The first lines drew me in but it didnt keep my attention to want to finish the book, unfortunately. Maybe not the same for most

Wow! The Bone Witch is originally, interesting and thoroughly suspensful. I enjoyed the perilous and stroughtful plot of this story. This was a vividly-told story that I recommend to all readers who enjoy fantasy, suspense and a touch of romance!

This book was interesting but wasn't really my cup of tea. I just couldn't get very far in it because it didn't hold my attention.

I liked the description? And I absolutely loved the present-day narration of Tea's life because she seemed more of a put-together character who's about to undergo some BAMF shmat with the army of daeva she just raised. But...I don't know. It was hard not to compare this to The Name of the Wind...REALLY HARD. The whole flashback episodes, a chronicler taking in the past, a school/learning setting...I mean, yeah. Unfortunately not much else happens. Just school, living life, and occasionally doing something spontaneous like raising dead kings or whatever.

Summary
Tea is a bone witch, a magic user capable of raising and controlling the dead. She finds this out by accidentally raising her brother during his burial. Another traveling bone witch finds out about her and takes her under her wing, and together they travel to the Willows, a section of a city dedicated to training and housing asha. There she undergoes asha training and learns how to control her powers, how to fight the monsters that only she and other bone witches like her are capable of effectively defeating.

All this is told through a framing device of a seventeen-year-old Tea recounting how she became banished to a traveling bard, while dropping hints of catastrophic events yet to come.
Mixing such disparate topics can work...it just didn't here
So, when I said in the title "Memoirs of a Geisha meets monsters" I mean that exactly literally. Asha are geisha. Just...geisha. They entertain people in tea houses and parties for money and trained in arts like music and dance and scintillating conversation. Everything about Tea's training and work as described in the book could have been lifted out of Memoirs. (Well, except for the magic parts.) But also they fight monsters? They're trained in physical and magical fighting as well as all the geisha arts, but it feels very tacked on. There's almost nothing in the way of trying to meld these two concepts. Instead they're just smashed together. "These ladies are pretty and dance and parties and wear fancy dressed and shit. Oh, right, also there's monsters sometimes."



Again, I'm not saying these two concepts can't be mixed. I'm fine with that idea! But...mix them. Don't just have them randomly sitting on a shelf together. I was left with soooooo many worldbuilding questions stemming from the various ways these two things just didn't go together.

The importance of scene selection
The plot of The Bone Witch covers several years, from when Tea is about 12 (I think) to 15. Consequently, there's a lot of time spent in montages, where months and months will be described and only a few moments will get picked out to get fully developed scenes. And they all make Tea look really whiny.

Now, to be clear, I am not saying that Tea is an overly whiny character. Every individual scene makes perfect sense in isolation for why she'd be confused, crying, protesting, etc. But the cumulative effect of having only the scenes with negative emotions developed, while everything happy is relegated to a montage/summary, is...exhausting. I could not connect with anything positive going on in the story, because none of those aspects were fleshed out. This is especially bad when it comes to Tea's various relationships with people, where we get a lot of either animosity or crying, and then several chapters later we're told that these people are so close and have such a bond and just...



(Okay to be fair there's a few positive scenes, but they are few and far between and definitely not enough to showcase some very important things, most notably Tea's relationship with her brother, Fox. I'd go whole chapters forgetting Fox even existed because of how absent he was, and then suddenly we'd be assured that Tea is very close to him, no really, I promise, just so very close.)
Let's talk about that framing device

The book is told within a framing device that has Tea relating the story of her life to a Bard who she has magically called to her. Interspersed in the chapters of the main narrative were chapters in the future/framing device of Tea and the Bard hanging out and talking and doing things with monsters. So we find out through this device that she's been banished, and theoretically we're hearing the story of the events that lead up to her banishment.

Except. We're not. The end of the story doesn't match up with the start of the framing device. Near as I can tell, a temporal order of events will go Book 1 -> Book 2 -> Frame -> Book 3? Which, okay, that's a decision you can make, but it was quite jarring for me when I reached the final pages.

A large reason that was jarring for me, though, was the way the framing device was constantly used to tease us that something exciting was about to happen, no really, I promise, it'll get exciting, just keep reading for the exciting parts, it's coming, really, promise! Every chapter in the frame was like this, with Tea ominously talking about "oh, if only I'd known how bad things would get" and stuff like that. It was effective, I'll give the book that, because I really did want to know what was going to happen next. But what happened next was always far underwhelming compared to the anticipation, and after a while that rather ticked me off. I thought at least, at least we'll get a whizbang of an ending and then....nope, it's just more tease to keep reading.

Will I read this author again? Maybe.
Will I continue this series? Not after that ending.

More Reviews for The Bone Witch

(un)Conventional Reviews - Review: The Bone Witch
The Moonlight Library - The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
The Bandar Blog - The Bone Witch Review

Definitely a great adult read, as well as YA. It is a well written book with plenty of action and excitement. I think Fox, Tea’s brother, is my favorite character although there are plenty of other ones that I love also. The ending (and discovering who Tea’s love was) was a total shock, although now that I’ve had time to think about it, I really shouldn’t have been surprised. I didn’t realize this was part of a series and will have to continue on with the next book to see how Tea’s “love” came to be killed.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

This book was way too long and took me a while to get through. The plot dragged too much and the past and present back and forth point of view didn't feel complete. It could have been 100 pages shorter and condensed so that the whole book did not feel like exposition and back story.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

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.
When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha—one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.

*2.5 stars*

I remember reading the first book in the Girl from the Well series and feeling disappointed. I remember that the story really never gave me anything back for the time I invested in it. The MC just stood around and watched or followed characters around. It was dull and boring...

This book is almost a copycat of that - in a way that is easy to compare. This story, while filled with some great scenes, brilliant ideas and a character you want to know more about, essentially the only thing that happens in this book is following Tea through her two year apprenticeship of necromancy. Not much of any significance actually happens - it was one of those stories where lots of things "almost happen" and that is okay for a chapter or two - not a near-450 page book...

Like I said, this book did have some positives but the lack of impetus is what kept this rating down.


Paul
ARH

I loved the authors other books and I wasn't able to read this one before it archived. I will be reading it later, though, and will return with a review.

Beautifully dark and thrilling. This books easily captures the otherworldly and makes one seek it to find the magic within.

This was the first book I read from author Rin Chupeco, but it won't be my last. I adored the main character, Tea, and the world building was amazing. I love fantasy, and reading something with an Asian-inspiration was something I appreciated, not having read munch of Asian-fantasy before. I also really enjoyed the structure of the novel, as well, which is something I hadn't seen before. Bravo!

I honestly had trouble making it all the way through this book. I didn't enjoy the prose, it seemed to drag the story along and made it feel stagnant and bland. I did appreciate the characters, and while the writing was slow at times the world building was excellent. Worth the read, all together.

This book took me SO long to read. I made it about 80% through and then I'm just honestly going to have to DNF it. Don't get me wrong, I do love the writing and the world building, and everything is just so damned intriguing, but it just felt like a chore to read this.

I may or may not pick it back up in the future, I don't know. We'll see. I am interested by reading other things by this author.

Although I know several people who really enjoyed this book I just could not get into the characters.

A very nice and entertaining read. I'm glad I read it! Beautiful settings, great plot, very good characterization and evenly paced.

I come about my love of necromancy from reading the early Anita Blake books in my formative years. I wanted to love this but it was just all right. Not bad, not great, just middle of the road with some good world building and characters but also some lack of plot and development.

Why yes, another first in a book series. This is an endless trend in Young Adult fiction. And this book definitely fits that description.

I enjoyed this book, written by Rin Chupeco, and would recommend it to anyone considering reading it. This book follows Tea and her brother Fox as she learns what it means to be a Dark Asha, a Bone Witch. Which is to say, this book follows Tea telling this story to a story collector. Bone Witch means she can brings things back from the dead.

So, non-spoiler thoughts first. This book was well written, but often seemed fast paced. I think the author was trying to go for a high fantasy novel, but ended up with more of a fairy-tale or mid-fantasy feel. Any entry level fantasy novel, if you will. Things would get explained as she went, but a lot of information was actually relevant earlier on in the story. If they fed me information about my life they way they told her, I would have left long ago.

So, would I recommend this book? Yes, if you are thinking about reading it. Is there any romance? No, but I think there will be in the next. Is it a must-by for me? No. Will I be reading the next book when it comes out on March 1st, 2018? Yes.



Okay, now SPOILERS BE BELOW. STOP NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW. Please enjoy the lovely photo below as a stopper

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Now, down to business. I didn’t like the stark change of the character between who she was and who she now is without any real explanation. She kept referring to her love, and we finally found out who it is, but we don’t see any of that happen. We don’t know why he is dead. We don’t know why her brother has turned against her. I don’t understand. Why would he EVER leave her side, even if he didn’t agree with her? Why? He is her brother and SHE brought him back. You would think that would send him back to the grave right away.

Also, WHERE IS HER HORSE? And if they did horrible things to those she loved, again, WHY ISN’T HER BROTHER THERE?

The Asha made no sense. You have all this power and all you do is entertain? No, you are not a geisha. You are a powerful spell wielding being. I just, I don’t get it. This honestly degrades the story so much and made me so annoyed. This and the lack of information and why as a BONE WITCH WHO BRINGS THINGS BACK FROM THE DEAD she was a servant and wasn’t trained for two years. How, how does this make sense? And the possibility of her being turned away? PLEASE SEE ABOVE. There are a lot of holes in this story and in this world. That is why this is just a “this book isn’t horrible and has an interesting plot”, and not a Casting Trilogy Amazingness.

Noteworthy experiences while reading this book: I tried this book a little while ago and ended up DNFing. Well, I have to say that I am glad I gave it another go because this book was so good.
Do I Recommend this book? Yes

Notes and Opinions: This book is written as an interview. You have the one character who is learning the story of the Bone Witch Tea. I do not think I understood that the first time I tried to read this one. But this time around I made it all the way through and I couldn't put it down. This is a beautifully written story about a girl who ended up being something that she didn't ask for. I loved all the descriptions and way the story was told. It was different than any other fantasy that I have read. I have to say that if you love fantasy and amazing stories then you should check this one out.

Go Into This One Knowing: hints of Japanese culture, magic

WHY DID I LISTEN TO THE BONE WITCH BY RIN CHUPECO?
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco has comparisons to Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir, which honestly is all you need to do to get me on board. PLUS, essentially when it comes down to it, the main character is a necromancer and I L O V E books about necromancers. Then we add in the fact that this book is a hot audiobook commodity on Overdrive at my library which signals to me that I need to prioritize it on my list. ALSO AND I CANNOT FORGET THIS FACT, I really genuinely respect a whole lot of what Chupeco tweets, which again, means I have to move her book right on up my audiobook TBR.

WHAT’S THE STORY HERE?
The Bone Witch stars this girl named Tea. FYI, Tea is an Asha, or a witch – so to speak. This is actually pretty common in the world that Chupeco has built. Only, uh oh, she’s a Bone Witch. That is kind of a bad thing — it means she can raise the dead. She finds this out when she accidentally brings her dead brother back to life. So, this all happens when Tea is twelve. She’s then taken from her home and sent to live and learn under Mykaela, an older Asha who mentors Tea. She is trying to teach Tea how to control her powers. The book then covers up through Tea being 15 years old with interjections from 17 years old Tea. Also, there is a Bard involved. Oh and Tea gains QUITE a few skills. Epic, my friends, epic.

HOW DID I LIKE THE BONE WITCH?
Hello, yes, I very much ENJOYED the heck out of The Bone Witch. I think Chupeco’s writing flows very well. Tea’s character development is on point. I want to know a whole lot more about this world. Also, what is her plan with those that she raises? WHAT. I am just really looking forward to the next book – The Heart Forger. My library has it via Overdrive Audio, but I also have an ebook. I am not sure which form I will read it in yet.

HOW’S THE NARRATION?
Emily Woo Zeller and Will Damron narrate The Bone Witch. I LOVE Emily Woo Zeller’s narration. This is going to sound weird, but she has such a gentle sort of voice. She’s very easy to listen to. Plus, I think that she does emotion quite well. So, it was definitely always a pleasure listening to her narrate. As for Will Damron, maybe I have heard him narrate before? If so, let me say he isn’t as memorable as Zeller. Granted, Damron is an okay narrator, but of the two on this audiobook, Zeller is my favorite and is totally an appropriate choice for narrator.

The Bone Witch is about a girl named Tea who accidentally raises her brother from the dead. I thought it was okay but Im holding out hope that the next book will be better. I did not like the back and forth, past and future pov writing style. It made this feel like 432 pages of backstory and buildup. Instead of being inmersed in the story, I kept being reminded that each event was just a step towards the present pov. The characters didnt steal my heart and the dialogue was mostly dry. (In terms of the audiobook, the narrator had this whiny tone that didnt help at all.) Now that things are pretty much set up though, hopefully the next book has a little more action or character development.

[SPOILER] The twist at the end caught me by surprise but thats because the clues that made Tea figure it out were not things the reader would know and that takes part of the fun out of it to me.