I wanted to love this book. I just didn't and I'm not really sure why. I challenged myself to step out of my comfort zone and try a new genre and try something different and that might be why I struggled with the book. It just didn't hook me and when a book doesn't hook me, it makes it feel like a chore to read and then I avoid it. I really wanted to love this book because I thought the plot idea was fantastic and original. The characters sounded like I'd love them.
Overall, it's a three star read for me. If this is your genre, then I think you'll love it. It's not my genre, it was my try something new read and I think the book taught me that it's okay not to love every book and it's okay not to love every genre.

I DNFd at 20% because it was not making me interested. The writing style unfortunately was not for me, The pace was too slow and it couldn't hold my interest past a point. It's unfortunate that it didn't work out. I think the story has much more potential. Hopefully, I'll be able to see more from the author.

DNF @ 12%

I'm not even sure what it's supposed to be about at 12%. One would imagine SOMETHING would have happened by now. However, all that's happened is an orphaned girl was picked up and taken back home to live with her grandmother. They got there by train. That's about it.

There are about 5 pages I really liked in this book, that were intriguing and interesting. I kept reading on trying to find more of that and it just never happened. I value my time and energy too much to continue reading something I dislike, so I'm putting this down.

I've been trying very hard to get into this arc but I only managed to read 20% of the ebook.

I loved the subject and characters and I am still interested in how the story progresses, but I didn't enjoy the writing. The style the author went for (this might also be an issue with the translation style, I can't be 100% sure) was dry, dense and static. I would pick up the book, read a little and then set it down after only a few pages.
I usually don't mind dense styles, but its use added little to the story and I had to fight against it to experience the characters, plot and setting. These elements I actually liked a lot, but they weren't enough for me to finish the book.

If you think the writing won't prove an issue, I am sure you'd be quite impressed by the other aspects of the story.

I don’t know if it’s the translation or just the author’s writing style, but the writing is quite poor, it’s synthesized, not descriptive at all, and the author spends too much lines depicting useless things. I didn’t feel immersed in the story, I was really excited to read it, but because of the writing style I couldn’t get into it. I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy it as much as I expected. It’s a pity.

TW: bullying, death, grief, suicide

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Fire is a coming-of-age story in the wake of political upheaval, with dashes of magical realism woven throughout.

While I enjoyed the style and thought the story was beautifully written, ultimately the mix of historical fiction, politics, and magical realism did not blend together well enough for me to enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. Much of the story remains unexplained, which might have worked for me if the rest of the book had read more cohesively: I found it somewhat difficult to follow as the story transitioned in and out of the magical realism bits. With that said, there will probably be a time in the future that I will want to reread this. Even though at times the story was sad and/or confusing, reading it was like sitting in a cozy chair in front of the fire.

Thank you again to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.

*Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This book came out originally in 2014, with the current English translation set to be released in 2021.
When I started this book I was really worried I wasn't going to enjoy it, the writing style (not sure if it is the actual story or the English translation) seemed a bit fragmented and impersonal, but the more I read the more I was drawn in. The writing style really ends up working perfectly.
This is a story about Emma and also her Grandmother. Their relationship is new, as they have only just met due to the death of Emma's parents. The way the story intertwines their experiences is so poetic. This is in a lot of ways a coming of age story, that weaves together the trauma experienced by the grandmother living through WW2, the shared loss of Emma's mother, and the shadows of communism. This book flits from scene to scene sometimes with no seemingly no reason.. but it is all part of the magical charm that makes you feel as if you are there as a spectator watching.
I absolutely loved the use of magic in this book, it is just there threaded in with daily life and never really explained or made a fuss over, much the same as Emma's relationships with her classmates or surroundings.
This book is beautiful, haunting, sad, and just.. so amazing. I am so glad I took a chance on this story. It is one that will stick with me for a long time.

This was an excellent book! With a riveting plot, and detailed - and realistic - character development, you will definitely enjoy reading this title!

The Bone Fire by György Dragomán is a fascinating YA fantasy from Hungary and I am so glad it was translated! This is unlike any other young adult books I have read and I can say it is quite a slap: powerful, real, and phantasmagorical. I love it.
I know little about the history of Hungary, but I know the damage of communism, dictatorship, hidden/open histories of violence layers on top of each other, and a very rich folklore and superstition. All of this is in the book, and I think that reading it from the outside, not knowing the history well, plunging into this book set after the fall of communism and its head dictator strikingly resonates like all those dystopian novels we know of recently. It feels like it is something that could not happen, a world too harsh and cold, and yet this year has taught us that things can change in the snap of our fingers. That violence is here, everywhere around us, people are intolerant and always lash out on the “other” when they feel winds turning, and that nothing is as simple as it might first appear.
The book is chock full of magical realism, that brand where you do not quite know if the magic is real or if it is the emotions choking the narrator, distorting her view of the real world because it is so hard to cope, in fact it is impossible to cope to the harsh reality without going a little mad. It reminded me of Jo Walton’s “Among Others”, if you liked that book, rush into “The bone fire”. It deals with a lot of grief, the multi-generation kind, the whole country’s kind, and the hard teen years where you grow and learn the truth you don’t want to but have to take in as well.
This is not a book for the faint hearted. The world in those pages is unforgiving, but it is our world, not a single doubt about it, it is our emotions, it speaks so much truth it hurts, showing how regular people can turn real ugly, and how courage is sometimes just surviving.
This is a very powerful book, but the writing is cold, it reminded me somehow of “Let the Right One In” by John Ajvide Lindqvist, not for the youngest set at all, not the easiest book to slide into, but it leaves you feeling like you have gone through some transformation yourself.
I highly recommend it to people over 16 wanting to widen their horizon, no matter what genre you like. Because while it might be classified like fantasy, it felt so very real, and has so much to say about humanity in general, much more than many contemporary tales. It made me want to know a lot more about Hungary too.

Whilst the book was immersive and gruesome, it fell a little short for me. There wasn’t enough done to tie the story and world together - it needed to be fleshed out more.

Thanks Netgalley for an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 30%. I'm still giving this book 3 stars because I think it actually might be a good book and just too heavy for me. The underlying topics are really difficult and it's a super hard read. I also felt like I was floundering in points because I didn't have the descriptions and explanations I needed.

Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Netgalley and György Dragomán for allowing me to read the ARC and give my honest review

When reading what the book was about I imagined a book full of action and suspense, but what I got is just the day to day life of a girl that lives with her grandmother. The moments of action if that is what I can call it were few that was a little off when reading it.

Even do Im saying this I felt that the book was Perfectly Splendid, it is like eating a dish with just a tidy bit of spicy, not going to lie I would have prefered it to be a bit more spicy but the book was nice.

The main character is a nice girl that does not get in trouble just because she is rebelious she is cautious of what she does. Sometimes books get tedious when the protagonist gets in trouble just because she is a rebel in the incorrect place and time.

Wont give any more details but it is a nice read for a sunday afternoon with a cup of coffe. I recommend to read this when one does not want a lot of action in their life just a calm and soft read.

This book is a strange one. It's very heavy and intense. It took me a long time to get through it - it's not one of those "wow that flew by!" kind of books. It was hard to follow at times, and it just wasn't particularly enjoyable for me.

The Bone Fire reads like a post-war historical fiction set in an Eastern European country after an oppressive dictatorship has been recently overturned. An orphaned teenager, Emma, is claimed by a mysterious grandmother she has never met and moves to her grandmother's village. Everyone in this story has been affected by trauma and no one has escaped unscathed. At the end of the regime, a number of villagers had been gunned down in the square. The dead bodies disappeared before they could be buried.
This is a coming-of-age story with elements of folktales and mysteries. It took me a couple chapters to really engage with the story, but it is well-written and feels authentic.

I read Gyorgy Dragoman's novel, The Bone Fire, courtesy of Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt and NetGalley in exchange for an objective review.

I had high expectations for this book as it was written by an award-winning and internationally acclaimed European author. The book enjoyed great advance reviews and word of mouth. It had an intriguing plot - which included ghosts, magic and mystery, an otherworldly grandmother - all set against a backdrop of a political revolution and a young girl's coming of age. All these elements are part of the kind of novels I enjoy. Why, then, did I find reading The Bone Fire such a drudgery? Certainly, much of the writing was marvelous and verbally arresting. The characters were intriguing. But when everything was assembled, the book dragged and seemed to go on and on and on, I alternated my reading between and a different book, something I rarely do.

Having written all that negativity, I do plan to read the book again - maybe on sun-filled summer days sans the overwhelming presence of the pandemic.

THe Bone Fire was one of my favourite books this year. I highly recommend this novel if you are looking for something to captivate you with phenomenal writing.

The Bone Fire was an interesting read for me. Based on the synopsis of the book, I was pretty excited about it. A girl who finds out about a grandmother she didn't know she had who also has some type of magical powers? I was definitely intrigued. Once I started reading I found it also included a historical element and took place in Romania after the fall of the communist regime. Not knowing much about this time in history, I was pretty confused throughout some parts of the history, but managed to continue along. The first quarter of the book hooked me in, but the rest kind of fell flat for me. I felt the plot was not going anywhere. When there were bouts of magical happenings, I was left more confused than anything, and I feel like the whole book was a compilation of this. A strange, magic influenced, situation that was never explained. I thought as I made my way through more of the book, explanations would reveal themselves. I was wrong. As I got closer and closer to the end, I realized we were never going to get an explanation for anything, and then all of a sudden it just ended. I was left with even more questions that I started with while reading like last 3 or so pages.

A part of this book that I did quite enjoy was the writing. I thought the writing was beautiful, and packed with emotion. This is seriously the only thing that kept me going through this book. The main character had just undergone a traumatic event at the start of this book, and the raw emotion packed into passages of her flashbacks were heart-wrenching and beautiful.

However, that was not enough of a saving grace for me unfortunately. It doesn't change the fact that I was left extremely confused by most chapters, with no answers. I think the idea of incorporating magical realism into historical fiction is a great idea, but I do not think this was executed well. 2/5 stars.

Have not had a chance to read this yet, but will keep it on my list for a rainy day! Appreciate being offered the reading copy!

This was such a magical novel. A beautiful and bone-chilling story with magic subtly woven into the seams; György Dragomán is an expert storyteller and my only wish is that I could’ve read it in his Native language. The Bone Fire is a fresh and fierce read!

This was a fascinating book. It’s definitely not my style—I usually don’t gravitate toward the mystical. These chapters read fairly quick. (A positive in my book!)

However, from the moment I started this novel, I was captivated by the characters of Emma and her grandmother. Reading this novel was kind of like walking in a dreamy haze of light magic.

There’s a plot, but the book doesn’t seem to *mean* anything. I didn’t fully understand this book. Is that the point?

I did feel horror at Bertuka’s story, realizing how Grandmother’s life intertwined with the Holocaust. I don’t think we learned enough about Emma’s mother to make a judgment of her. (I know I didn’t care for the character of Emma’s father.) I definitely felt suspicious at Peter, a suspicion that was confirmed at the end of the novel.