Scan barcode
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
- THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER is one of the most beautiful and engaging epic fantasies I've read in a long time. Stewart drops you into the world with little preamble, letting you figure it out on your own, and the world she has created is intricate, sprawling, and filled with vibrant people.
- There are a pretty big number of POV characters, and each time a chapter ended I was like "no wait, what's next!" but then got immediately engrossed by whoever else we were returning to.
- This is also a queernorm world, with a F/F relationship between two of the main characters.
- I did see the big reveal coming, but that didn't make the story any less gripping - if anything, I was reading faster to see how it all turned out. Give me book two now!
- There are a pretty big number of POV characters, and each time a chapter ended I was like "no wait, what's next!" but then got immediately engrossed by whoever else we were returning to.
- This is also a queernorm world, with a F/F relationship between two of the main characters.
- I did see the big reveal coming, but that didn't make the story any less gripping - if anything, I was reading faster to see how it all turned out. Give me book two now!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder
zsenzsen's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, and Death
catastrophic's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
So much was good in this book and so much...didnt work.
The good? The magic, wow. Very original, never heard of things like it before. It's necromancy, Frankenstein, with so much more depth. I did find it annoying how we're given no framework for this magic - contrast to a system like Sanderson's where there's always strcture built in. A good and evil, or 10 kinds of magic, or the four elements. It meant that some elements (like a talking animal, not really a spoiler) were less shocking. Even have some folklore references seeded through so we understood what it was and could brace for the magic. It would help with the deus ex machina problem, which was super obvious when the boat guy was about to lose to the cartel people and suddenly gets super strength, at the same time that his pet starts talking. that was a horrible plot twist, considering i had no idea that was possible.
The gay stuff was great. A bit hamfisted with their relationship, but it was two queer women who already knew that they were queer having genuine normal relationship problems not related to their queerness with a happy ending . Loved it. Plus all the seeding of different sexualities as being normal in this world?? Incredible.
I also liked the characterisation, especially Lin. I liked that she - and boat guy, forgot the name - was good at certain things but also clearly bad at others, and in ways that I havent seen in other characters. Like obviously they're tenacious, courageous, and ambitious. What protagonists arent? But we so clearly see that boat guy is only good at being a smuggler, so he's not good at other stuff. and his unique skill of lying cleverly is well-portrayed and I really enjoyed that tension. Lin's ability to read people's expressions and, similarly, manipulate, was great. I was sad that there were no grey characters, we had the Good Protagonists and Bad Baddies (they teased with making Lin and boat guy selfish but they never really were).
I almost stopped reading though because of how it was written. Lots of telling not showing, especially in the introduction of boat guy. Problems i mentioned before with how magic was introduced and seeded in. I kind of saw the twists coming. But i pulled through with the incredible magic and unique characters
The good? The magic, wow. Very original, never heard of things like it before. It's necromancy, Frankenstein, with so much more depth. I did find it annoying how we're given no framework for this magic - contrast to a system like Sanderson's where there's always strcture built in. A good and evil, or 10 kinds of magic, or the four elements. It meant that some elements (like a talking animal, not really a spoiler) were less shocking. Even have some folklore references seeded through so we understood what it was and could brace for the magic.
The gay stuff was great. A bit hamfisted with their relationship, but it was two queer women who already knew that they were queer having genuine normal relationship problems not related to their queerness
I also liked the characterisation, especially Lin. I liked that she - and boat guy, forgot the name - was good at certain things but also clearly bad at others, and in ways that I havent seen in other characters. Like obviously they're tenacious, courageous, and ambitious. What protagonists arent? But we so clearly see that boat guy is only good at being a smuggler, so he's not good at other stuff. and his unique skill of lying cleverly is well-portrayed and I really enjoyed that tension. Lin's ability to read people's expressions and, similarly, manipulate, was great. I was sad that there were no grey characters, we had the Good Protagonists and Bad Baddies (they teased with making Lin and boat guy selfish but they never really were).
I almost stopped reading though because of how it was written. Lots of telling not showing, especially in the introduction of boat guy. Problems i mentioned before with how magic was introduced and seeded in. I kind of saw the twists coming. But i pulled through with the incredible magic and unique characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Blood
whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
๐๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ. ๐ ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต. ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ, ๐ด๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ.
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ข ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ.
The Emperor utilises bone shard magic, to power the animal like constructs, that help maintain law and order throughout the kingdom. His daughter Lin, is sneaking around trying to harness this magic that he keeps from her, whilst also trying to recover the memories she has lost, but just how far is she willing to go to save her people?
I can't believe this book is a debut, I loved every single second of being swept up in this vast and fascinating world. Andrea Stewart effortlessly grabbed my attention right from the off, after two chapters, I could not put The Bone Shard Daughter down.
From the blurb, I thought this story would have one main protagonist, but it actually has 4. Don't let that put you off, Stewart did a fantastic job of utilising these perspectives, giving us all the right information when we needed it. Plus I found myself binging chapter after chapter, wanting to find out what was happening with each of them.
My favourite character by far was Jovis, who is joined on his journey by a cat/otter creature called Mephi. They had a real Mando and Baby Yoda thing going on. It was SO CUTE. Mephi is a sweet baby angel and I love him so much. Jovis in my eyes, had some of the best lines in the whole book.
I could literally talk about this book all day. If you loved N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, or After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, I can guarantee you will love this book. Now, excuse me whilst I go and sulk until book two hits the shelves late next year ๐ญ
Thanks so much to Orbit Books for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review ๐งก
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข, ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ข ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฆ๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ฆ ๐ข๐จ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ.
The Emperor utilises bone shard magic, to power the animal like constructs, that help maintain law and order throughout the kingdom. His daughter Lin, is sneaking around trying to harness this magic that he keeps from her, whilst also trying to recover the memories she has lost, but just how far is she willing to go to save her people?
I can't believe this book is a debut, I loved every single second of being swept up in this vast and fascinating world. Andrea Stewart effortlessly grabbed my attention right from the off, after two chapters, I could not put The Bone Shard Daughter down.
From the blurb, I thought this story would have one main protagonist, but it actually has 4. Don't let that put you off, Stewart did a fantastic job of utilising these perspectives, giving us all the right information when we needed it. Plus I found myself binging chapter after chapter, wanting to find out what was happening with each of them.
My favourite character by far was Jovis, who is joined on his journey by a cat/otter creature called Mephi. They had a real Mando and Baby Yoda thing going on. It was SO CUTE. Mephi is a sweet baby angel and I love him so much. Jovis in my eyes, had some of the best lines in the whole book.
I could literally talk about this book all day. If you loved N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, or After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, I can guarantee you will love this book. Now, excuse me whilst I go and sulk until book two hits the shelves late next year ๐ญ
Thanks so much to Orbit Books for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review ๐งก
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Grief
bookishbutch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Child death
Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Torture, and Medical trauma
in_love_with_bookish's review against another edition
slow-paced
2.5
2.5 Stars
I wish I can say Iโm disappointed with this book but that would be a lie since I didnโt have any expectations high or low for this one. The cover was stunning and the synopsis was intriguing and I wanted some fantasy so I went for it.
We all tell ourselves stories of who we are, and in my mind, I was always the hero. But I wasnโt. Not in all the ways I should have been
For me, This book is simply average. It wasnโt the best thing ever but it wasnโt the worst thing ever as well. I just read it, was surprised at times, felt bored and confused mostly, and didnโt care for the characters and their individual arcs.
I think the book lacks in world-building. We donโt get a lot of history or lore. In my opinion, the magic system wasnโt explained in detail and I felt lost at times. I couldnโt immerse myself in a world I didnโt know enough about. The story feels dry and lacking. I had so many questions while reading, how the buildings look like or the clothes or the environment or even the food.
One foolish choice is like a rat you let go. It will spawn more consequences than you first thought possible
The story is told from different POVs and I felt disconnected from all characters but one. Also, the synopsis of the book is completely misleading and I really hate it when that happens. If I pick a book because it is a story of certain things, I really love those certain things to be there.
The first 70% was really rough for me and I struggled through it. The last 30% felt like an improvement and I felt myself become sucked in the story and started to care about what will or will not happen. The story had a mystery element to that and I had to admit it was done well. Also, the way certain characters came together was perfect and pushed the plot forward without being too convenient.
But I still had a problem with the tone of the story. The Bone Shard Daughter is epic fantasy but it doesnโt feel that way at all. I admit there is a darkness to some of its elements but the characters who sometimes read really young have mature problems and issues But compared to some of the epic fantasy I read, This book doesnโt even come close to capture the tone and the feel of that.
I would drink a thousand lies just to see your face again
Still, This book is worth the read if youโre intrigued by unique magic systems and a multiple POVs story with individual intimate stories that feed into a larger narrative. It just didnโt work out for me and honestly, thatโs okay.
A person who canโt see a future doesnโt have a future
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Grief
noelanig's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Blood
leoniec's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Blood