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mothie_girlie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Trafficking
Moderate: Body horror and Blood
Minor: Confinement
lavendera_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Grief
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Blood, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
ticktock's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
bertramshotel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Minor: Torture, Violence, and Blood
aliyyah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Graphic: Gore and Blood
Moderate: Death and Murder
redthistle's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Trafficking
Minor: Confinement
aardwyrm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Animal death
caseythereader's review against another edition
- 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
- 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!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder
catastrophic's review against another edition
3.5
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
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Blood
whatellisreadnext's review against another edition
5.0
𝘌𝘮𝘢𝘩𝘭𝘢, 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.
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 😭
Thanks so much to Orbit Books for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review 🧡
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Grief