Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Bone Shard Daughter

this isnt a bad read, but i simply expected more. the bone shard daughter has an interesting premise, but the execution leaves more to be desired.

my fav things abt this book are its unique and compelling magic system - w/ constructs and bone shard magic, one that contains very real consequences for the common folk, w/ real political implications - and, imo, its star character, jovis, a reluctant hero w/ humanity, heart and depth, and whose rapport w/ his 'pet' mephi i find very cute.

other aspects, however, i find a lil lacking still. the worldbuilding comes in stops and starts, glimpses that dont quite yield real depth. many things that would shed more light on the empire and its workings are glossed over, such as how, exactly, the constructs communicate back to imperial, what their relationships w/ real soldiers are like. in short, the world seems like quite a big one, but the setting and story feels surprisingly spare, sparse, and narrow in scope.

im also impartial to many of the characters, particularly lin, whose story isnt as exciting esp considering she's the titular character. this thereby affects my emotional investment, leaving me unaffected by the story. often, i also find the characters' actions illogical and frustrating; esp the weird not-killing-despite-knowing-they'll-come-back-to-bite-your-a55-later reasoning, and poorly planned fights, esp the one in the palace w/ the emperor. basically i feel like the characters dont use their heads enough even though they def should.

though i seem to have quite many complaints, it cant be denied that this book has its high points, and it can get very fun and adventurous. for that - and its interesting magic system - i might check out the sequels.

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elizajaquays's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

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aloeverra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This was a fantastic island fantasy with plenty of mysteries to solve, a long gone civilization, and a dark magic system. We have 4 primary perspectives and 1 smaller one, all were very unique in culture, station, and personality. Despite the differences I found myself enjoying each perspective in different ways. I felt all the characters were loveable, even the ones that came across as more self serving since we get to see into the thoughts of each person. This helped understand some of the motivations behind selfish choices, and you can see the characters wrestle with their decisions.

The magic is defined, and becomes clearer the more pages you get through. The pacing of information for how it worked was well developed for me. The magic cost is sad and certainly takes a toll on the population which is why I'd label the system as a dark magic.

I listened to the audio form of this through audible and loved the different readers involved in the telling. They did fantastic putting in emotion, pauses and tones to the characters. I'm sad I didn't have a map though, because some of the locations and layout of the setting left me a little confused. I ended up needing to search online for images to help.

The book does a great job wrapping up enough lose ends to feel like a satisfying conclusion, while still allowing for excitement to dive into the sequel.

No harsh language or explicit content for those looking for or avoiding that type of thing.

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chalkletters's review

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

After a run of book club books I was immediately excited about (‘muggle goes to dark Hogwarts’, 'the navy with dragons’), we’ve now hit a few books where the premise doesn’t particularly hook me. Which isn’t to say that the books themselves won’t be good! Only that they can’t be summed up in a catchy elevator pitch.

The beginning of The Bone Shard Daughter left me a little dubious. In good news, it came out of the gate at a good, quick pace, with things immediately happening. In somewhat less good news, it seemed to centre around an amnesia plot. When I took a creative writing module at university, it seemed that everyone wanted to be write about either being in a coma or having amnesia, so my history involves having read it handled pretty amateurishly.

Fortunately, Andrea Stewart was anything but amateurish. She managed perspective shifts in a way I haven’t seen before, and yet they immediately felt right. I didn’t even notice until the end that some perspectives are written in the first person while others are in the third, and that’s the kind of thing that jarred me out of The Light Between Oceans pretty badly!

The Bone Shard Daughter is as much a mystery as it is a fantasy novel, in large part thanks to that amnesia plot I mentioned. I was always trying to work out who characters really were, how they were related to one another, why they were acting in the way they did. I’m not a reader who constantly tries to guess where books are going, but The Bone Shard Daughter really caught me up in the way a murder mystery does. It even has what you might call 'a second body’ partway through. My notes are full of questions: 'Is X causing the memory loss?’, 'Is Y related to Z?’. Many of them get answered, but there are enough left over that I really want to read the next book in the series.

Because there was so much else going on, the character development didn’t stand out to me immediately. It was only towards the end that I really realised just how integral it was to the novel. I can’t talk about the intensity of Lin’s character arc without spoiling a huge chunk of her plot, so I won’t, but Phalue’s reluctance to come to terms with her privilege is something I haven’t seen before in a fantasy novel. The Bone Shard Daughter compares favourably with Witchsign because I’m supposed to dislike the bad parent, rather than being expected to sympathise with him. I found that much more effective.

The Bone Shard Daughter was a very different kind of fantasy novel, so much so that it feels weird to compare it to other book club books that I’ve enjoyed. That said, this is only the third time I’ve immediately added the next book in a series to my 'want to read’ list, which has to say something!

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