It has such a compelling opening, straight into a richly imagined world. Immediately, I was fond of the protagonist, Tea, and her reluctance to join the world of the Asha. Her brother, Fox, is equally interesting. I could picture him in vivid detail.

By chapter 2, I was hooked and knew I'd be pulling an all-night reading session. I love a book that is unforgiving like this and drags you in.

The dual narrative is intriguing. It tantalises you with some details about the older Tea but leaves you desperately wondering what has happened in the time lapse between the main story and these italicised interjections.

I can't mention the ending without ruining the experience for the next reader. But to the author, Rin Chupeco, I say this... If there isn't a follow up novel, I'll find you and smash your heartsglass!

I couldn't get into it. I'll refrain from requesting any more fantasy titles.

The premise for this book and the world the author created are very interesting and captivating. However, the story itself is a little clunky. The story is told through alternating chapters of present day and flashbacks. The opening to the story and the present day are a little heavy handed and overly dramatic, where the flashback sections are the most colorful and interesting. I really enjoyed following Tea's journey and training in the different arts, along with some of the twists and turns, and the characters along the way. It seems to borrow heavily from Japanese/Geisha culture regarding the training, which was fine, if a little unoriginal and unnecessary. The author had a lot of cool original ideas like the Heartsglass necklaces and magic that it didnt need the influences from real life. The ending was a little confusing, but it is trying to set up material for a sequel, so I would be interested to see where the story goes from there and learning more about the magic and demons. I'd recommend this to any YA/teen fiction fan.

With short, concise chapters weaving past with the present, The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco, quickly hooks its readers with its ability to seamlessly entwine magic and fantasy. Reluctant readers and YA fans both will love this book. Our first encounter with our protagonist, Tea, is her resurrecting her brother from his freshly dug grave. Tea's ability to resurrect the dead shocks her community who haven't seen a Bone Witch, or dark Asha, in someone so young. Tea is equally horrified and enthralled with her new found magic; she is curious, but cautious as to what this means for her future.

I received an ARC from the publisher at Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was out of my normal genre but sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a try.
It took a little to get used to the style of writing, but once I got it down pat it was easy to understand.
This book is about a witch who had no clue about the power she could wield. She has her whole life upended within minutes of her brother's funeral.
I loved reading about the different powers the asha had to defend themselves and their land.
Looking forward to seeing the next book come out, although this doesn't end on a cliffhanger, it leaves you wanting more to see how things turn out.
If you enjoy sci-fi like books, I believe you will find this book very interesting.

Beautiful cover, wonderfully written but the two timelines going on in the story were a little confusing to begin with.

When Tea accidentally resurrected her soldier brother from the dead it changed her life's path forever. Although she's not sure if it is for the better or not, but Tea better learn fast for there is darkness coming, and it will be Tea who has to make the tough choices.


This is such a beautiful book to have such dark forces corrupt it's pages. The way the older witch takes the younger to teach her the ways, just like a Geisha, but also those like Tea must learn how to fight and defeat the dark, almost like one of the pretty dances described in the book, the ying and the yang of life. This book was great and I really hope we get to find out what happens to Tea and the rest.

the link for this review will go live on March 7th 2017

So I picked this book up a while back on Netgalley. I thought it looked interesting and I LOVE the cover. This was my first book by Rin so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But it took me a while to finish. I put it down several times and finally picked it back up to push through.

There are several things I really enjoyed about The Bone Witch. The writing flowed nicely and I liked Rin's style. I really liked the idea behind what the Bone Witch does: raising and putting the dead back in the grave. Interesting!

It was a little on the slow side for my liking. All the talk and not enough action. Until the ending and then it seemed to all happen at once, for the next book. I would have much rather had it all spread out so it was somewhat more enjoyable and not so rushed. I don't enjoy clothes descriptions and rooms and what people look like. I typically skim over descriptions in books because I form my own anyway. So if I did that here, there would be lots of skimming.

There are witches, a prince, undead, so many mythical type things going on here and a lot of it was a little confusing but I liked the idea behind it all. Not sure if I'll pick up the next book or not.

My rating: 2/5 stars

Excellent story! Beautifully crafted and engaging. Characters are well developed and the plot is meticulously designed. The only disappointment is not getting full resolution at the end; now I am eagerly anticipating the next installment! Thank you for the opportunity to read the galley!

A fantastically written novel which takes you on a satirical dark ride. I absolutely loved the characters and the darkly magic entrenched plot. Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo - trust me - I've been looking for a series to compare to her books and finally, I have found it!

I loved this book. The beginning was a little slow for me, but after that I was so into it. I liked that you didn't really know exactly where the story was going. The end of each chapter being the present was a great idea. I'm so happy I got to read this early, but it's going to be so long until the next one comes out! I can't wait to see what happened next, and where they're going to go from here.

The Bone Witch has a really good premise and engaging characters, but it could benefit from a stricter editor. Too often the story bogs down in mundane details about wardrobe and food. I was going for more fantasy, less homage to Memoirs of a Geisha.

The Bone Witch is only the second book I read this year, and I already feel bad for the other books that have to love up to it. Rin Chupeco has created a mysterious, deep and intricate world to which I'm already longing to return. The writing is exquisitely wistful, especially during the Bard's parts. I loved the dual narrative of both Tea and Bard, and past and present, and watching it all knit together.

It's not going to appeal to readers who need a quick pace, spunky, chatty heroine and a simple plot to keep their attention, but for readers who need to sink into novels, and live them alongside the narrator, it's a jewel.

I finally finished this book and, honestly, did not like it. I tried once before and finally skimmed through it just to complete it. I've sworn off YA and I don't like books about witches in general so I'm not sure why I wanted to read this. Sorry, this was just a bad choice on my part.

An absolutely perfect blend of magic, mystery, and the same kind of beauitful language Chupeco has become known for.

Rin Chupeco’s “The Bone Witch” has picked up considerable pre-publication hype which for the most part fails to deliver upon. Personally, I don’t think making bold comparisons with the likes of “The Game of Thrones” does the book any good at all, as invariably it is going to disappoint. Sure ‘Tea’ is a pretty cool and engaging teenage lead character, but she really is no ‘Daenerys Targaryen’ and should not be compared to the ‘Dragon Queen’. George RR Martin is a giant of the genre, this author is just starting out, so let Rin Chupeco find her own legs. Much more fantasy than horror, “The Bone Witch” follows the story of a junior witch called Tea who travels the kingdoms with her mentor and her undead brother whom she has brought back from the dead. For a teen novel it was pretty slow and heavy in parts, and I don’t think it has quite enough going for it to challenge the seasoned adult fantasy reader, so I’m unsure of crossover appeal. However, this sturdy read spent ages on the world building, which was involving in parts and very convincing, but the story just moved along too slow for my taste. It has all the hallmarks of classic fantasy novels, ranging from family, friendship, love to betrayal, spliced with Tea’s story of a quest for justice and vengeance, against all those who have wronged her. The question is, will you care very much? I’m not too sure….. I much preferred this authors “The Girl from the Well” which was a straight horror novel. Like the previous novel, this book has a lot of eastern influences in the story and it many ways that made this fantasy world very believable. As Tea progresses up the greasy pole in the world of magic, the dangers and intrigue also increase. This type of court plotting was entertaining enough, but the interconnected sequences failed to convince and it became more prominent as the novel progressed. It must be said that the dead brother was a pretty great character and has many of the novel’s best lines. As I said, it was more of a fantasy read and I would aim it at girls more so than boys, but if you’re expecting another “Game of Thrones” you will be sorely disappointed. Of course it finished for a sequel, but I for one will not be on the edge of my seat.

DNF about 60% through. This book was just not for me. The story was not to my liking and the characters were not 3 dimensional. I didn't understand or care for them, nor did I feel sympathy or..... well, anything for them really. I couldn't spend any more time on a book I wasn't enjoying.

I procrastinated about reviewing this book because I wasn't quite sure that I liked it. The book started out strongly - there were 2 points-of-view. The present was told by a bard and the past was told by the main character, Tea. It's obvious that something serious happened because the beginning of the book reveals that Tea has been banished to an island by herself. I enjoyed the writing style, but I wish there had been more substance to the book and less of the airy descriptions.

There were also some holes in the story that didn't make sense to me. First, I didn't understand how Tea was able to accidentally resurrect her brother, Fox, from death. Supposedly, she has magical powers, but later in the book, in the descriptions of asha training, ashas (witches) have to draw ruins, sometimes using their own blood to create spells. How does one accidentally draw ruins when one doesn't know how to do it? It occurs later on in the story, too, but with some sort of stone that amplified Tea's powers. I also didn't understand the point of the heartglass. Everyone has a heartglass (from what I can gather, some sort of stone) that changes colors according to their moods. If you love and trust someone completely, you can exchange heartglasses with them, but it makes you vulnerable if they no longer love you at some point. It's also supposed to make ashas weaker not to have their heartglass. If you lose your heartglass and you don't care about the person that you gave it to, you can have another one made for you at great expense. It seems ridiculous to me. You're not born with these heartglasses attached to you so why bother going through the expense in the first place if it makes you vulnerable? The book said that only really wealth people could afford to have another heartglass made. How did the average person obtain a heartglass in the first place? Maybe I missed something in the story that explained this? It seemed like there were too many magical things going on in the story that the author couldn't even keep track of them all.

I also didn't understand some of the societal descriptions in the book. People feared Bone Witches because they practiced "dark" arts. Dark, in this case, means that they bring things back from the dead. If they fear them, why would they call them Bone Witch, which is considered a derogatory term, instead of dark asha? Throughout the book, there's a hint that dark ashas are somehow bad, but they're the ones protecting everyone from the daevas (monsters), at great personal risk. The author said in the book that people fear and hate people they need. That may be true of some people in a group, but I can't see a whole society behaving like that. Even if it were true, why would someone who was so useful and powerful need to dress up and entertain rich people at parties?!?

As if it weren't enough that Tea has to face people who hate her and awful monsters, she also has to face an enemy known as the Faceless. The Faceless appear to have strong powers, but we have no idea why they're trying to harm everyone. There's no explanation about why some people have power and some don't. There's no explanation about why some people are born with more power and others aren't.

This leads me to my biggest problem with this book - it started a bunch of interesting characters and possible story lines, but then it never went anywhere. I kept waiting for explanations or something and there was just nothing. Fantasy books still have to make sense within the scope of that fantasy world. I felt like this didn't. The ending of the book was supposed to be a cliffhanger to make the reader excited about the sequel. I just felt disappointed that I read an entire book that was basically just a confusing prologue.

I don't think I could recommend this book to others.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary e-book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Bone Witch, quite simply, is a captivating read. I expected fantasy and magic, but I didn't realize how fantastic and magical the writing would be. The Bone Witch cast me under its spell from the very beginning. Chupeco skillfully and artistically weaves past and present together to give the reader a sense of gripping intensity and an irresistible force that compelled me to keep reading into the early hours of the morning when I finally finished this wonderful novel, satisfied, but eager for more.
The Bone Witch delivers a magical realm that feels comfortably familiar and vibrantly new. The rules of this fantastic new world make perfect sense in the lyrically beautiful setting that Chupeco's descriptive voice brings to life.
The fully realized characters will steal your heart. They're flawed yet heroic. Uncertain yet unstoppable. Fiercely tragic and smart and witty and enchanting.
I'm eagerly anticipating the next book, even while I'm dreading some of the dark paths these favorite characters are going to tread. People usually try to avoid heartache and tragedy, but in the Chupeca's hands, Tea's future holds a bright kind of darkness! Or a dark kind of brightness! Whichever it is, I'll know I'm in good hands.
Fully recommend!

DNF. The formatting for the ebook was atrocious and made it difficult to read.