Unfortunately, The Bone Witch was a did not finish for me. I got 10% in and just couldn't get into the story. It was very detailed and descriptive, and I liked that about it but that's it.

I loved this book. The Bone Witch was an amazing book, that I could not put down. I wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. I love the characters- they are relate-able in their struggles and likeable. I also loved that the book kind of ended on a bit of a cliff hanger. I can't wait to read the next book!

The dual narration of this title was a huge draw, giving glimpses into the title character's future and wondering how it happened, what brought her there. At the start of the book Tea is a frightened young girl who recently suffered the loss of her brother and by the finish, she is a strong and capable warrior, ready to take on the monsters who plague her world.

I definitely recommend this title, for the dark hints, the beautiful descriptions, and the wonderfully likable and real characters.

**I received an ARC of this book from Sourcebooks Fire via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**


After reading the synopsis and seeing the beautiful cover, I knew I had to read The Bone Witch. The premise of the book was so interesting and there was so much potential for this book..... But nothing happened. I was intrigued at the beginning, but the more I read on, the more I felt like the story wasn't really moving anywhere and I ended up having to force myself through the rest of the book. Usually when reading a book, especially for a review, I don't read other people's reviews until after I have finished it because I don't want them to cloud my judgement. But about halfway through The Bone Witch, I had to stop and read other reviews, just to see if I was the only one having a problem with feeling like the book wasn't doing anything. Thankfully (or maybe not so?) I was not the only one who felt this way. And that made me really sad, because I was so sure this book was going to be a big hit. It had a very interesting story behind it, which is why it had so much potential, and another thing I loved about the book was that the story is told by the main character in retrospect to a storyteller so that they could tell her story to others. I have never read a book like that before and I found it really interesting. The author just needs to not focus so much on describing every little thing Tea (pronounced "Tay-uh" I think) sees, and focus more on the plot of the story, and that will make the book so much better.

A young village girl discovers she is a Bone Witch when she accidentally raises her brother from the dead. An older Bone Witch takes her under her wing, and takes her to be trained as an Asha. Asha training is much like Geisha training - music, dancing, and other social arts, with additional training in magic and fighting. If you are looking for an action packed fantasy novel, this may not be the book for you. But I enjoyed this story of Tea, her world, and her journey to be an Asha. She must navigate an unfamiliar world of people, politics and power, learn to use her power, and eventually fight to save that world. This story is indeed a little slow in parts, and ends with a form of cliffhanger - almost like a very long set up to the real action that surely must happen in Book 2. But I enjoyed the ride, and will most definitely be looking for Book 2 as I am very curious about what happens next! Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for letting me read an ARC of this great story. 3.75 stars!

I really wanted to love this book but it unfortunately just didn't work for me. Chupeco's writing is beautiful, and the descriptive passages vividly laid out this world of 8 Kingdoms where main character Tea lives as she trains to be an asha. There are several different kinds of asha, all of whom can weave spells to a certain degree, and Tea is what is called a dark asha (or Bone Witch), one who can bring the dead back to life. Tea learns that she is a dark asha when she accidentally raises her brother from the dead at his funeral and then immediately leaves her home because she must be trained how to wield the dark asha magic. I was totally into the story at this point because it was such a unique premise, especially because the newly resurrected zombie brother now follows Tea around and is considered her familiar.

Where the book lost me is pretty much right after that because it didn't feel like much else happened. Tea spends what feels like forever working as some kind of indentured servant before she actually starts training. Then once it is determined she can finally start training, more time is spent describing a shopping spree to buy her the proper hua (robes) and jeweled hairpins than is spent describing what she's learning.

And this continued to be an issue for me throughout the book. Every outfit that each asha wore was described in such great detail, but yet a battle that kills 20 soldiers is just a blip on the radar. I felt like I was waiting for something to happen that never really did.

I did like the way the narrative was framed because while the bulk of the story focuses on Tea and her training, there are small bits inserted throughout the novel that are present day. A bard has come to a deserted island and found Tea there. We learn that she has been banished there and is plotting revenge. That revenge doesn't happen though and by the end of the novel, it's still unclear to me what has caused her to be banished. Since all of this was left so vague in this first book, I feel like the second book does have potential to be a great read in the sense that I'm sure many of the missing details would finally be revealed. I just wish the first book had given me more.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and Rin Chupeco for providing me with an e-galley of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Star rating: ★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Format: ebook galley

Summary: Tea discovers she is a rare type of asha, a bone witch who can raise and control the dead with dark magic. In a world where undead creatures terrorize the kingdoms bone witches are in high need.

Review: I received an ebook galley from NetGalley for a review.

I was so excited for this book, it sounded so interesting and cool. When I got down to actually reading it though, it really fell flat.

I spent the better part of this first half of the book struggling to plod through all the world building Chupeco was throwing at me. There was hardly any plot it felt like most of the time. A lot of nothing happened. There was a bit of action and plot but it felt like overall there wasn’t much at all. I’m all for a lush and rich world but this was too much, it was almost info overload and made it hard for anything about the world to really stick.

The concept of asha as these geisha like witch-warriors was great in theory. But in application they were… Kinda boring. They mostly just did geisha like things with dancing and entertaining and as far as the warrior aspect? There was very little, like almost nonexistent. They just stay in their city and be pretty. While reading about asha and their whole culture that I couldn’t stop wondering why they were even a thing.

The two timelines made it confusing. Tea kept talking about how she’d been betrayed and thrown out of the asha community but we never get to that part of her past storyline. So it’s just really unsatisfactory overall. There’s hints at a love triangle but we only see who she chose in the future but not the events leading up to that.

In the end I’m not sure that I’ve read anything. It felt like a very long book with very little happening or resolved. I loved the concept but it really did not deliver. It’s a real shame, I don’t think that I would read the rest of the series after the disappointment of this first book.

Recommendation: I don’t think this book is terrible but it’s also not great. If you think the mostly descriptive writing would bother you it could be worth a shot but if not then I think it’s safe to skip.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is a wonderful story that was told in a not so great way. The story begins when a girl name Tea accidently raises her brother from the dead through sheer force of will and then starts off on a journey to become a bone witch. Fascinating, right? And it is. Only the author takes a lot of the enjoyment out of the telling of this tale by over describing nearly every detail of the setting and fashion. Only a few chapters in my eyes began to glaze over whenever I got to the descriptions of what people were wearing.

The other issue I had with the book was how slow it was. Tea is a bone witch in training but spends the first year of said training being basically a maid and it was boring to read about. In addition the novel constantly jumps back and forth between the past and the future. It is told as though the main character is being interviewed and is telling the interviewer (in this case a bard) that story of what happened. These interludes were more interesting than large parts of the story and I can see how they were put in to tease the reader with what would happen in the future. For me though I didn’t enjoy trying to learn about the future world Tea lives in while still imagining the past. It pulled me out of the story instead of making me want to read more.

Overall I give the book 2.5 starts out of 5. I liked the writing style and I think the author had some unique ideas. I hope that the sequel is written with telling and far more showing.

A vivid, lush foray into a new fantasy world. When Tea accidentally raises her brother from the dead, she discovers that she is destined to become a bone witch, a sorceress charged with culling the great beasts called daeva that threaten the eight kingdoms. But before she can begin her work, there is a great deal she must learn of fighting, magic, history, and even the arts. And then there's the matter of her brother, who now lives a half-life as her familiar. The narrative is interspersed with glimpses into Tea's future--a future that seems so much at odds with the Tea we know, that it fills the reader with a yearning to know more.

If anything, the world of The Bone Witch is at times *too* real, with so many details and invented words that the story occasionally bogs down, slowing the pace. But having reached the last page--and learning the identity of the boy in the grave--I can say that I'm highly anticipating the next book.

The Bone Witch is high fantasy at its best. Run Chupeco delivers an amazing descriptive vivid well structured world of magic, witchcraft, kingdoms at war and forces of magic fighting to protect and restore balance. The story opens with young Tea bringing her brother Fox back from the dead. I was hooked from the description of the book alone and knew this was something I would enjoy reading. I was compelled and engaged by the dual narration of Tea telling her story of obscure rural girl to becoming a Dark asha of great power and the more present narrative of the Bard who shares with the reader that Tea is exiled. That awareness that something big, dark and unforgivable has happened in between keeps the reader fully engaged. I must say that loved the world building and histories in this narrative told with such great attention to detail that as an aspiring writer myself I am in awe of Rin Chupeco abilities.

Anyone who loves magic, high fantasy, a complete departure from our regular world will love to escape into the Kingdoms of the Bone Witch.

This book seemed well written and prose was easy enough to read. The beginning of the book was tedious and disorienting for me. Coming in on the first scene you don't know if you're in a world, a dream, or a netherrealm. The most likely seeming to be a netherrealm. The first quarter of the book is tedious and spends too much time in description of mostly irrelevant things. Much of the description doesn't really help establish what the world is like we are experiencing, it describes more mundane things. I had a desire to drop this book and move on, but it started to pick up in the middle and I hung to the second half where it actually got interesting. The last third, or so, of the book kept my attention and I really wanted to finish it at that point. Though, when I got to the ending, it seemed anticlimactic. There seemed very little being brought to a close in this book and what was brought to a close only really came to relevance in the last third of it. It is definitely setup as an opening to a series, though I fear how the series might drone on, given what has occurred in the first book. The thing that bothered me most through the whole book was that character development outside of Tea and Fox was very thin. We never really get to know any characters well enough to have any affinity to them. You could kill off everyone and it would have little effect on the reader. Even the main character seemed underdeveloped at times, with some cases of odd behaviour conflicting what was already being established. I felt this book would be liked better by women than men, only due to the repetitive describing of dress, jewelery, makeup, and the like. That part really bores me quickly. I would consider it a 3 star book for me, but can see it getting more than that from many readers. Though, many readers may also drop it unfinished and give it a much poorer rating than if they were to finish it.

it tends to be overly descriptive, and the story building is rather lengthy. I can't actually get over how there was 97% description and 3% plot.. Nothing really seemed to happen.

Plot • Tea knows she's not like the other witches in her family – really her whole village – when she resurrects her brother from the dead. This ability makes her a bone witch, someone to be feared and alienated. As soon as her powers manifest, an experienced bone witch arrives to take Tea and her brother under her wing. Together, Tea begins her training as an asha, a wielder of elemental magic, and soon learns that there are more obstacles and dangers for her to face.

Characters • I liked Tea as a heroine and the emphasis placed on her coming to terms with her abilities. Necromancy isn't exactly a bright and shiny power but nevertheless, it is her strength. Another highlight is her relationship with her brother. Despite its odd circumstances, I enjoyed the bond they shared. Then rounding out the rest of the characters are the women who become her sisters (liked them all except one!) and the two other men who make up the love triangle but don't worry, the book is light on both the triangle and even the love part.

Writing • The author chose an interesting style to tell her story and despite some initial misgivings, it actually worked for me and worked for the book itself. The world and characters were intriguing from the start but something was lacking. There's a lull in the middle and never quite got the full emotional investment from me. More time spent with Tea and evenly-paced action would've bumped this up at least more star in my eyes.

Overall feelings • I liked it but didn't fall in love with it as much as I had hoped. In spite of that, the ending does leave the reader wanting to know more and I'd be curious to see if the next book proves to be a strong sequel.

When I first heard about this book, I immediately wanted to read it! The main protagonist is called Tea (which is written like tea but not pronounced like it, even though I can't help but think of the tea you drink anyway. I love tea.) and she's a dark witch. What more could I possibly want? Well, something more apparently ... because while I wouldn't necessarily call The Bone Witch disappointing, it was not all I hoped it would be.

The story is told in two different time streams. One follows Tea from the tender age of 12 to her rise as an asha (=bone witch) and another one from when she is 17 years old and has been exiled from the community. For me it was difficult to follow the latter, because she reminisces about her past (which gets backed up by the other timeline), but also talks about revenge plans that I couldn't comprehend as a reader because I have no idea what happened and we don't find out in this book. It is obvious that this is a series (I don't know how many parts, but it will definitely have one sequel), but it seemed like a prequel/origin story for something you have no idea about.

The world of The Bone Witch is an extensive one, where maps and explanations of countries and such are direly needed. They are provided in the front and back of the book, but I still felt lost when it came to the cultural aspects and geographical locations of kingdoms. Chupeco likes to go into detail when it comes to description, but the characters didn't explain so much as just talk about the things that are a regular part of their lives. So, to me, it felt like reading a foreign language, which made it impossible to follow all the political aspects and such, which I simply ignored at one point or another.
I think one of the things that I struggled with a bit was the lifestyle of the asha. You have to know, they are among the most powerful people, either being able to manipulate elements or raise corpses and control minds. They start their apprenticeship around the age of 13 and it takes several years until their official debut. Their lessons include things such as history and politics as well as combat training, which I think is cool. However, a big part of their education is singing, dancing, playing instruments and learning how to entertain guests. The value of an asha is measured by how often they are booked to meet guests and how much they are willing to pay - the more popular, the better for their house. So, they literally get rented out. It just felt like they were some sort of magical combo between escorts and geisha. I do understand that there is a political aspect to this and a lot of tradition and honor involved, but I DON'T get why that's necessary. They should not have to entertain anyone and make sure they are liked unless they want to, because as I said, they are among the most powerful people there are. At some point they did try to break down gender stereotypes, with only women being asha and men being Deathseekers (soldiers trained to battle evil creatures), but not very successfully so.

Finally, there was a supposed twist about the love interest in the end, which I didn't find to be a surprise at all. While I might not always guess the bad guy correctly, you cannot fool me in the romance department. I know most of what I said didn't sound very positive, but it was an interesting story. I just don't think that it resonated with me as much as I hoped for. I would still be willing to pick up a sequel and if it were only to figure out what's really going on.

Fazit: 3/5 stars! My lack of understanding of the world and the detailed description made it difficult for me to truly connect.

This was a DNF for me. The character's fell flat for me and didn't connect with them at all. It doesn't help that the story was dull and slow in some parts. I can't really recommend this, but you should download the sample of it to see if you would like it or not.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is a beautiful, fantastical story. Framed as a flashback, it tells the story of Tea, a young asha (read: witch) in training. Her power? Necromancy, which is alternately loved and feared in her society. Her power is discovered when she is young, and accidentally raises her brother Fox from the dead, leading her to leave everything she knows behind (except Fox) and embark upon her training. I don’t want to give too much away, but the world she enters is terrifying and overwhelming. The flashback intrigues you and sets up Tea’s future in a way that keeps you reading to know how she got there, which is obviously still left to be discovered fully in future installments of the series, so be prepared to not have as much of a conclusion as you would like.

At first, I wasn’t sure I liked the story. The world you enter is full of new words and new concepts and quite overwhelming at first. For me, having to learn and understand the world was my chief drawback. Once I got the hang of it, I found the world well built and fascinating. While parts of the story are slightly mundane, mostly Tea’s work up until actually becoming an apprentice, it is reminiscent of Memoir of a Geisha at times during her preparation. A lot of this book is spent leading up to bigger things, but such a set-up it is. Tea is an intriguing character, especially given information about her future that is slowly divulged. I found myself wondering frequently if she is going to wind up being the character I love the most, or the character I hate the most, as the series plays out. The other ashas and apprentices are also interesting, though not all are as fully fleshed out as Tea and her brother. I love the relationship between Tea and Fox, and am interested to see how it continues to grow.

Tea’s new life is dangerous and intriguing, with lots of half-truths and misinformation floating around. There is also joy, though. She’s falling in love with a prince, even though his bodyguard is afraid of her. There’s also mystery, in the form of the mysterious heartsglass maker, the history of the world, and the monsters Tea is being groomed to fight. I also really loved the concept in this world of the heart glass. Every person wears their heart in a glass vial around their neck. Ashas can read and interpret them to help others, with different colors pertaining to different emotions and illnesses. It’s bad news bears if you give your heart away to the wrong person, though, and it can lead to much worse than a broken heart. The brilliant colors of this world, including the heartsglass, really are truly painted in your mind as you read.

Overall, I really ended up loving this story, even though it took me some doing to get there. If you start reading and find yourself overwhelmed by the world, then just keep going, it gets easier. I admit the story also drags at some points, though I found reading about how asha dress and all their various accoutrements interesting, since it deepened the world building. If you like fantasy with a little bit of a dark edge, this is definitely for you.

I received this book from Netgalley and Sourcebooks FIRE in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The story is very imaginative and consistent. Each chapter has two sections, with a time displacement. The young age of the heroine and the relatively young ages of the major players make this a good book for young adults. The writing is smooth and easy to read. AS the first book in a series, there is a certain amount of stage setting, but the story is sufficient on its own. The world of the book and all its inhabitants is quite detailed and interesting. I look forward to the development of the story.

Tea has the gift of necromancy, making her a bone witch, among a group of few others who are both respected and feared throughout the kingdom for their dark, powerful abilities that cross the boundary between the living and the dead. In order to learn how to wield and control her power, Tea leaves her hometown to train under the guidance of an older bone witch. But as she grows in her abilities and takes on the mantle of an asha, Tea discovers that there are secrets she does not know about - and she'll have to be strong enough to face them all and protect the people she loves.

Plot? Majority of this novel is really character-driven, and in my case, that usually means a book is a bit of a slower read. This is not to say that I didn't find it interesting though! Reading about Tea's experiences upon her arrival in the city, and all of the situations she finds herself in definitely gave me some Memoirs of a Geisha vibes (and since I enjoyed that book, I obviously liked being reminded of it). The plot certainly picks up when she officially becomes an asha, especially when she's dispatched to take care of her 'magical' duties.

Characters? Unfortunately, I got the sense that I was staring at the characters of this story from behind a glass wall. This was likely due to the narration style (which I'll get into momentarily). But even just from observing her, Tea felt very much like a typical fantasy heroine whenever we were reading about her journey towards becoming an asha. I definitely didn't form any sort of personal connection to her, nor did I particularly find her remarkable or unique. I actually enjoyed more of the secondary characters, even though they were so rarely on the page, which I suppose says a lot about Tea herself and the way this was written.

Writing? I actually thought the narrative style choice - jumping between the telling of the story to a chronicler to the actual experience through Tea's eyes - was a clever way to keep the reader hooked. It definitely worked on me! Apart from that, I also felt like the author indulged in quite a few dense descriptions with overly specific details that I didn't find particularly necessary. Still, it didn't take away from my overall interest in seeing what would happen next.

Overall? In spite of the lack of character connection, I liked this book well enough. The narration style really worked for me, though I'd like to point out that it might not be everyone's cup of tea. I personally found the plot was really what ended up hooking me the most, and I thought it was well worth the read.

The Bone Witch, Rin Chupeco's latest novel is striking. I haven't read anything quite like it, and found it wonderful.

Tea can raise the dead. But raising her brother was an accident. Many women are asha, those who can control elemental magic, but very few can practice necromancy. Fortunately though, Mykaela, the current Bone Witch was near and took Tea under her protection.

Tea trains in the ways of an asha, which is quite similar to the training of a geisha. They learn history, music, performance, current events, and how to control their elemental magic. And when they finish training, they are able to wear their ceremonial hua, which is different for every asha, designed strictly for her based on her abilities, her training, and her personality.

The story is told in two points of view, from the bard who found Tea in the desert, and from Tea herself. And it's very obvious who is speaking at each time, which makes it easier to follow. There isn't lots of flip flopping between POV's, and it helps contribute to the flow of the story.

There are some very pertinent topics discussed in The Bone Witch, including that of toxic masculinity. Only women can become asha, men who have the potential must become soldiers. This is addressed well in the book, with one of Tea's friends proving that just because he is male, doesn't mean that asha training is for the weak.

There is a ton of world building, and it does get bogged down in details. There is so much description and page time dedicated to Tea's asha training, and not nearly as much fighting daeva as teased. That being said, and me being a costuming/history/sociology nerd, I liked the slow parts. The details will probably come in handy in the rest of the series, and was worth the slog.

The ending left me wanting much more. I wanted to know more about what happened to Tea in those unmentioned years. Why she became hard, what happened to her brother, and what her new determined plan is. Rin Chupeco has set a very ambitious bar, with the foreshadowing of what is to come.


If you're a fan of (implied) Asian history, geisha training, necromancy, coming-of-age stories all with a bit of supernatural demon-ish critters thrown in, you may well like it. But be forewarned, there is a lot of worldbuilding and description, and this may turn off some readers. But give it a chance, you may wind up liking it.

This is a book full of beautiful descriptions and fantastic locales. The story takes its time unfolding, but readers who fall in love with Tea will enjoy the journey and the magic within.