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hobbithopeful's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Note: I am updating this written review after having in essence an intervention, different text will be in bold
This is a story about war, and a girl trying to get her sister back while keeping her magic a secret. Toma has lived a relatively uneventful life, if you count the fact her family is undead and yet can still walk and talk thanks to her magic. Her peaceful life is soon completely upended when her sister is kidnapped. She will have to venture across a country ravaged by civil war to get her sister back, meeting unlikely companions along the way.
I almost expected it to end with the 3 main characters as a throuple because the book touts itself as being LGBT. I wouldn't label this as an LGBT book even though the authors says that Vanya(male character) is bisexual and Mikhail (male character) is gay It really reads as more of an after thought or as an attempt to diversify the cast of characters. Even the main romance is between one of the Vanya(male character) and Toma(the female lead) . I guess to me a book isn't LGBT just because one or two characters is, unless it is a major plot point or romance, or even point of discussion in this book it was used as the equivalent of her hair is such and such color. The main focus of the story remains on Toma and her discovering her identity and who she is.
There were parts of it that I liked, and some parts I didn't. The world building and lore is truly excellent. (We all know I love world building!) And I am so grateful that there was a glossary, so many books don't have that and need it! But some of the characters I just wanted *more* from. After some author revelations, it's hard not to look at this book differently. The way Toma has to hide her magic and not reveal who she really is for fear of ostracization or worse. I can't imagine, and would never be able to imagine what is like to have to hide who you are for years and years and years, for fears of being hurt or bullied, or worse. I think because my experience with this book was up and down, I will read another book by the author and see what I think. While being a consistent author is great, being an author that improves with each book is even better, there is no limit to how great they will become.
This is a story about war, and a girl trying to get her sister back while keeping her magic a secret. Toma has lived a relatively uneventful life, if you count the fact her family is undead and yet can still walk and talk thanks to her magic. Her peaceful life is soon completely upended when her sister is kidnapped. She will have to venture across a country ravaged by civil war to get her sister back, meeting unlikely companions along the way.
I almost expected it to end with the 3 main characters as a throuple because the book touts itself as being LGBT. I wouldn't label this as an LGBT book even though the authors says that
There were parts of it that I liked, and some parts I didn't. The world building and lore is truly excellent. (We all know I love world building!) And I am so grateful that there was a glossary, so many books don't have that and need it! But some of the characters I just wanted *more* from. After some author revelations, it's hard not to look at this book differently. The way Toma has to hide her magic and not reveal who she really is for fear of ostracization or worse. I can't imagine, and would never be able to imagine what is like to have to hide who you are for years and years and years, for fears of being hurt or bullied, or worse. I think because my experience with this book was up and down, I will read another book by the author and see what I think. While being a consistent author is great, being an author that improves with each book is even better, there is no limit to how great they will become.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, War, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Sexual harassment
If there was a way to give this book between a 3.75 and a 4 I would.booksthatburn's review
adventurous
dark
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
THE BONE WEAVER explores grief, otherness, and reconnection in a second-world fantasy. Toma was raised by undead but is forced to find connections with the living when her sister is stolen by soldiers as a curious specimen. She travels with Mikhail, the displaced Tsar, and Vanya, a commoner with magic.
Because Toma was raised by undead for a large portion of her life, there are a lot of things where her reasoning gets her to a workable solution by a very strange route. Her traveling companions don’t usually try to correct her, as her worldview is so fundamentally different from theirs they might not even know where to begin. In matters of the undead, she eventually gets them more comfortable. In matters of society, war, and prejudice, the tsar and the commoner tend to vehemently disagree while Toma listens to them both and makes up her own mind. Vanya is part of a persecuted minority, his situation made more precarious because he has magic. This would be fine if he were noble, but commoners with magic are thought of as unclean or cursed, somehow fundamentally different than nobles with the same powers.
I enjoyed the array of undead types who appear late in the book. The timing means that the worldbuilding as far as human society and the current conflict are well established before the differences between types of undead begin to matter in the story.
Toma and Mikhail travel for a while before meeting Vanya, which helps with balancing the interactions between them. Toma and Mikhail establish a rapport, then Vanya finds his place in their trio. Toma is the only point-of-view character, but in at least one instance she overhears a discussion between Vanya and Mikhail which makes it clear they have built a friendship separate from and in parallel with their friendships with her. It never feels like an infodump because the three main characters have legitimate reasons to explain things to each other. For each of them it might be some very fundamental aspect, but their experiences have been so disparate as to feel like a different world.
Because Toma was raised by undead for a large portion of her life, there are a lot of things where her reasoning gets her to a workable solution by a very strange route. Her traveling companions don’t usually try to correct her, as her worldview is so fundamentally different from theirs they might not even know where to begin. In matters of the undead, she eventually gets them more comfortable. In matters of society, war, and prejudice, the tsar and the commoner tend to vehemently disagree while Toma listens to them both and makes up her own mind. Vanya is part of a persecuted minority, his situation made more precarious because he has magic. This would be fine if he were noble, but commoners with magic are thought of as unclean or cursed, somehow fundamentally different than nobles with the same powers.
I enjoyed the array of undead types who appear late in the book. The timing means that the worldbuilding as far as human society and the current conflict are well established before the differences between types of undead begin to matter in the story.
Toma and Mikhail travel for a while before meeting Vanya, which helps with balancing the interactions between them. Toma and Mikhail establish a rapport, then Vanya finds his place in their trio. Toma is the only point-of-view character, but in at least one instance she overhears a discussion between Vanya and Mikhail which makes it clear they have built a friendship separate from and in parallel with their friendships with her. It never feels like an infodump because the three main characters have legitimate reasons to explain things to each other. For each of them it might be some very fundamental aspect, but their experiences have been so disparate as to feel like a different world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Grief, Violence, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Classism
Moderate: Cursing, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Confinement, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content
Minor: Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Child death, and Excrement
moonytoast's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Thank you to Netgalley and Inkyard Press for providing me with a digital ARC of this book!
The world of Bone Weaver explicitly pulls from a wide breadth of Slavic folklore and the history of early twentieth-century imperial imperial Russia. Even though this book is not a historical fantasy in the same manner of The City Beautiful, it’s very easy to notice those historical influences on the story. I personally enjoyed this book more—perhaps because fantasy with historical influences is less rigid in the atmosphere you can create and worlds you can build compared to historical fiction with fantasy elements. In that respect, this reminds me of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books and even The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid.
I loved all three of the characters in the main ensemble, but Toma definitely has my heart. Her commitment to finding and saving her sister, Galina, creates an immediate emotional depth even beyond Toma’s slow unraveling of her past before she found family among upryi. I love her dynamic with Vanya and Mikhail in that feels fully realized. Their interactions feel like three people with entirely different life experiences and perspectives on the world who have stumbled into a quest together. I don’t want to spoil the third act and a certain event, but I love that we get to see how much they care about each other in the wake of everything they’ve gone through together.
I had only one substantial qualm with Bone Weaver that made this go from a five star to a four star rating: I felt like the resolution wrapped up a bit too quickly in regards to the politics. Polydoros set up a very nuanced and complex political landscape for most of the book, not just with the peripheral events the characters pass through but also with the conversational clashes between Vanya and Mikhail on those matters. The conclusion of that arc where Vanya trusts Mikhail to be capable of solving these issues simply because he will not be like his father and that he is a good man falls a bit flat to me. It feels like it’s not fully reckoning with the fact that the problems we saw throughout the book are bigger than the tsar or the Tribunal. That being said, I do appreciate that it’s made clear that there is a staggering amount of work that needs to be done before they could reach a semblance of justice—and that killing Koschei did not solve everything.
Definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys young adult fantasy books like the Grishaverse or even historical fantasies set in the nineteenth or early twentieth century!
Definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys young adult fantasy books like the Grishaverse or even historical fantasies set in the nineteenth or early twentieth century!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Death, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Body horror, Gore, and Religious bigotry
natashaleighton_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Bone Weaver was an intriguingly dark and thought provoking fantasy that seamlessly blends the rich and diverse folklore of Eastern Europe with Jewish and Imperial Russian history to create a beautifully vivid though unflinchingly bloody tale of power, persecution, grief, identity, found family and belonging that’s an absolute must read for lovers of magic, monsters or mythology infused YA fantasy.
It follows seventeen year old Toma who has spent the last seven years living in the wilderness, adopted by a family ofUpyri—human corpses reanimated by magic—and lives happily with her sister Galina and their parents. But, when the dethroned Tsar, Mikhail crash lands outside her home whilst fleeing from revolutionaries, Galina ends up captured by them.She’ll do anything to rescue Galina even if it means diving headfirst into the Empire’s bloody political conflict and helping Mikhail.
The pair soon meet Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, the unlikely trio bond over trying to restore Mikhail’s magic and protect the empire from Koschei, the brutal revolutionary leader who deposed Mikhail—and whose forces have now stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can’t dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives including Galina’s will be at Koschei’s mercy.
I genuinely enjoyed every second of Aden Polydoros’ richly detailed world building & loved how viscerally immersive the setting felt. I also really enjoyed the fantastical elements and folkloric beings we encounter (like the man tickling Mavka and river based Rusalka) that made me want to research more about them.
All the characters were well developed and wonderfully compelling, Toma our protagonist was one such character—driven by her love (and unwavering loyalty) for her sister. But, I must admit my fave character had to be the charismatic Vanya who manages to keep his easy going and friendly nature despite the atrocities he’s witnessed firsthand from being Strannik—one of the Empire’s religiously persecuted minority groups.
The conflicts that all three encounter (and previously experienced) were absolutely heartbreaking at times, and made all the more poignant knowing that they parallel real world situations (both past and present) and struggles that diaspora/minority communities endure—especially in terms of cultural identity and nationality.
The pacing was a little slower than I would’ve liked but, the chance to explore the more surreal (fantastical) elements, as well as the slow burn romance between Toma and Vanya definitely helped to make up for it.
Overall, a gorgeously wrought and uncompromisingly dark fantasy that I genuinely couldn’t put down! Though I do warn there’s quite a lot of graphic violence (blood, death, body horror, gore) so do bear in mind if you decide to pick this up.
It follows seventeen year old Toma who has spent the last seven years living in the wilderness, adopted by a family ofUpyri—human corpses reanimated by magic—and lives happily with her sister Galina and their parents. But, when the dethroned Tsar, Mikhail crash lands outside her home whilst fleeing from revolutionaries, Galina ends up captured by them.She’ll do anything to rescue Galina even if it means diving headfirst into the Empire’s bloody political conflict and helping Mikhail.
The pair soon meet Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, the unlikely trio bond over trying to restore Mikhail’s magic and protect the empire from Koschei, the brutal revolutionary leader who deposed Mikhail—and whose forces have now stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can’t dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives including Galina’s will be at Koschei’s mercy.
I genuinely enjoyed every second of Aden Polydoros’ richly detailed world building & loved how viscerally immersive the setting felt. I also really enjoyed the fantastical elements and folkloric beings we encounter (like the man tickling Mavka and river based Rusalka) that made me want to research more about them.
All the characters were well developed and wonderfully compelling, Toma our protagonist was one such character—driven by her love (and unwavering loyalty) for her sister. But, I must admit my fave character had to be the charismatic Vanya who manages to keep his easy going and friendly nature despite the atrocities he’s witnessed firsthand from being Strannik—one of the Empire’s religiously persecuted minority groups.
The conflicts that all three encounter (and previously experienced) were absolutely heartbreaking at times, and made all the more poignant knowing that they parallel real world situations (both past and present) and struggles that diaspora/minority communities endure—especially in terms of cultural identity and nationality.
The pacing was a little slower than I would’ve liked but, the chance to explore the more surreal (fantastical) elements, as well as the slow burn romance between Toma and Vanya definitely helped to make up for it.
Overall, a gorgeously wrought and uncompromisingly dark fantasy that I genuinely couldn’t put down! Though I do warn there’s quite a lot of graphic violence (blood, death, body horror, gore) so do bear in mind if you decide to pick this up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Blood, Death, Gore, and Body horror
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