First off, I would like to thank the publisher and author for providing me this ARC to review. Please note that the version I read was an advanced copy, and certain events/language may be changed in the published edition.

“The only sight I seem to possess nowadays is hindsight.”

Stars (Out of 10): 9/10 Stars

Overall Thoughts: I actually really enjoyed this book! While it was slow in the beginning, and took a lot of time and dedication to finish, I ended up loving it, and everything it sets up for the rest of the series!

The Good: I really liked the italic portions at the ends of the chapters, and the look into Tea’s current situation it gave. I also seemed to like the story in general, and while it wasn’t necessarily action-packed, the build up for the rest of the series, and setting of the world, actually still interested me, which isn’t always the case with slow fantasy books.

The Bad: It was very slow, but I found that the pace still matched the story. I can definitely see a lot of people putting it down at first though.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

The Characters: The combination of characters seemed to fit very well with the plot. Both young Tea, and older Tea in the italic portions of the chapters, were quite interesting, and I loved seeing the contrast between them, and how it foreshadowed and hinted at so many terrible things to come during Tea’s life. I also liked the side characters, from Tea’s brother to Tea’s Asha sisters.

The Plot: I have to agree with a lot of others on the fact that it wasn’t very action packed. However, for me, I still ended up enjoying the build up quite a bit, which is rare for me. In addition, I loved the twists we found at the end of the novel, as well as all the foreshadowing we got from older Tea for each chapter, which made me read them in a new light, or with a different expectation than I may have originally read the chapter with.

The World Building: I felt the book did this quite well. Yes there was a lot of descriptions, but it made me feel as if I could actually picture the cities Tea visited, and the people she met and life she would begin to live. I also felt I had somewhat of a grasp on the kingdoms and politics of both the Willows and the Eight Kingdoms, and am super excited to see what all that foreshadowing about destroying them will lead to!

The Favorite Character: Tea

I really enjoyed the blurb on the back of the book, it sounded great. I did enjoy the the story but at places it did slow and i felt more details could be added. I also appreciate thhat this is aimed more at YA readers not a forty plus reader.
It has a present story line with a small future story line running through it.
The main story relates the life of Tea as a witch, after raising her brother back from the dead on the day of his funeral, she is taken to the Willows to learn how to use her craft. She eventually stats her apprentiship and rises quickly through the tiers of training.
The plot of this story is basic but good enough, but i felt it didn't quite live up to the blurb.

I do want to know more about the Oracle, Daeva and the darak and Faceless, so so in this respect it makes a good story as it piqued my interest to want to know more.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for a review!

My Thoughts
So I’m a little obsessed with Japanese culture. When I saw a book where the magic holders were like the geisha, and were almost all female, I was definitely intrigued.

And I was not left disappointed.

I can see why many people wouldn’t like this book. It certainly is slower, and it is not plot driven. It has little of the action and heated romance of the typical YA these days. This book is more character driven, and the setting plays a large role in the story. This book is a very SLOW BURN and slow build up to things that will come later. And it gives us more questions than answers, which I can see confusing people. But none of that bothered me in the least. I thought it was a beautiful story, and Rin Chupeco’s writing was lyrical, that her words wrapped themselves around me and kept me there until the end of the book.
I also loved…

The Setting and Characters…
The setting was pretty unique. It was built of 8 different kingdoms, each with their own ruler, resources and climate, and each with its own diverse population. The main place the story takes place is Ankyo, which is a Japanese style city that seemed largely matriarchal. The women learn to wield magic and to fight, while also learning to do music and dancing, kind of like the geisha. The main character, Tea, is described as being a girl of color, who wields the unique power of being a bone witch or being able to do necromancy. This makes her revered but also hated, and through the book we see her grow up, do training and grow into her own ideas and values. This is why the book is a little slow. It is very description driven and reads a little like a memoir, which may not be for everyone.
I also liked the huge amount of diversity within the setting and all the characters. Many of them looked different from one another, with different skin and with different thoughts and beliefs. One of the male characters may also have been LGBT+ (it didn’t say directly, but it seemed that way to me). Each of the kingdoms had their own motivations as well and didn’t bow to a central power. They were all going through their own

The Romance
There was a bit of a romance, but it was hardly seen, and it was not the main driving point for Tea, which I liked. She would not let Kalen (who was who she liked) change her thoughts or ideas. She remained her own independent woman. In fact, romance was not the main driving force for any of the women. Some got married, but many of the women were independent, made money on their own and were driven. AND THAT WAS OKAY! Many of the women were also friends and worked together.

The Magic System
The magic system was also complex and unique. The magic could be strong, or weak, elemental, or used for healing or growing, or like Tea, for raising the dead. Each person in the world, when they come of age, would receive a heartglass, where their heart would go, and where strong magic wielders could see your feelings and motivations. In addition, magic could be weaved into fabric and put into jewelry, and magic to make people look a certain way, or to make certain qualities of themselves stand out.

Overall I loved this book! I think everyone should give it a try and let themselves get immersed in the writing and descriptions.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

The Bone Witch is town from two different perspectives in two different times. One where we have Tea, she is young and learns she is a bone witch in a rather explosive way. She is both feared and praised depending on where you look, though many fear what they don’t understand. She leaves her homeland to train under an older and wiser bone witch and learns to be an asha. We follow her training and get to know her and her struggles in the world plagued by daeva, beasts who bring destruction. As a bone witch much is expected of her as there are so few of them left. The other POV is that of a bard, someone who has sought her out at a time much later on and is seeking to learn her story.

I had a bit of trouble finally putting a rating on this book as I was on the fence about it. I enjoyed the story overall but I felt the book focuses less on the story and more on description. I understand we are building a whole new world and a magical system and that takes time but it felt at many points like a set up book. I was interested to see how Tea from the start became Tea telling her story. I liked when things were happening and there was some type of action to move the plot along. At the same time I think the last quarter of the book really picked up and improved for me. This makes me even more interested to read book two and see what happens with Tea, Fox, Kalen, Kance, Zoya, Likh, Lady Mykaela and some of the other characters.

The story itself though if it had been condensed a bit was pretty interesting; raising the dead, the life of the asha and a bone witch none the less. The political struggles. While reading it I kept imagining a Geisha (from my limited knowledge of them anyways) with the parties and formality of the asha life in the asha-ka. Only if they also trained in magic runes and in combat. But things like the musical instruments and dancing for sure. I wanted to know more about the daeva, we got good descriptions of most of them but the azi I felt was covered the most. I did love how the author managed to bleed some small things in that when reading you see one part of the “future story teller” Tea more sense. I liked the tale it told and I even liked the way it was told from the past and present sides.

I liked the battle between what is expected and what she desires. She is expected to train and earn money and then when ready do what is expected of her. Even as the way things are, sitting on tradition, how they cause harm to those she has come to care for. I loved the questioning of gender policies and why only one gender can do certain things not those that they excel at. I also loved the buildup of expected romance to happen, though we didn’t get much of any real romance, just the promise of it to come and wow in a very interesting way I imagine. A slow build is nice and it lets you get to know the characters and really develop connections without any insta-love.

Now while I liked the story itself I had some struggles here and there where it would lose me in the pacing with over exaggerated detail of certain things. On one side I loved the description of the world and getting into the magic system and the culture, on the other side it did sometimes drag after the first several in detail descriptions of the different hua. At one point the character even makes a comment about going into so much detail each time and explaining the reasoning which I liked but it didn’t make reading about it each time after any better.

Overall I enjoyed the story but this one was a bit of a struggle at times. I think I’ll be checking out book two for sure and hoping with all the world building being done in this one the next may have less of that and much more on the story and plot.

Until next time…

This book is AMAZING!!!!

I know that you are not to judge a book by its cover but that is exactly what I did. While looking around at options of what I was able to review from Netgalley I saw this cover and then needed to know more. I read the synopsis and just had to read it.

Upon starting this book I have to say that I was captivated and wanting more just in the first page and a half. I feel like if I can feel how deep and wonderful a story will be in that short amount of time then the author deserves some MEGA praise.

The world building that this book has is simply stunning. It made me dive deep into the world and the story of tea, who I love her name so much by the way. The way that Rin Chupeco describes every detail, character, and piece of this book and world had me not wanting to put it down. There were a couple of sleepless nights involved in the reading of it. Tea is such a wonderfully written and created character, one that I could read multiples books about for sure.

I have never read any of Rin Chupeco's books but as soon as I finished this book I came to follow her on various social media sites and I plan to pick up other books of hers because of how well she wrote this book and grabbed my heart and soul!!!!

Love the cover! Normally.. I don't read this genre.. but, the cover sucked me in! It took me a while to figure out.. they literally are wearing their hearts outside of their body. Kind of weird.. but, okay! Freaky first power display.. bringing her dead brother back to life. That was.. umm.. odd! The reaction of her little village.. NORMAL! Glad that she had someone to rush in and protect her and her brother before the villagers could do anything to them.

It truly does capture the imagination. One for the younger set. I think they'll enjoy the fantasy world.

I thought the description of the book sounded amazing. A girl raises her brother from the dead by accident. She learns she is a bone witch, and is sent for training, far away from her family. It sounded like exactly the sort of book I love. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations.

Tea is 12 years old when she raises her brother from the dead. He is now essentially a zombie, and is bound to her for life. Another bone witch, Mykala, comes to take Tea away for training, and her brother, Fox, follows them. And that is the end of Tea's involvement with her family.

Tea is being trained to be a dark asha, the asha's being similar to geishas. They wear clothing that sounds like kimonos, and have an elaborate social structure. She is trained not only in the use of her witchcraft, but also in the arts of singing, dancing and entertaining. Why? These are very powerful witches. Why are they treated as little better than prostitutes?

Tea is training to be able to fight the Daevas. Gigantic beasts that can't die. They can only be temporarily sent to the grave, after which they raise again after a set amount of years. With all this power, wouldn't you think the bone witches wouldn't have to deal with all the nonsense of being an asha? They are also fighting the enemy, the faceless ones. The faceless ones are apparently against the status quo, although not enough is learned about them. I would have liked more background on who the faceless ones are.

Even though this book has an interesting premise, I didn't find it that exciting. The book is super descriptive. Things happen very slowly, and I didn't like the patriarchal society of the book. I also felt this book would have done better if it was set in the contemporary world. I know this is the first book in the series, but I don't feel the need to read any more about these characters.

I received a free copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to like this YA described by the publisher as “Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Name of the Wind.” It opened with great promise, and it has many things going for it. I loved the idea of an evolving relationship between the heroine, Tea, and her brother, Fox, after she inadvertently brings him back from the dead. The author gets kudos for a non-Western setting. There are lots of details about the city, the school, the monstrous and occasionally draconic daeva, and so forth. I loved the idea of heartsglass that changes color and reveals much of who you are, although I was perpetually confused about how it worked (also the geisha “asha” and why sometimes a bone witch – necromancer is one and sometimes not). There are a number of wonderful characters like Mistress Parmina (a most un-Japanese name) and Likh, who longs do dance but who is male and so is destined to become cannon fodder for the Deathseekers) and a sense of history and tradition. Unfortunately, the development of intriguing ideas fell short. The relationship with the brother happened slowly, almost as an afterthought or something pinned on. At first I thought how cool it was to have a Japanese Hogwarts, but the culture did not ring true. Attitudes and speech patterns felt Western, and the seemingly random inclusion of elements (like cuisine) from other areas of the world created a slap-dash patchwork instead of a seamless whole. The major problem though, was that there was no clear goal or threat that built to a climax. The result was a story that felt flat and episodic. The hazing from other students had as much emotional weight as the threat of the Faceless (a generic, all-purpose enemy who seem to be evil for its own sake). The utter absence of sex, even sexual feelings, was a jarring omission. These young women are being trained as hostesses and entertainers; it is impossible that the issue of intimate favors for their patrons never comes up. Even if the younger ones are protected from forming liaisons, surely the questions must come up for the more mature asha. It’s ridiculous to thing that a YA novel must exclude all references to sex when it is so important to teens in real life. Discerning older readers may well give this one a pass.

The Bone Witch is the first installment in author Ren Chupeco's The Bone Witch series. To really get into the story, you must first understand Tea's beginnings. For that, author Chupeco flips the script back in time to when 12-year old Tea (Tey-uh) Pahlavi shockingly raises her own brother Fox from the dead and binds him to her with his consent. This shocking turn of events throws her entire village and family into turmoil. After all, Tea is from a family of fairly mundane and respected witches, one a Forest witch, the other a Water witch.

But, no one could have guessed that Tea would be a necromancer (asha/bone witch). In raising Fox, Tea faces a difficult challenge in being accepted for being what she is. Her journey starts in earnest after the arrival to her village of Mykaela. Mykaela becomes her mentor, and her sister. During the journey from the Kingdom of Odalis to the Kingdom of Kion where she is forced to start at the bottom of the ladder, Tea learns about monsters called Daeva and the Faceless and the Fake Prince who apparently controls them.

"I followed her, my heartsglass heavy with questions. Of everything I had heard, I had not expected her to be so young. Seventeen did not explain why she stood on that strange graying beach, alone, with monsters' corpses for company."

In the present, we meet the mysterious bard who will tell Tea's story from start to finish. He has traveled far from home in order to find to the girl named Tea of the Embers. The girl who has been exiled to the ends of the world. Banished for reasons we do not yet understand, but hopefully we will in the next installment. Tea recounts her beginnings and her rise in a society of spellbinders called asha. As a bone witch, her powers of necromancy make her feared and shunned by the populace, but tolerated for her abilities to slay daeva – fearsome beasts that plague the kingdoms. But there is more to the girl than she first appears. Soon the bard begins to suspect that there is more to her tale than what she claims, and that he has a far greater role to play in her story than even he realizes.

One of the more curious aspects of this story is the use of
Heartglasses which can be forged by heartforgers using memories. Younger Tea volunteers to give away some of her memories in order to help make heartglasses for those who either don't have them, or need them replaced. Tea, like Mykaela, can read other people's heartglasses which also comes in handy. Tea's friend Likh is also an important cog in her life. He has a silver heartglass but, in this world, he can't become an asha. Only women can become Asha's. He, like other men are forced to serve the army as Deathseekers.

I dare say that the ending of this book damn near killed me. We get through a bunch of trials and tribulations, and then we are hit upside the head with a two ton heavy brick. Is Tea really a good person, or has she really become that what she has been charged with? Where did the innocent and positive Tea disappear to? The one at the end of the book is ready for a bloody war and has created her own army of dangerous creatures. Who is this Tea who once had lots of potential and may be even stronger than her own mentor?

This book definitely catches the imagination with a very creative world, and secondary characters who key to events that play out. There are similarities between this book and Memoirs of a Geisha. After all, each asha is trained in various studies from fighting, to dancing & singing, to dining with famous and influential men. I do look forward to the sequel. I am steadfast in learning what pushed Tea into becoming the person at the end of this story.

When I first heard of the Bone Witch, I was intrigued - a stunning magical backdrop that has both light and dark magic, with a system in place, and all kinds of various magic users all sounded incredibly fascinating and right my alley. Then add in the fact that there's something called a bone witch, someone with the ability to resurrect the dead, and I knew I would love it. Sometime between my excitement for this book, and finally diving in, it seems some of the magic was lost along the way. I'm not exactly sure where or what took it away, but I do know part of it lies in the execution.

The first, I don't know, maybe 60% of this book was so incredibly slow-moving that I found myself setting it down and not really looking forward to picking it back up. Granted, the action and the plot does pick up...eventually, but that first incredibly slow half was enough to damper my enjoyment. I'm an avid reader of fantasy, I know it's not easy to introduce magic systems, the world surrounding the magical community, and everything in between and some authors are able to throw it out on the table without slowing down the pace. Such wasn't the case here, and I often felt the narrative was incredibly bogged down by the sheer amount of information necessary for the story to be understood by the reader. Had the pace in that first half been a bit faster, a bit more exciting, and need-to-know info been delivered in a slightly less dry manner, this book would have been magic for me.

With all of the above said, I am willing to give this book another shot, thinking maybe I missed something, maybe the atmosphere at the time I read this wasn't right, maybe the sun was too bright...whatever it was that made this book not connect with me the way it should, I went ahead and purchased the hardcover (it was honestly a steal on Amazon for $9.86 for a brand new book!), and I will give it another go. I want to love this book so much, and I'll probably read it until I do.

I'm neglecting to post a public review because my review doesn't seem very favorable. I want people to love this book, much like I'm hoping to someday, and I don't want my less-than-positive review to sway them.

DNF @14%
The book was difficult to get into, so I gave up on it.

A truly original YA that deserves every single star! The world building is brilliant and the characters are well thought out!!!

30095464
Alright so I have finally finished this book and while I thought it was okay, it was hard to get through.



I liked the cover of the book. I also liked the style of Rin Chupeco's writing and I really liked Tea, the main character. I felt like the story wasn't bad but for some reason, it was lacking and I just couldn't get sucked in. I wanted to. I mean the blurb...wow.

It says:

Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there's anything I've learned from him in the years since, it's that the dead hide truths as well as the living.

What?! That made me want to just dive in and never come up for air. And it made me think that I would feel like I couldn't get enough and devour the story in a sitting. But that did not happen. Not even close. I enjoyed the whole story behind the dark Asha and the daeva and the characters were fine too but certain things about the story irked me. One, the alternating time in the chapters. They appeared to be going back and forth in time from when Tea was training and then to when she was a full fledged bone witch. I don't know about anyone else but it was a bit confusing for me. Then the huas. Oh my gosh. Chupeco felt the need to describe what each Asha was wearing with the most detail and it kind of took away from the story because of the emphasis on the clothes. I know the has have magic stitched into the fabric but I don't know why I needed to hear every color and design for every single person wearing them. The whole part with Tea's brother in the beginning was weird but I thought it was cool that he was arisen and would be her companion despite not being a living person. That was gnarly. Since she's a necromancer basically, of course having an undead sidekick sounds cool. However, Fox wasn't really badass like I hoped he would be. He was just ok. Most of the characters were just ok. I give the story a 3/5 and that is because the ending was actually interesting and the pace really picked up. I saw that alot of people dnf'd this book or just took forever to read it. It has been two weeks and this book was a thorn in my side and I'm just glad it's over. To be honest, I'm confused because I feel like I didn't like it but I did. Lol. I would be willing to read a sequel but I wouldn't be at the edge of my seat for it. Great premise for a story but it was not well executed.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this review before it is released and for no charge. My opinions are my own though.

*DNF AT 34%*

I really tried with this book but it felt so tiring to read. On 3 different occasions I sat down to read and within 10 minutes I had to put the book down.

The writing is so descriptive and after a certain point I just started skimming the longer paragraphs and instead only read the speech, which there didn't seem to be very much of...

There were also so many tangents and random names or stories told which I didn't reall think were relevant. And so many names and facts about that person only for them not to be mentioned again.

With most books I at least try reading them again after a few weeks but it will take me a lot to want to pick this up again.

"Maybe Norbert would enjoy a play date." Hagrid, Harry Potter

This is first book of the year I really felt compelled to finish and the first of those I have reviewed here to break the 4.0 barrier. The Bone Witch is a dark, high fantasy style novel with elements of Japanese/Geisha tradition woven in a magical, midevil setting. The story is narrated by a Bard, who relays the story HE is hearing from our Bone Witch, who is telling the story as she prepares to enter a quest of unknown purpose. The book is a look-back, prequel, origin story about our Bone Witch and only time (and sequels) will tell if we learn the reasoning and outcome of the unnamed quest. Don't worry, the story is satisfying in and of itself.

The world building here is delicious, not hackneyed in any way. The magic has reasonable rules and its use takes a cost that is very reasonable and fair. The local mythology is gently introduced but clearly plays an important role in the day to day affairs of the land. The author's voice is clear and seems effortless. If I had to find fault it would be in the use of some banal vocab (biriyani) while the majority of the culture seems based on new vocabulary (hua). Consistency would be nice.

Overall, a book fantasy readers will enjoy. Though it did not quite bust the 4.5. ceiling, I wouldn't be surprised if it was optioned for the screen. So read it soon!

4.4/5

4 for reading it all the way through in one sitting
5 for story arc as the three individual story arcs (the religious mythology, the Bards', the Bone Witch's) are all cleverly intertwined ultimately
4 expanding my horizons as I enjoyed both the Asian influences and the high fantasy style though neither are my usual preference
5 for cleverness and richness, story was well laid out, well presented and yet had no excess fat that I could see
4 for voice as the author's word choice and tone kept me in the story and engaged

I feel really bad but I had to DNF this one. There wasn't anything keeping me interested and every time I put it down I dreaded picking it back up. This was one of those cases where the writing was really pretty but it couldn't make up for the lack of plot. There was a lot of really nice descriptions but it got to the point where there was too much. It felt like that's all the beginning of this book was. I honestly couldn't tell you what was happening at all because the things that needed to be explained weren't. I actually caught myself skimming through pages just to get them over with. It was just too boring and there was no hook to keep me interested.

Tea has the extraordinary ability to raise the dead, which is revered and feared in the land. Asha are women capable of wielding elemental magic, and the Dark Asha can control the dead and destroy the creatures roaming throughout the eight kingdoms. The training to be an Asha is long and fraught with dangers, and ultimately Tea will have to decide where her loyalties truly lie.

The influences from Japanese and South Asian cultures is very clear in the book. The training the Asha go through is very much like that geisha had done in Japan, though there is just as much focus on defense and martial arts as there is on music, diplomacy and the arts. Much of the food descriptions and clothing descriptions lend themselves to various cultures in our world, but the blend is a seamless one as Chupeco build the world and the magic that the Asha are capable of wielding. The monsters in this world aren't just the creatures rampaging and killing, but the politicians, nobles, and jealous Asha in training. There's the sense of a tragedy in the making, especially with the tale-within-a-tale format that the book takes, and it heightens the tension in reading about Tea's training.

I had actually stared at my Kindle in shock at the end of the book and nearly howled at the unfairness of it all. Quickly finding Rin's website and Tumblr online, I saw that this is book one of a series. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief. I can't wait to see what else is in store for Tea, the nameless Bard she is telling her story to, and the rest of the eight kingdoms.

Review - The Bone Witch
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

* Read via NetGalley for review

3 gnomes out of 5 gnomes

This book was perplexing and vexing at times but also I just had to know what was going to happen next. It was a hard book to get through but I had to see what would happen. The story structure was something I both love and hated because it really made you feel like you were missing something because you’re never sure how Tea became who she is now.

I don't know how a book can feel like so much is happening when really almost nothing is happening. It kind of felt like a fantasy history book mixed in with a really dark future for the characters.

I liked the mythology and history of the asha. I did want to know more about all of the magic. What we do learn though is more than interesting.

The characters are all strong, especially Tea. I just wanted more of the story filled in. The whole past and future thing makes you wonder WTF happened over about two years.

That ending though was the truly infuriating part. When things are just getting good, like I don’t want to put down the book good, the story just ends.