Reviews

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

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j_nell's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

adurafalls's review against another edition

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Got distracted, need to go back and finish

jpro1990's review against another edition

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5.0

The worst part about getting your hands on an ARC: waiting even longer for the sequel. Loved this book so much! So different from anything I've ever read. Included subtle Asian influences, unpredictable relationships, and thrilling adventures without hitting the normal stereotypes and tropes. Loved it! Now please announce the sequel

katyab's review against another edition

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3.0

I quite enjoyed this, although I was more invested in Lin and Jovis' storylines than the others; both read as good independent short stories, and Lin's was by far the strongest because of the unfolding mystery of her memories and her agency in obtaining more keys to the palace.

The concept of bone shard magic was fascinating, and I quite liked how we were given just enough information to keep it mysterious (you get some insight into how commands are written on the bone, but I was never quite clear on how the shards were inserted and removed; something that might be annoying for others, but I wasn't bothered by it). The constructs (equally vague on how they're made) reminded me of some of the creatures to come out of Studio Ghibli, namely Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. The same could be said of Mephisolou (very good, such a very good, I want a talking otter-cat-dog-dragon-thing please), although I'm not sure if I've been conditioned by other, perhaps darker books to be suspicious of soft, fluffy, kind things... I was so torn between thinking of Mephi as the "goodest boy" and wondering what the hell he is and what he's up to. Is this what it's like having a cat...?

Jovis and Mephi's relationship was wonderfully wholesome, and I especially liked how Jovis feels able to talk about his feelings of grief and admit that he's not doing well. He was the most solid and enjoyable character, and I found his arc believable, even though I was frustrated by his decision near the end (mostly because I'd become invested in his goal, and this decision was moving away from it, but I expect this goal will reappear).

Unfortunately, I was not invested in the Shardless Few/Ranami/Phalue's subplot. I can't put my finger on it, but I felt "meh" about it. Phalue should not have been a perspective character, she felt a little flat to me. Ranami was a stronger voice. There was a point in the book where all the perspectives felt entirely too distant from each other and I was bewildered as to how they were going to come together; in the end, it seemed only one link between stories was meaningful and the rest were just... there?

So, yes, this was good. I might be interested in the rest of the series, but I'm not rushing to get to the next book.