This is a book about a girl who's taken in by her grandmother after her parents die. The grandmother is either crazy or a witch or both (I'm still not entirely sure). The book had nightmarish quality at time. I couldn't tell at times what was really happening. There was also a lot going on politically and culturally in the book. I would consider reading this again just to better absorb those aspects of the story.
Thank you to netgally and the publisher for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Couldn’t get into this book and it was a DNF for me. Books in translation are always a toss up whether they will work well in a new language. So it could bet that for me.

I ended up not finishing this book. While the story sounded interesting, I could not get over the writing. As this is translated, it's hard to know if it's the writing that was difficult or the translation. It was too much "I did this, then I did this. She did this and then this," which made it unreadable for me.

Chilling and suspenseful and yet still compassionate and optimistic, this story will take you into a world of magic. Full of heart, I definitely recommend this read!

I love magical realism and this book was full of it! The world building is excellent and makes the world feel realistic and like you're in the story. The author seamlessly blended magic, history, and politics together. The ending felt rushed however, but I've never read anything like this.

While this story is very creative and has a mythical writing style, I can't say I read this with ease or interest. The writing style is difficult for me to feel connected to. I felt dragged along as I went through descriptions of just about everything. A lot of the story felt flat and I strongly disliked the lack of dialogue in the story; it made it particularly hard to read. Clear quoted dialogue helps break up the description (to me) and provide me with an actual voice to the novel.

The book is entirely unusual, which is fine and it IS very creative, but I can't connect to the strange style. I felt like the characters weren't that human because of the way this story was written and, in turn, made it hard for me to care about the slow build-up of the plot.

The Bone Fire is strange and creative, but it is difficult to try to get through. It was not for me, unfortunately.

*** I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for my honest opinion ***


I don't really know how I feel about this book, maybe I need to read it a third time, It was at times very confusing and hard to follow. Other times the writing seems flat and disjointed. It reminded me of those hooked on phonics readers, "The cat sat. The rat sat. The cat and the rat sat." kind of thing. I know part of that comes from being translated. Though I have read other books that were translated that had far less moments that pulled you from the story. It was difficult to immerse myself fully in this book and I think overall that is what I am most disappointed about. Between the halted writing and jumping plot it was a struggle to remain focused.

It was intriguing and had very interesting points but it was a lot in one more story.

This was cool. Not exactly what I was expecting, but it was very interesting and overall a fun read.

This is an absolute jewel of a book, set in Hungary after the fall of communism. Young Emma, her parents dead, is claimed by her grandmother and goes to live with her in a small town. There Emma learns magic of all kinds--nature, blood, sacrifice, paper, food, animal, protective, love,--in her daily life with her grandmother and the ghost of her grandfather, that she is a born runner and artist, and the dark history of the town: the massacre that killed many of its citizens, the informers who spied for the government, the bodies that were "disappeared", the resentments and hat that run through the streets to her doorstep. This is a beautiful, harrowing, intense, imaginative, astonishingly moving and powerful and yet often quiet and still and contemplative novel. It is magic realism that is decidedly Eastern European; it feels old and as if it knows the cold and the bare trees. I want to give this book to everyone. I want it to replace Harry Potter in kids' hands. It is elegant and rustic and feels entirely real and is utterly amazing.

This is a beautiful book. I'm not a great fan of magical realism, but this book combined MR with politics and the end result is a beautiful work of art.

The protagonist is an orphan who goes to live with her Grandmother after spending 6 months in a school for orphans. Little does she know that her life is about to change irrevocably.
Grandmother is a powerful character who teaches her granddaughter her skills and the powers to observe.
Their journey of self-discovery is the gist of this book. There is mention of concentration camps, Second World War atrocities and communism, all weaved in seamlessly with the narrative of illusions and sleights of hand.

I only had issue with the third-person narrative throughout the entire novel. It does not help us get into any character's head directly. I don't know if the author intended this as a child's narrative or if this is the issue of translation.

Otherwise, beautiful.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this ARC!
I loved magical realism and this book didn't disappoint--the world-building was really well done. The author did a great job of blending magic, history, and politics. The setting felt very grounded, and the characters are easy to connect with. The ending felt a little unfinished, but the book was a very different read than I’ve ever read—it was compelling and dark.

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I did like this book but it was weird too. The chapters are each almost their own stories, with little bits carried from chapter to chapter. There is a lot of the past in the story and so sometimes I found it confusing when Emma was talking about school and the oranges and it was actually her old school, instead of the one she went to when she came to live with her grandma. Her grandma is a pretty cool lady, tough, and I am glad that she is helping Emma out after her parents died. This takes place just after the fall of communism, so there is still a lot of unrest and people blaming others for being informers.

This is a fairly dark book with mentions of the Holocaust and reeducation camps and the Securitate. That was a little bit balanced with the barely there magic that was cool to read about, like finding the missing hairband with a dust trail, or finding the missing map with the help of her Grandfather (he does that a few times).

This had a lot of plot holes though which left me confused and the ending needs some work but it could be pretty good.

I think that the biggest downfall of this book is that it tried to do too much and ultimately fell flat on a lot of fronts. There were a lot of plot elements that felt underdeveloped or forgotten by the end of the book. The writing itself was beautiful but also felt a little detached and hard to connect with.

The Bone Fire presents us the story of a teenage girl, Emma, whose parents are killed in a car accident and ends up going to live with her (until then unknown) grandmother, who happens to be a witch. All of this happens while her country faces a revolution fed by the rage against the dictatorship regime faced by Eastern Europe. It is an interesting mix of fantasy, historical fiction and coming-of-age.

As we can imagine by the genres it covers, the book is full of creative and good ideas but, while reading, I fell many of them were a little bit too undeveloped. Many chapters were spent describing Emma's everyday life situations that don't have a connection witht the story (ex: buying a swimsuit, playing skip rope at school, eating condensed milk) while they could have been more focused on the fantasy part of the book - especially the part of her grandfather's ghost living in the house, how she understood and accepted the fact that her grandmother is a witch or the quest of the athletic professor. I finished the book with many questions that I felt were not answered. The presentation of the characters was also slightly flat for me, Emma was very well constructed but I felt like I didn't really know or connect with the other characters.

Having said that, I need to mention that the historical part of the book was very convincing. The tension in the end of the book was palpable. It was also really interesting to see Emma visiting a soon-to-be-open supermarket with products available only after the communism fell in the beginning of the story.

György Dragomán is, definitely, a creative mind. Maybe this book was not my cup of tea, as I would have prefered somehing more fast-paced and less descriptive, but for the readers who are into witchcraft or for people who are from the same region where this story happens, it might be a good read.

The Bone Fire is about an orphan named Emma and the chaos that ensues when an odd grandmother that she didn’t know existed shows up to take her away. She is thrust into an unfamiliar town full of people who seem to not like her. I would categorize this as historical magical realism.

I am very confused about the way I feel about this book. The writing is very lyrical and magical. It was beautiful, but also detached and boring at times. The ending wasn’t satisfying, and it left me feeling like I read this entire book and didn’t get any closure.

The Bone Fire is an unusual book, following a young girl who is collected from an orphanage by a Grandmother she didn’t know existed and then thrust into a world of magic, history and political hatred.

There were aspects of this book that I loved: the interweaving of the magic elements, the slow trust gained between the girl and her Grandmother, the glimpses of the past which supported the present day plot.
It is well written, the writing style is different but I feel this complimented the plot. It is clearly a well thought out story, there are interlinking plots from the past and present which work fantastically. The story is creepy with strong imagery and it does make you feel empathetic as a reader.

However there was elements I disliked: you do not get a satisfying conclusion – the ending is like the writer has decided he is bored and stopped midsentence. I actually wasn’t sure that I had gotten a full copy until checking the other reviews. I like closure and for a story to come to a close, so this was perplexing.

As a result I felt a little cheated, it was not an easy read and the ending was not what I would hope for.
2/5 stars.

I love magical realism, and that part of this book was really good. I also thought the characters were great. However, I personally don’t usually enjoy a lot of loose plot ends, and that was my only real issue here. I wanted to know the answers to important questions that never got resolved.

The Bone Fire is a book about which I cannot quite decide on my feelings. On the one hand, I appreciate what the author was trying to achieve with the blend of political drama and hints of old-world magic. However, I felt disconnected from the events and characters throughout, perhaps partly because of the way everything was related one-step removed from direct action. The whole time I waited for some overreaching plot element that never came, making this more a series of scenes than a story with a clear beginning, middle and end. It's a book where I enjoyed key moments but was left cold when reviewing the piece as a whole. As such, I am giving this three stars. If you like magical realism and are interested in life during and after communism, it's worth checking out, but this was not a story that captivated me, and not to which I would ever feel the need to return a second time.

The Bone Fire is, honestly, a really disturbing read, mainly due to the depiction of totalitarianism. It manages to transport you directly into the time and situation. And it made me want to research the actual facts because while reading those blend into the background. The politics are not the main topic, just the backdrop. The story offers magical realism and coming-of-age elements.
I loved the Grandmother, hated the parents. Emma is a lovable character as well and I thought that her transition into teenage/adulthood with all her experiences (parents and politics) was interesting to see and really well integrated in the plot.
I am generally a fan of magical realism and that is what got me into reading this book but I have to say that it was not how I would have expected it.
The book is weird, yes, but that contributes to its charme. Nevertheless it fell a little short for me in explaining or solving everything in the end. There were glimpses into either the real happenings (opening of the first supermarket) or Grandmother's memories that sometimes left me a bit at a loss. Maybe I really need to educate myself on communism and the end of it...

What really got me was the scene with Krisztina. Not gonna say more to avoid spoilers, but this was really deep and dark and emotional. Great part of the book!

It's a good book but the underlying topics are difficult and it is not an easy-going reading experience. In addition to what I would describe as incomplete magical realism, a lot of basic explanations were missing. All of that leads to me giving 3 stars.

This was an odd book. There was an air for mystery what was going on, and there are hints of magic. But the format wasn't for me.
There isn't any dialog. The story is told through the eyes of a young girl (I think she's 12 or 13), when characters talk it's a 'She says, Grandmother says, I say; and so on. That made it a struggle to connect to the characters, and stay invested in the plot.
No connection to the characters lead to no investment in the plot. It could also have been a translation issue since it was translated from Hungarian. Not sure though.
I can see how and where people have and do like his book. It just really wasn't for me.