witch is the first book in an exotic new YA fantasy series by Rin Chupeco, author of the recently adapted to movie – The Girl from the Well. Set in Odalia, a kingdom that reminds me of medieval Japan, the story follows the life of Tea; a teen who unexpectedly discovers her ability to raise things from the dead when her favorite older brother is killed by one of the magical creatures roaming the world. This act earns her the title of bone witch, a person who is both revered and reviled.





The Bone Witch is a fabulous example of painting visual pictures to tell a paintstory. Rin’s rich imagination permeates each line of the book and builds a unique experience for the reader. bone witchIt was easy to follow the context of the story and understand all the new customs and objects and I was quickly swept into this foreign world. Rin tells the story from two perspectives; the minstrel – who finds Tea as an 19 year old banished to a bone laden beach and Tea – who shares with the minstrel her recollections of the events that led to her present state. Her writing style is so fluid and natural that I was easily able to immerse in the story and fascinating characters, even while jumping back and forth between these two settings.

Rin does a great job with the ending; there’s still so much to find out yet the reader doesn’t feel shorted or distraught in any way. The Bone Witch is the beginning of what looks to be a fantastic new YA series. It is appropriate for teens but so well done that adults will love it too.

Sorry! This one did not live up to the hype. It was rambling and difficult to follow.

This book was easy to read. Rin Chupeco has a very nice, readable prose style. If her writing style wasn't so lovely, this book probably would have bottomed out at one star. While the concept of the book is interesting, and the plot grabbed my attention, the execution was, at best, dull, and at worse, really hard to swallow.

Most of the book was about Tea's training. That's about it. We only got the barest glimpses of plot, with one or two notable scenes. But the rest of it was pretty boring. I think the book spent more (way more) time on describing the asha's clothing than it ever did explaining what exactly the Faceless were or what they could do. And even when we finally found out what the Faceless could do, it was at the very end of the book.

Furthermore, the fusion of magic with Geisha-styled culture didn't make much sense. Why would someone who mostly concerns herself with raising and putting to rest undead creatures need to learn flower arranging? Why would someone who is a royal bodyguard need to learn dance and conversation? There are ways the magic could have worked, but making them typical elemental mages and trying to force extra careers into what is a fairly narrow career in the real world doesn't make much sense and it ended up making me more confused than anything. It's a romantic idea, but in the end the book muddled the entire concept.

I didn't connect very well with most of the characters. Even though it was narrated in first Person, Tea was pretty boring and I didn't really get any strong personality from her. Her brother Fox was even worse. Some of the side characters were a bit more intriguing, like Polaire and Zoya, but that's because I felt they had actual motivations. I didn't feel any great warmth between any of them and Tea. And considering how much time the novel spent on her training, we didn't get to see enough of her interactions with Kance to believe that she'd be romantically interested in him.

In the end the novel was just boring. I wanted more out of this plot, and I got Memoirs of a Geisha with barely touched upon plot. There was a decent amount of cultural worldbuilding in the different countries, and some of the politics, but it's kind of ridiculous that I know more about Tresea's culture than I do about the villains and even what their goal is. Or even what the heck they're supposed to be able to do. I know literally nothing about the Faceless except they can use dark magic.

The pacing was terrible, and I did not get any proper sense of passage of time. Two years passed and I hadn't even realized it because of how summarized so much of the training was. One thing that stuck out at me was when the azi attacked the performance, and Tea went to fight it. After the fight, she rests for a few days and goes before the elders to discuss what she did. Then a week later her friend Likh goes before the elders. It isn't until well after Likh's meeting that we discover that asha actually DIED in the azi attack, including an asha that Tea knew. It was a weird mood whiplash, and it felt very odd placed so far after the incident when that's something that should have been remarked upon long before. Even though it was in the same chapter, it felt like something that an editor should have caught.

I will say I did enjoy the alternate bits with the bard's narration. It was really heavy handed but I felt there was more of a sense of motivation and mystery than there was in the rest of the novel.

DNF
I had been anticipating this book a lot. The cover was kick-ass and the plot sounded absolutely intriguing. Necromancy gone wrong!? GIMME!!!! I started reading it the moment I got it. But then I found myself starting new books, and reading this book went on the back burner. "I'll finish it next week...next month. Finally I decided to give up a little more than half way. It wasn't that it was bad, it just wasn't a page turner. You felt no need to pick it up in the evening when you got home or open it on the commute to and from work.

The MC herself is likeable and actually pretty fun. Chupeco has a talent for humor, but it wasn't enough for me. The pace itself alternated between fine, too fast, and too slow. I'm pretty sure I got whiplash trying to speed up or slow down. The world really needed more development. funny quips and a good plot are nothing without the plot and world actually being developed.

That being said, I may try this book again in a couple months if I'm in a reading slump.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I had SO MUCH TROUBLE getting into it. The plot felt a bit empty and I must admit I got a bit bored. I read about 2/3 before throwing in the towel as it already was taking far too much of my time.