I found this book difficult to wrap my head around.  Beautifully descriptive, almost too much for me.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t realize this was going to be a series but halfway into the book I started to get worried when nothing seemed to be happening. And sadly nothing really happens for the first three quarters of the book. Then as the end gets closer the story starts to pick up.

More time is spent describing what everyone is wearing, how they dance, or the jewels they wear. I was hoping for more action, more suspense.

I was pulled in with the first few chapters but then the plot seemed to slow to a crawl.

The characters were written well enough.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the review copy!

While I can’t say that The Bone Witch was the most captivating start as the first book of a trilogy, it did lay a solid foundation on what readers will expect in the sequel. In fact, I really expect that the next two books will be full of twists and action, even though we only got to see tidbits of them in this one. While The Bone Witch was incredibly slow in plot and progression – after all, it is following Tea’s journey of being a Dark asha in the course of a couple of years – the characterization and set-up of the world does more than enough to appeal to readers, despite the pace. I highly urge high fantasy readers to give this one a try, not only because of the gorgeous, dark world that Chupeco paints, but also because the ending of this one hints to more to come in the upcoming books.

The story starts with Tea, the main character, “accidentally” resurrecting her dead brother Fox in her small village. Through a whirlwind of activity, she ends up thrust into the world of asha, people gifted with magic that serve the nation. Looking back, it kind of reminds me like the Grisha trilogy, but with much less drama and much more introspective narrative of a girl just wanting to belong in a world she doesn’t exactly fit in with. Tea is among the few bone witches, who practice necromancy in contrast to the fires and winds of the other asha. She’s dangerous, but smart and strong-willed, lending to a character that isn’t afraid to fight for what she believes in.

“Bone witches were not a respectable trade. They said bone witches gave sleeping sicknesses to innocent princesses with the prick of a finger, and they said bone witches ate the hearts of children who strayed too far into forests.”

The narrative starts off with Tea talking to an unsuspecting traveler, exiled by herself with only bones to keep her company. The narrator is wary but in awe of Tea, who went against the system for a yet unknown reason. The chapters themselves switch to a first person POV from Tea as she weaves through the training of asha. Not only are they magic-wielders, but they are taught to entertain visitors in the arts of music and dancing. Not only do they sing, play instruments and dance, but they also know history and politics and how to heal. Tea has a grueling education that in time makes her question more and more, “What is the truth?”, all the while fighting against the traditions of old.

“Asha means two things in old Runic. The first is ‘truth’; the second, ‘spellbinder.’ That is what we must do – we bind the magic and force it to do as we command.”

I admit, reading this book took a lot out of me. I had a hard time getting into it, and I stopped and picked it up again twice – rereading the beginning twice, actually – to finish it in one go. I’d say I became fully invested around the 40% mark, as I got used to the narrative and slow pace. However, I do think that the pacing is worth the immense character development Tea undergoes, as well as the way her relationship develops between other characters. I especially adored the supportive love she has with her brother, Fox, who is now her familiar as a bone witch. Her interactions with her sister Dark asha were also really awesome as they sought to teach as much as they could toward her, while Tea stood up for them and tried to protect them, and vice versa. There are hidden animosities in the world of asha, small acts of rebellion, and innovative thinking that gets Tea into trouble a couple of times. There is a small dose of romance that hints at becoming a love triangle, but I honestly have no idea what’s going on with this front. It moves so slow, so I’m really not that invested in it… yet. And despite these sprinklings of plot, much of the length of the book comes from Tea’s grueling training as an asha and descriptions of the vast world, full of color and magic.

“‘Then perhaps we should carve a world one day where the strength lies in who you are are rather than in what they expect you to be.’”

Rather than leaving a reader satisfied at the end, The Bone Witch ultimately leaves readers wanting more. There’s an unexpected twist as Tea recounts in a very vague way what happened to her and how she’s planning to retaliate. I saw on the author’s website that this book is the first of three, so we still have a lot to look forward to. I thought this book has a very strong foundation and is told through a unique narrative that, while although not immediately captivating, will draw readers in who want to see immense character development and growth. It’s light on a lot of things: romance, action, drama, and more. However, this was only the start of Tea’s journey and eventual exile, and I for one can’t wait to hear the rest of the story in the sequel.

Rin chupeco' writing styles was great really descriptive! I love when I can really see what she is describing and I'm fully immersed but it still fell short of full enthralling me to the story.

Oh Bone Witch, where do I start? Where do I start….

I expected this book to be about a young woman who discovers her powers as a necromancer after accidentally raising her newly dead brother from his grave. I expected her to go on and learn to use her powers and have adventures along the way.

What I got was a book about geisha training.

Seriously. At least half of this book described all the lessons our heroine, Tea, had to endure on her road to becoming an Asha. (Asha = Geisha. They even sound similar.) During this large portion of the book very little happens. I wish I was kidding.

If I wanted to read a book about geisha’s, I would have read a book about geishas.

Now, all that said, there were a lot of good things about this book. You just have to wade through the boring geisha—sorry, Asha—lessons to get there.

For starters, this book is dual POV in a very unconventional way. We start with a nameless bard finding Tea on a seashore full of bones. He convinces her to tell the story of how she came to be there. The other POV is Tea, the Bone Witch on the beach, telling the bard the story of how she came to be there. So, that was cool.

I also really liked the lore in the book. I liked the idea of the False Prince and his Daeva (monsters that never truly die). I liked the magic and powers. I thought all that was developed nicely… it was just overshadowed by too much geisha-Asha mumbo-jumbo.

On the other hand, the “big twist” near the ending sort of came out of nowhere. There really wasn’t any direct build up for it and it took me a moment to figure out what the heck was really going on. There were clues throughout the story, but they read more like backstory than anything that was actually relevant. It was…. strange.

I also had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. The servant girls at the Asha house were pretty interchangeable in my head. I couldn’t tell you the name of most of the other characters either.

The very end of the book leads me to believe there may be a promising sequel. If the author can cut down on the training and get to the action, I think it could be a good book.

So, should you read it? If you are looking for a good dose of magic and action and adventure you will be sorely disappointed. If you are looking for an interesting and unique world and can look past long periods of nothing happening while our heroine goes through training, then you might just like this one. Oh, and if you’re really into geisha you’ll probably love it!

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the advanced reading copy of Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco. I can't wait to start this book. I am going to hold off though until I get a physical copy of this. I think I will enjoy it more that way.

This was a fantastically developed YA Fantasy with many diverse characters. Despite how well structured this novel was the plot took a while to get into. Rin Chupeco created a lot of descriptive detail which both helped and hindered the plot in my opinion. 

The Asha's and their magic system was very engaging and detailed. I absolutely loved that this books world was formed around ancient Japanese culture. This is something I haven't read anything about previously and was very unique!

The best way I could describe The Bone Witch would be a mash-up between fantasy and Memoirs of a Geisha. While an original concept, I had a really hard time getting into this book. It read as a very long prologue as this is clearly the first book in a series. 
 Tea is an asha, known for performing, fighting, and magic. Ashas are revered for their talents yet treated as outcasts and feared by their kingdoms. Tea stumbles upon being an asha when she accidentally raises her dead brother Fox. The narrative is split into two timelines. The past timeline details Tea’s early training as an asha and the future timeline shows a hardened, cynical Tea on a lonely beach raising monsters and planning war, relating her past to a nameless bard. I didn't mind the back and forth timelines as they were easily to distinguish the two and I also found the world building confusing but fascinating as the author combines several Asian influences into her book. I also liked the concept surrounding the heartglass which dictates a person's emotions and intentions. 
  The book is very slow pace and I mostly skimmed much of it as it could not hold my attention. We are told in the beginning about a dark force descending upon Tea's people, however, we don't hear of it until the last 100 pages in the story where all the action seemed to happen all at once. There is surprisingly very little magic performed in the book which I found disappointing. I also found some of the secondary characters such as Fox and Tea's mentor to be much more interesting than Tea herself. Tea was stubborn and headstrong and there were a few times she came across as very young. I really liked Chupeco's debut novel, The Girl from the Well, and I will keep an eye out for what she writes in the future, however, I struck out with this new series and don't plan to continue it.

I'll write a full review soon, but I have to start with the fact that I thought this was written absolutely beautifully. It was atmospheric, subtle, flowing and magical.

I have heard a lot of people say that this book was a little too slow for them. But personally, I loved that it was a slow burn. It allowed me to feel absorbed and surrounded by the world, and the characters. I felt a creeping tether connecting me to this world, and I look forward to more!

This novel is heavy fantasy.  Although I don't think it is necessarily bad, it was too much for me.  I quickly got lost in the complex beginning and couldn't make it further.

I started this book, but it wasn't just interesting me at the time. Maybe I'll have to try it again another time.

Set in a time and place where magic is real and a whole caste system is built around it, The Bone Witch is an absorbing dark folktale told in two interweaving perspectives, flashing forward and backwards in time. The book’s present day parts are from the perspective of a bard encountering a young, powerful bone witch exiled on a beach littered with skeletons, while the parts set in the past are told from the perspective of Tea, the bone witch herself, recounting her journey from a young ingénue ignorant of her own dark power to an initiate into the exclusive magic-wielding world of the elegant and much sought after asha, learning to navigate politics, patrons, and prejudices along the way.

There are three kinds of asha in the world of The Bone Witch: performing, fighting, and Dark – the third being the rarest and strongest, but most feared and mistrusted of the three, and the group to which Tea belongs. The asha are very much like elemental magic wielding geisha – educated to be intelligent and accomplished in the arts, expensively outfitted for proper presentation in fine fabrics, hair jewels, and spelled face paints, and in high demand by patrons of status and wealth willing to pay for their time and presence as entertainers and hostesses at social gatherings.

The world building in this book is somewhat complex, but the intricacies are introduced in an organic way that feels natural, avoiding the pitfall of being more tell then show, which can happen in books such as this where a new world and vocabulary is being introduced. There is a large cast of supporting characters, each important to the plot, and I will admit I got confused at some points – especially when it came to Prince Kance and his cousin Kalen, both of who play meaningful roles in Tea’s tale. Eight different kingdoms are introduced throughout the story, each with it’s own political intrigues and cultural differences, and it can get little hard to keep things straight at some points, but luckily this was anticipated and the book contains a handy dandy little reference in the back.

The book doesn’t end in a cliffhanger, per say, but the past and the present don’t quite meet up, so we know there is more story to be told. We definitely get a foreshadowing of the darker path Tea is entering in the past, but it’s not at the level present day Tea is at, and I, for one, was left with some burning questions – what event triggers her to put her on the path she is currently on? Or was it an accumulation of a smaller events? And above all, what was she exiled for? (we aren’t really given a clear answer to this yet).

The Bone Witch was a fantastic, compelling read from beginning to end. Rin Chupeco paints such a vivid picture with her words that you can’t help but be drawn into the richly detailed world she builds and the intriguing story she weaves. Chupeco is a master storyteller and I’m a huge fan of hers. I highly recommend her The Girl from the Well series if you’re into YA horror (see my reviews for The Girl From The Well and The Suffering) and I eagerly await the next book in The Bone Witch series.

Great book! I'm a big fan of this genre and I was very interested in the plot line after getting into it a bit. Looking forward to the sequel already!

Why did I pick it?

When I first saw this book two things grabbed me; firstly the cover, I mean, it’s gorgeous cover porn. This would make amazing bookshelf candy. And secondly the first line..

 

“Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise.”

 

I mean why wouldn’t you want to read it after that!

I did have some initial reservations. I have an awful habit of checking goodreads reviews before picking up a book and this one had a mixed bag. Most of the negatives revolved around the amount of descriptive detail. This wasn’t my impression however. I think with any fantasy novel you NEED a certain level of detail. Without it how is the author supposed to get across enough information for the reader to fully understand the world that’s being created.

Thoughts

The book reminded me strongly of Memoirs of a Geisha, a favourite book of mine, which I read as a teenager. Although Chupeco has crafted her own fantastically detailed fantasy world, it relies heavily on Geisha and Maiko rules and culture, which rather than being a negative, really helps the reader understand more about the characters and storyline.

What I loved about it

The story is told via two POV’s which I absolutely loved. Firstly in the present by a bard, which is how the books starts, and how each chapter is introduced, and secondly in the past by Tea herself, which is were a majority of the book is played out. I really enjoyed the “present” sections, as they often left you intrigued and wanting to read more of the “past” in the next chapter to figure out what present day Tea did to end up in her current predicament.

I also loved that despite the detailed descriptions, a majority of the present day plot remains unexplained and the two timelines are yet to meet. It kept me guessing and the fact that I still don’t fully understand what happened to Tea means I want to read more.

What I loathed about it

I did however have two slight problems with the book. Firstly was the “lull”. The beginning of the book is very fast paced, and I loved that, but towards the middle it did lose it’s way a little. Story progression stayed still and didn’t move for a while which I found frustrating.

My second issue is with Fox, the aforementioned “resurrected brother”. Throughout the story I was expecting some sort of plot arch that really made his appearance in the book worthwhile, and yes, without giving spoilers, there is a kind of point to him, just not enough of a point for me not to wonder why on earth the author has bothered to include him in the first place. Who knows maybe the sequel will see Fox come into his own.

Talking of sequels, I’m really looking forward to seeing how the story pans out, as it really was a fun and enjoyable read. Predictably the story ended in the present on rather a large cliffhanger and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Rin Chupeco created a rich visual world in the tradition of well written fantasy. Tea's stories shift effortlessly between times and the transitions only add to the drama of the story. I look forward to the resolution in future books.

This is my 3rd book of Rin Chupeco's that I have read and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The Bone Witch is a fantasy novel that tells the story of Tea, who quite accidently finds out that she is a Bone Witch, or an Asha. Magic, in the world, is not uncommon, but being a Bone Witch is. Even though it is important and bone witches are necessary, there is a dark connotation and fear that follows them. How she finds out is quite a surprise and I am not giving anything away cause it happens at the very beginning, she brings back her brother who died in combat. She didn't know how to do this, somehow the power is so strong inside her that she didn't even have to think about it. 

The world the author has created is rich and complex. We learn all about the magic, the culture and the long process of becoming an Asha. And I also thought that her relationships with the other characters were very well developed. Especially her relationship with her brother, Fox, who she raised from the dead. Theirs is so much more than a brother-sister relationship, he is considered her familiar and they are mentally and emotionally linked as a result. 

I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I just realized that I never added my review despite having reviewed it back in February (very sorry about that!) so here it is:

The Bone Witch had a lot of promise to be a fantastic book. I loved the idea of a girl accidentally discovering she’s a necromancer and going on to train to become a powerful dark witch. In execution, though, this book failed to keep me interested through most of the novel. It still had strong points, but it was far from perfect.

My biggest complaint with The Bone Witch is that it was terribly slow. Although it starts with a very interesting, attention-grabbing scene, this is, unfortunately, the only time in the first third of the book that I felt like anything exciting was happening. The action didn’t really become steady at all until over halfway through the story. The book was so focused on Tea training to become a bone witch that we got to see very little of her actually using those skills. Reading about her training could’ve been interesting, but wasn’t. I mean, there are only so many scenes I can take of her learning how to dance. The silver lining in this is that it is likely a result of the book being the first in a series, meaning that the rest of the series is unlikely to have the same problem (I hope).

The characters were interesting, although they felt a little under-developed to me and therefore I didn’t really feel any strong connections to anyone other than maybe Tea and her mentor (who is surprisingly absent throughout the bulk of the book), Lady Mykaela. I especially would’ve liked to see Tea’s brother, Fox, be a little more fleshed out since the relationship between the two of them is basically what caused this whole story to even begin. Some characters seemed to come and go too much. They’d have a very important role in a couple of chapters and then would disappear for quite awhile before making another appearance.

The strongest part of The Bone Witch is, without a doubt, the world-building. Most of you who have heard about this book already probably know that it’s inspired a lot by Japanese culture, especially the asha who are based on geisha. I really liked reading how Chupeco intertwined it into a fictional world filled with magic. And the magic system, by the way, was really interesting to read about and was another strong point of this book. I’m really hoping we get to learn more about it in the rest of the series.

All in all, The Bone Witch had great world-building and an interesting premise but wasn’t quite able to keep me interested due to its slow pace. I’ll most likely check out book 2 though, as I’m hoping the next book in the series is a little more captivating since I do think this series has a lot of potential. If you don’t mind slow-paced books, you’ll likely enjoy this a lot more than I did.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The cover of this book is almost as gorgeous as the writing. Rin Chupeco really has a way with words

I enjoyed this book, but wanted more from it. I felt it was a little slow in telling the story.

I tried and tried to get into this book, I don't know if it was because I was in a slump or if it was just the book in general. I couldn't seem to really enjoy this book at all and I couldn't get past the first few chapters. Thank you so much for sending me the book but I DNFed this one.