This is a book about necromancer, but there is very little necromancy despite a promising start where our protagonist Tea accidentally raises her brother from the dead.

In this world, being an asha (a magic user) is more than using magic: there's a rigorous training from childhood that involves learning how to sing, dance, play music, and use martial arts. So after bringing her brother back to life, Tea is taken by an asha to one of these training houses where we witness her ascent. In alternating chapters, it's revealed that Tea herself is telling this story to an unnamed bard, and she has become a terrifyingly strong asha indeed.

Ultimately, I wanted more details about Tea's craft and how she's impacted by it. Is she fascinated or repulsed by dead things, and does that change as she progresses in her training? We don't know. We also learn so little about the relationship between her and her risen brother despite a psychic bond mentioned late in the book. There are lots of other details, especially about food and clothing, which I typically love but found frustrating here because it felt like fripperies on an unstable foundation (though I did love the sideplot about the male-presenting character who wants to dance in the traditional female-only performance). I'll probably skip the other volumes.

A deliciously dark tale. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into the rest of this series. She can be a little annoying but I kinda think that’s part of the point.

I really want to read this book still. I have it in print and all the books are so pretty and look amazing. Will read at some point and see what I feel.

Amazing beginning to a series. The world building and setting were vivid. I'm eager to see where this series goes.

The Bone Witch is a tantalizing combination of witches, curses and an incredible start to the Bone Witch trilogy. I loved the world building and the epic feels while reading the start to Tea's story. Her journey is just beginning in this powerful story and I am already hooked! I can't wait for more!

4 stars!

I might have finished this book a while ago, but the disappointment of my high hopes for it crumbling to the ground is still alive.

But, let me start with the parts I enjoyed first...
The premise and magic system were extremely interesting and original. I also enjoyed the magic lessons aspect, although I they were not emphasised as much as I would like.

As for the parts I didn't enjoy so much?
I was kinda confused with all the different words used to describe the bone witches and the asha, and all the non-English words, that I usually enjoy very much seeing in books.
However, when they appear in a novel I'm not so invested in, I just forget what they mean, and have to either interrupt my reading and look up the meaning or proceed without really know what's going on.

Does that make any sense?
I mean, my biggest problem with this novel is that was constantly feeling disconnected from the story and the characters.

I didn't feel interested in knowing what was going on with the protagonist and the heroes of interest, while Fox's presence seemed to me mostly unnecessary for the most part, and even downright creepy sometimes.

Furthermore, I felt like the story was going too slow at some points and too fast at others, almost giving me the impression it was rushed.

By the end of the book I was so certain that I wouldn't proceed with this series, that I stopped paying attention and just focused on finishing the book.
Still, I can't help feeling sad about it.

Thanks for the ARC in exchange of an honest review!
This YA fantasy sounded very promising, I was just expecting a bit more. I believe that the author's writing style and character are just not my style.

The magic system grabbed my attention and the plot itself was entertaining to get through. However, I didn't feel or care much for the things that the characters had to go through.

Darkly captivating is an excellent description of this superbly written young adult novel that will appeal to adults as well. It has a very original plot, no love triangles (thank god!) and a strong, fierce heroine with certain...gifts...
I loved it!

I really liked this! The Bone Witch was captivating from start to finish, it was hard to put it down once I started reading it. The writing was both beautiful and gripping—I loved every moment. I would recommend The Bone Witch to anyone who loves to read diverse books. You don't want to miss out!

Rin Chupeco has a unique voice and it is on full display in this delightfully dark tale. We plan to use this book in our October reads display and I am sure it will be checked out and appreciated many times over.

A new world for me... NECROMANCY. This story had a sold beginning, but for me it fell off its momentum in the second half. The description of the novel was much more intriguing than the book itself.... unfortunately. Not sure I will continue on in reading the remainder of the trilogy.

I loved and devoured the first half of this book, it had so much potential but the pacing just seemed to die off in the second half. I usually a really descriptive book but I feel like that could have been balanced a bit more in the latter half. I did overall like the story and do plan to continue the series.

Described as a dark and lyrical fantasy series, The Bone Witch is the first in a new series by Rin Chupeco. While the framework and plot was unique and engaging, I was lost in the overly descriptive prose. The long winded descriptions created a disconnected for me as I lost the connection to the story. This is a reading trait of my own that I can't get over, but if you like Laini Taylor and Tahereh Mafi, this may work for you!

I swapped my kindle back in 2018 and am unable to recover this title. I appriciate the opportunity that was given for review but sadly can't complete it for this title. Based on the other books I've read by Rin Chupeco I am giving this 4 Stars.
Many thanks.

I loved this book! The world building was detailed but easy to understand and all of the characters were relatable.

The Bone Witch ultimately proved to be very little like what I anticipated--I had imagined a story more focused on a girl who becomes an outcast for her dark powers proving her worth by how she wields them, likely in a way that helps or saves the world, but instead, I got a story that really seems at odds with itself.

Firstly, the book wanted so much to capture the apprentice training sectors of Memoirs of a Geisha that it didn't stop to wonder if it should.

You see, Memoirs of a Geisha could spend all that time describing kimono and singing lessons and the daily grind of Chiyo/Sayuri's life because the main goal of the character was to become a geisha; someone who sings and dances and entertains patrons as a career and needs to be recognized for their celebrity to be successful and have freedoms. Everything about these details contributed to establishing the world to an audience that likely has no familiarity with geisha and in terms of the plot, served to further the heroine's character arc and her goals.

For Tea, so much of being an "asha" didn't align with her goals. She was more interested in her powers and contributing to her role using them than in becoming a pretty dancer at tea houses, yet the narrative meanders on hairpins and "hua" way more than it does combat or even just using magic. For a world that cultivates "asha" to use magics for a variety of reasons, the narrative was weirdly devoid of it. Most of Tea's training is skimmed over and we hear more about dancing or picking dresses or attending parties.

Like, fine, train them all to be like noble ladies who are educated and refined with magic gemstone hairpins so they can go out into the world to be effective at understanding and participating in politics and "subterfuge", but also, focus more on their magic and political prowess, detailing how the magic works and asha history all that sort of stuff, not regaling me with yet another instance of Tea describing her dress or food or hairpin. For this type of narrative--this world, this plot--the same things that worked in Memoirs of a Geisha don't work here.

Also, I don't know if the author wanted to bank on the name of Memoirs of a Geisha and didn't think her YA audience would have read the book, but uh, basically the entire asha structure and Tea's unique asha experience are pretty direct rips from Memoirs of a Geisha.

Even Tea's bizarrely indifferent, detached approach to narrating her life in copious is a dead-wringer for how Chiyo narrated her life. I haven't read Memoirs of a Geisha in like 10 years but that shit was distinct I immediately had flashbacks.

Another thing that got to me was Tea's name.

It's said/read like Teya (Teh-uh) yet, despite this, the author continues to focus on the spelling to make little references to tea, the drink. And the pronunciation isn't told to us until the 65% mark. Why the author didn't just spell it like Teya or Taya is confusing, to say the least, especially since the story goes "my sisters all have flower names, but my parents gave up on that by the time I was born" to explain why her name didn't match. The flimsy "hur hur name you after a type of bush that grows leaves" connection doesn't even work because her name isn't "tea" it's "teh-uh" but spelled like the English word "tea." Like, why did the author have both??? It makes no good sense.

It was ultimately pointless. Like, in a book, we as a reader are aware of the spelling being the same as Tea, but, the people in the book are hearing her called Teh-uh, so, why any of them would 1) know the spelling 2) know that and then make a point to say "Tey-uh, you're named after tea, the drink, odd" when clearly she isn't because it's pronounced differently, is like.... why? What's accomplished, what did this pointless stuff do besides irritate me over how to read her name?? Tea isn't even shown to be especially relevant in this story so... why is pointing out her name relevant? I don't get it.

Although I ultimately got through the book in one sitting and liked the ideas beyond how the author made asha like geisha a little too much without it seeming warranted or logical, this book just didn't do it for me. Like, I love the slower burn of things, the fact that the author wanted to establish and explain things, but I also felt like she didn't explain the important things enough and wasted a lot of time on stupid things that I know won't be relevant later. There were way too many times I felt confused or adrift for the style the author was going for.

Also, I can't help but feel like the in between parts from a random guy's POV about Tea but clearly well into the future maybe... took away from the book. Like, they were really nice for explaining some things that the normal text just... didn't... but otherwise it felt like they revealed too much. Like... apparently every bit of development between Tea and the prince is irrelevant because she calls someone else "my love" in the future. We also find out that Tea wants revenge and gets very skilled at Dark asha magic and gets exiled... like... we've barely established anything in this book and already we're like "no suspense or wonder at what happens, here's bits of the future to tell you more."

I think the writing was overall nice, but often struggled to find worthwhile focus and kept going off course. Very little is accomplished plot-wise in this story. I couldn't even say that Tea had good character development because she was so indifferent so much of the time; she spoke more of what happened to her than what she thought or felt, so it leaves the story rather hallow and hard to connect to. Sure, Tea isn't annoying, but she's also not really... interesting.

I guess I'd rather have an annoying but interesting character than a perfectly palatable one who is incredibly dull and apathetic.

Hopefully with all this junk out of the way and a better idea of an actual plot beyond "learn to dance and pick hairpins" the next book will pick up and have better development for Tea and the cast.

My feelings are mixed so my rating is like.... It's not a terrible book, I've read way worse I've been able to rate a bit higher, but like, I just personally feel like this one goes even lower because it clearly was trying to be high tier stuff but just lost focus because yay hairpins. Like, it's more of a 2.5 but I'll give it a three because there's way worse I've given a three to.

I definitely would recommend this to people who like lush and extremely descriptive writing with their fantasy novels!

REALLY loved this one. The setting, characters, pacing, all of it! I thought that the premise of the book was interesting and so I requested it. It turns out that Chupeco's voice was the real reason to request the book. The writing was fluid and the pacing was spot on. I never felt like I was being rushed or it was dragging behind.

This book came as a great surprise for me. I had no idea what to expect going in, but it soon became clear it would be an experience that would leave me in awe.

Tea was a bone witch. Something she hadn't realized until she'd accidentally raised her brother from the dead at his funeral. Through some twist of fate, another bone witch is passing by to notice the magical energy Tea's giving off and decides to take her, and her living dead brother back home to train her better. There she's trained to be an asha for the Valerian. Being an asha is hard enough, but a dark one? Even harder. With only one bone witch who's never there that can help her understand what she truly is, constant guilt over her brother's tethered existence, and trouble that follows her wherever she goes, Tea's life is full of hardships as she navigates through two years of her life until she becomes an asha.

This story is told in two parts, the future, in which a girl is exhiled and supposedly retelling the story of her life to a bard who'd found his way to her, and current twelve-turned fifteen Tea. The future is from the point of view of the bard, the past, from Tea's, and you get to piece the stories as you go along.

Tea undergoes a lot of change throughout those years, not just in body and learning to become an asha, but also in the way she thinks and the transformation in her, is curious. I like how elaborate the story is, how much work Rin Chupeco put into making the story so intricately woven, not just between the past and future, but also within the past in itself. There are so many underlying stories and hidden agendas that you slowly get to piece together as you go along. I also love the mix of culture she artistically wove together. It's a hard thing to do because at times it can be offensive or seem mocking to those cultures, but Chupeco merged them together into a seemingly harmonious existence.

In my head, I kept imagining the asha as Geisha, their hua a Kimono, and they're similar in many of the things I know about Geisha from the book Memoirs of a Geisha. At the same time, they're also strong magicians and in a way, warriors. They're not only meant to entertain, they weave magic and protect those around them and I completely respect that.

What I didn't like was mostly Tea's thoughts. They were always frazzled, childish and at times annoying. Granted, I can completely understand why and I totally get it, considering she is twelve when this book starts. But still, she gets annoying. I'm also especially not fond of girls insisting on fighting, ignoring everyone telling her not to do something, only to fail as expected and cause a lot of trouble to everyone around. As selfless as the reasons may be for doing what she wants to do, the fact that she doesn't understand the disadvantages of her limitations for me is very selfish. But again, she's young. I've watched enough anime to know that that's normal.

As a whole, I truly enjoyed the book, and listening to it in audiobook form helped me submerge into the world more wholly. The writing was incredible and so was the plot!

I enjoyed this high fantasy YA novel. The writing is solid and the plot is interesting. I love stories with sisters and magic and adventure so those were all a huge draw for me. Unfortunately the story dragged quite a bit. I think that I definitely have students who will like this book -- the ones who will devour any fantasy book. But I think that there are better books for my high school readers who only read a few books a year and need a solid 5 star read.