I was hesitant to read this book due to the whole she-raises-people-from-the-dead thing, which was a little too close to Jesus for my taste...but I'm happy to be proved wrong. The inciting incident does feature the MC raising her brother from the dead but he's got quasi-zombie issues. And he needs her blood on a regular basis. So he's a vampirish zombie but still a nice guy at heart (if he had one.)

In fact, most of the creatures raised by Tea (which I was pronouncing Tay-ah but apparently is actually like the hot drink) have their softer sides. Not that anyone else can see them. Tea's abilities put her in the dubious, ostracized category of bone witch and in the social structure of this world, they're rare, feared and not valued (just like Tea's supernatural creatures). And in there lies the rub.

Tea's first-person, girlhood narrative is broken up by another first-person narrator, a mysterious traveler who has come across Tea's isolated beach some years after the events Tea recounts in her narrative. The writing is lovely in these passages, and a strong contrast with Tea's less-mature viewpoint. Occasionally I found it hard to switch between them, as the traveler's viewpoint is so beautifully told and Tea occasionally comes across as petty and pedantic. It makes sense, given her young age at this time in the story, but it's jarring. I wanted the traveler to be IN more of the book. But it's obvious the reader must know of Tea's early history to foreshadow how she came to be at odds with the establishment that trained her.

And I assume that's the focus of the following books. The conflict between society's expectations of Tea and how it treats her spurs her into drastic action. I look forward to the next installment.

DNF at 50%...I just. I just couldn't. Five stars for concept, world building, and prose. I just need more action in my YA and this had so much potential that I'm disappointed at my disappointment! The action just stalled right out after Tea goes to learn to be a Bone Witch, and for me, that was right when I wanted to get down and dirty with some monsters and necromancy, and it just didn't happen. Is there a romance? It was hard to tell. So, my final thoughts are that this is a book with great potential and I'm sure it will be for someone, that someone is just not me. 2.5/5

This review will be posted to my blog http://booksaplentybookreviews.blogspot.com after February 7, 2017 since the book will not be published until March 7.
*Received ARC copy of this book from Netgalley
Rin Chupeco creates an incredible world in her book The Bone Witch. This story has a geisha feel to it filled with remarkable detail that for the most help the story instead of distracting from it. We are introduced to Tea who is telling the story of her past to a bard about she became the bone witch that everyone is so afraid of. The story evolves in a natural progression that truly sucks the reader into it. It slows for a short time just over half way, but picks back up before it’s over. It left me with lots of questions though that makes me anxious for the next book to see what happens next. I give it 4/5 stars because I really enjoyed reading it. I would recommend it to other fantasy lovers as well.

My expectations for this book were fairly low if I'm being honest. Whenever there are comparisons to sensational novels such as "Game of Thrones" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" I find myself prepared to be disappointed. After reading "The Bone Witch" I was not disappointed.

While I enjoyed the characters and their interactions immensely, it was truly the setting and the general ambiance of the novel which truly pulled me in. Chupeco's melding of cultures was engaging to the point where I felt the need to physically pull myself from the narrative. The world was so fully constructed that I could see the current city and the far off lands as if I were staring at a picture.

There is also something refreshing about this examination of death and the willingness of the dead to stay dead. Those who fear death do not fear the thing itself but those who are able to reverse it which is certainly opposite to current ideas (at least in western countries) about death.

Will there be a sequel? I hope. Is it necessary? I'm not really sure. Of course there are many loose strings to tie up but there is something rather cathartic about the way this novel ended.

Chupeco created a lovely piece and I will be looking out for her other works in the future.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

I have never read this author before so it was a new experience. The Bone Witch was well-written. It was a little confusing at first because of all the different nations to remember and all the different cultural stuff being described. For a first book in a series, it almost seemed like too much of the different cultures being thrown at the reader. Everything was beautifully described, from clothing to the various classes Tea was taking for her training. The only problem I really had with this book was the abrupt feeling of the ending. I know it's going to be a series but when I read the last page, I didn't realize it was the last page until I turned the page and saw the start of the glossary/terms description pages. I will definitely read the next one just to see what Tea proceeded to do and why she did it since we are only giving a little bit of a glimpse in the Bone Witch.

I really enjoyed 'The Bone Witch'. First, of course, there is the beautiful cover. I enjoyed reading all the details of Tea's daily life, the world of the ashas, and her training. The book moved a little slowly, but it was never dull.

I didn't like learning the correct pronunciation of Tea's name at nearly the end of the book--in my head it was'tea' like the drink, and learning the correct pronunciation, so late in the book, was a little jarring. All of her sisters' were named after flowers, so having her named after 'tea' made a kind of sense. Anyway, it bugged me.

I also didn't like the abrupt ending with so many unanswered questions and loose ends. As it got near the end, I was wondering how it could possibly be concluded, and the answer was-it wasn't. It was left open for a sequel, which is kind of cool (I would read it), but also not cool for having so little resolution. It would have been 5 stars if it weren't for that ending.

3.5/5 stars.

Tea finds out her magic isn't like the other witches in her family in a decisive and unexpected way: she inadvertently raises her brother from the dead. This marks her as a bone witch, with power over death rather than one of the more common elements. She's apprenticed to an older bone witch and moves to a training house in the city, to learn control over her powers and the duties of an asha (a powerful warrior witch that also functions something like a geisha). Her brother (her familiar) accompanies her. There is the usual training montage and house politics, and the setup of a love triangle. The world-building is well-done. The role of the ashas, the bone witches in relation to demons, and the heartglasses that everyone carries are all interesting and nuanced. It's a great setting for the adventure and intrigue that ensue.

The story unfolds in two alternating parts. The first part is Tea in the present, banished to an isolated beach where a bard visits her to learn her tale. The second part is Tea's telling to that bard, of her past and her journey as a bone witch. Along the way we get hints (and later some big ol' give-aways) at how those two storylines meet up. Tellingly, her brother is not with her on the beach, though she mentions a dead boy she mourns. She also demonstrates a surprising new power in relation to the demons.

I'm a bit annoyed with the end of this first book. Instead of keeping the mystery of Tea's lost love going for book 2, it gets revealed, and to me, that really ruined the momentum of the story. It gave away too much about how certain relationships are going to go. Along similar lines, the launch of her ultimate mission at the end had the same effect- it was too definitive, too demonstrative. The author sped right past foreshadowing into just telling you what happens later, without all of the good lead-up stuff in the middle. It ruins the ending, and likely subsequent books. I get what she was going for (a kind of present and past dichotomy like in The Name of the Wind) but she doesn't pull it off as well.

I may still pick up book 2, despite this, because it is an interesting world the author has built. And aside from having given away key points of how Tea gets to her present, I am still interested to see how her new mission goes and what comes of that. If you like fantasy tales with a bit of a dark shading, give this a try.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get behind it completely. I think this book has an excellent plot and characters but just poor execution. It has so much potential, but I just couldn't get through it!

Review to follow in full on my blog, but 5* for a thoroughly enjoyable, original fantasy that was both gripping and delightful. I am hooked on this new series.

I finished this story in the small hours of the morning, hardly knowing exactly how much time had passed in reading. The Bone Witch (2017) is equal parts complex and engrossing, plot driven and well-paced. The world of Tea is a fully realized one with myths and legends of its own that influence the happenings of the story. Tea proves to be an interesting protagonist as she navigates what is myth and what is the truth of her life. If there’s anything that gets me into a story it’s the presence of a character like Tea, and a world as mystical as that of The Bone Witch.

As you can read in many of the descriptions of The Bone Witch, Tea is scarcely done with her childhood when she raises her brother from the dead. With this action she ceases to be a normal commoner and is vaulted into the world of witchcraft very far from home. Witches, or asha as they are more accurately called, are widely accepted as part of the society Rin Chupeco has constructed. Asha tend to have an affinity for an element or multiple elements, and with that affinity they can learn a variety of skills. There are healers, dancers, warriors, and more among the ranks of the asha. For Tea this world is new and exciting but with its own drawbacks — as a bone witch, she has no affinity for the elements. She is only magically skilled in what is essentially necromancy. As such, she is an outcast of society and a person of interest among the asha. All this considered, Tea’s world has forever changed.

One of the major strengths of this story is the main character, Tea. Her reactions to her new world and new life are varied and interesting. She has a healthy internal confusion and mix of feelings as the world she lives in changes. Leaving her childhood home, navigating the spaces of the asha, learning many skills at once, her reactions to and confusion with the challenges she faces are interesting and wonderfully human. She may also be described as an ‘indominable spirit’. If you’re not interested in headstrong young female protagonists, then this is probably not the book for you. The Bone Witch is undoubtedly Tea’s story, and she nothing if not stubborn. I did like that headstrong and humble were not mutually exclusive in this main character. Tea frets over her mistakes, and fears for the ‘life’ her brother leads now due to her actions. She has that young-protagonist-weight on her shoulders, and I was the most interested in seeing her bear it poorly.

The Bone Witch is rich with cultural details. It helps that the main character is entering the space of the asha, which holds a place of privilege among the upper class as well as its own unique culture. Another layer of richness to the story was the mixing of cultures that occurs within the ranks of the asha. The asha women are from every corner of the known world, and that mixture of diverse backgrounds is reflected in how they look, express themselves, and react to new ideas or information. The cultural and spiritual details in The Bone Witch lent a depth to the story I very much enjoyed.

Another aspect of The Bone Witch that helped me enjoy the book was the movement of the plot. I felt there was neither too little nor too much action for the subject matter, especially as a first book in a projected series. The pace lent itself well to an immersion in the text that left me neither bored nor rushed through to its conclusion.

The one weakness I felt with The Bone Witch was that the format of how the story was told tended to be weak. Chupeco utilizes a story-within-a-story format strongly reminiscent of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind. The Bone Witch has the present version of Tea being visited by a bard who wishes to sing her story, and therefore wants to learn it from her — not from those who call her a villain. A large majority of the book is the story she tells the bard, so is set in the past. The present didn’t pack as much of an emotional or plot-driven punch as the story being told in the past. Additionally, the past/present format was all but invisible in the story. A strong link wasn’t made to sustain the format throughout the book. I do think it could improve and work better as the series progresses because we will have more to go on, both past and present. As it stands, it is perhaps the weakest aspect of the first book.

The Bone Witch encompasses a turbulent time in one person’s life. Tea is a complicated protagonist who I enjoyed rooting for, even when she was wrong. Rin Chupeco is building a fresh and interesting world I can’t wait to see the rest of, and I hope the next installations in THE BONE WITCH series lend more depth and clarity to the role of the bard and how his telling of Tea’s story impacts that world.

2.5 Stars. I’m torn on this one. I think this is a problem of a book having a great hook and then not quite living up to it. I mean, there were some elements that I really enjoyed, but the overall execution just fell flat for me. Good stuff first: I love the concept of the heartglasses. Why wear your heart on your sleeve when it can be bottled and hung around your neck? Exchanged in the most ultimate (and perilous) of romantic gestures? Used to identify illness? Employed to determine one's fate? I also enjoyed the asha, perhaps best described as magical-warrior-Geishas, and the world’s mythical cosmology. There’s decent world building going and a gray complexity fleshing out the lands and peoples that populate the book's pages. (I was happy that several of the tenets of Tea’s society that I initially found questionable were eventually, well, questioned.)

…But this is also a very slow story filled with seemingly endless descriptions of clothing and food and day to day minutia, which is just not my cup of tea. (Ha.) Its also structured so that chapters alternate between scenes of Current Tea (as told by the Bard) and Past Tea (as narrated by Tea to the Bard). I’m not always a fan of this set-up, and I wasn’t sold on it here. Early on, I felt like the present scenes only served to kill the dramatic tension, such as there was, in the Past Chapters, which were enjoyable enough if only because I thought they promised an eventual uptick in the action. But as the story went on and I became more interested in finding out what had lead Present Tea to her current situation, it became painfully obvious that I wasn’t going to find out in this book and the Past Chapters were never going to pick up. It’s all the more frustrating because I can see the shape of the story that could have been. In stead, I’m left with more dress descriptions and a barley developed mystery that is wrapped up all too easily, tidily, and quickly.

Compounding these complaints is the fact that I never connected with any of the characters. I am told things about them, but I never really got a sense of any of them. Part of the problem, I think, is the fact the dialogue and character interactions are all very wooden. Again, personalities are described rather than presented. In a way, this makes sense in terms of Present Tea recounting days past to the Bard. It’s realistic in that it’s told as Tea talks. But it left me wanting.

Still, I will be back for the sequel. True, this wasn’t a page turner or a story with which I have formed any sort of emotional connection, but it wasn’t a bad book. I enjoyed it well enough, and my curiosity has been piqued. And I want to find out what turned that silver heartglass black.

I loved this book! I actually want to read it again. The story line was great and the characters where great. I will be recommending this book.

This book had an interesting style... alternating between Tea's journey to becoming a Dark Asha or Bone Witch and looking back from the consequences of this journey. There are magic users in this land of many kingdoms and most people learn when they receive their "heartsglass" in adolescence. The color indicates whether they are magic users or just normal individuals. Tea learns that she will be a Dark Asha when her brother is killed in the ongoing war with the "Faceless," evil magic users that raise up monsters to fight their battles. At Fox's funeral, Tea raises him from the dead. He is still dead but is able to function and think (not like a zombie). Tea is taken by Lady Myckaela to study to be an Asha. Her journey is eventful and the rules and mythology of this world is interesting and original. I would recommend this for YA and adults, both.

The Bone Witch - by Rin Chupeco

The Bone Witch is a young adult fantasy novel that is the first in a series by Rin Chupeco. The book is about a young girl, Tea, that discovers she is a bone witch, a kind of witch that can raise the dead. The entire book is about Tea's journey to become an asha, from how she discovers she has the ability to be a bone witch to her through her entire training process. The book takes place in the present and the past, mostly in the past. The present is told in very short bursts and doesn't add to the story. It moves at an unbelievable slow pace. We learn almost everything about the world of an asha but we learn nothing of Tea's current predicament. The entire time reading, I am patiently waiting for an answer to my only question only to be left with another surprise and no answers. It felt like I just read a 400 page prologue. For parents wondering if this is a book for their young adult reader, I think this book would be appropriate for readers as young as middle school

There is a lot of beauty that's described here - and clearly a lot more story to be told. The first book in a series that sets up another world are always a bit long on description and short on story. This is more of a 3.5 for me - I think it's got a lot of potential and that I may just need to see where the story is going to fully appreciate how it got there.

Wow! I was unsure of the back and forth between past and present, but it keeps the reader engaged and wanting to know why she is exiled. I will definitely be recommending this to my students.

* I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review **

Well first off let me explain that there are many reason why I add stars to a books review. I may not always be blown away by plot or characters, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the book isn't well-written. I may add stars for diction and syntax, complexity, research involved, etc.

Such is the case with The Bone Witch. The plot wasn't absolutely dynamite, and some characters were a little underdeveloped, but the complexity of the world and intricate construction of the magical and political universe deserves a lot of merit. I was highly impressed by how unique and detailed the entire asha system was, and to give such a sophisticated idea life is a major accomplishment.

To those who marked this as a DNF, I understand your reasons, as much of the story was quite slow, but I strongly urge you to give The Bone Witch a second chance, particularly if you are a high fantasy fan, because I did find it very satisfying and interesting by the end.

I can definitely see the comparisons to Memoirs of a Geisha here, as Kion at least seemed to be strongly based on Gion, a Japanese city known for it's Geisha history. The Geisha and the asha both entertained patrons in tea houses and were expected to learn music, dancing and etiquette. I loved the idea of magic being woven into the hua (like kimonos) and hairpins.

There are similarities to other cultures apparent in the other kingdoms as well, like Drychta and the middle east, or Istera and Russia (though these are just my guesses). The mix of cultures and original ideas were quite seamlessly blended.

Over all a slow read but highly enjoyable in terms of the unique world. There was also no romance (at least not really) but there are hints of it, and for me that's just fine and dandy!

I will most certainly read the next in the series and recommend The Bone Witch to all high fantasy lovers.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review

I really enjoyed this book a lot! The plot of it all was amazing! And can we talk about that character development? Amazing! I need more!!

I had really high expectations for this book. However, I was unable to continue reading it and decided to shelve it at 45%. I found the storyline hard to follow as it jumps between two characters in the past and present. I will probably try to finish it closer to release date.

This is the first book I've previewed that I can say I regret previewing... only because it will be SO LONG until I can find out what happens next! I loved Rin Chupeco's other books, but this is just beyond fantastic. This will easily be one of the best books published in 2017, and I'll be surprised if it doesn't win several awards. It's brilliant, inclusive, and fresh (a difficult thing to do in the bad-ass teenage girl fantasy genre). Absolutely loved it.