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lavendera_'s review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
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
3.5
Content Warnings
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
anigoose's review
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I really enjoyed listening to this book. The pace of the narrators was really excellent.
There was at least bear content for once!! Just, um, 🐻😳, maybe not the bear content bears want. Please refrain from sticking boneshards in us thank you, sheesh.
There was at least bear content for once!! Just, um, 🐻😳, maybe not the bear content bears want. Please refrain from sticking boneshards in us thank you, sheesh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Minor: Toxic relationship
adancewithbooks's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Thank you to Little Brown Book Group UK for the review copy in exchange for an honest review. This did not change my opinion in anyway. I bought a physical copy and read that instead of the review copy however because the ebook wouldn't work on my ereader.
The Bone Shard Daughter is one of those books that I heard a lot of buzz about before I picked it up. For the most part this book lived up to it.
The book is set in the empire. The emperor and his family have mastered bone shard magic. These bone shard power animal like constructs that help him rule. The downside? The bone shards are taken from young children and when in use drains life from them. It shortens their life. One can imagine this tickles the rebellion to act out, next to the bad ruling the emperor seems to be doing. And that is about where we start.
We follow a few different characters from different sides of life. There is Jovis, a thief who has lost his wife. Lin, the daughter to the emperor who has lost her memory. Phalue, daugther to the governor of one of the islands. Ranami who is in love with Phalue but also a part of the rebellion ready to overthrow the governor. And a mystery character, Sand. It creates quite a few different story lines that slowly start intertwining with one another.
There were mysteries, twists and turns. Some were pretty obvious. Others were an actual surprise. Overal I think the plot is interesting and because of the intertwining stories became one big one by the end of the book. One where we will find all the characters together at some point.
The focus lies with Jovis and Lin. They move the story forward with big sweeping stories. Jovis who stands outside of the society by being a haunted thief, just trying to find his wife by any means possible. It means he doesn't have that much contact with other people. Lin on the other hand is mostly stuck in the palace, her only interaction being her father and a taken in boy outside of the animal constructs. She sees how her father mismanages the empire and how he has little interest for their people. She wants to change that.
Both are great to follow as characters. Lin wants to learn, wants to do better. She thinks the way to that is the bone shard magic but along the way she learns to evaluate that. Jovis on the other hand is more focused on himself and doesn't want much to do with the empire's problems. That changes when he meets the creature Mephi. He opens his heart to it a little and along the way he finds himself falling into helping his people too. I loved his relationship with Mephi <3.
Character wise I wasn't quite as drawn to Phalue and Ranami. However their story was very important to tell next to Lin and Jovis. Because they gave the perspective of the society. How was it really in the rest of the empire? How is day to day life and how does the empire's rule affect their lives? The relationship between Phalue and Ranami is also interesting. How does their social standings influence their relationship. Phalue being a governor's daughter, has a very priviledged view on the world. Ranami tries to show her that. But it is not so easy when it is the one you love.
Overal I enjoyed The Bone Shard Daughter and there is so much great things to be found in his book. I hope that the next books dives deeper into these characters and this world.
The Bone Shard Daughter is one of those books that I heard a lot of buzz about before I picked it up. For the most part this book lived up to it.
The book is set in the empire. The emperor and his family have mastered bone shard magic. These bone shard power animal like constructs that help him rule. The downside? The bone shards are taken from young children and when in use drains life from them. It shortens their life. One can imagine this tickles the rebellion to act out, next to the bad ruling the emperor seems to be doing. And that is about where we start.
We follow a few different characters from different sides of life. There is Jovis, a thief who has lost his wife. Lin, the daughter to the emperor who has lost her memory. Phalue, daugther to the governor of one of the islands. Ranami who is in love with Phalue but also a part of the rebellion ready to overthrow the governor. And a mystery character, Sand. It creates quite a few different story lines that slowly start intertwining with one another.
There were mysteries, twists and turns. Some were pretty obvious. Others were an actual surprise. Overal I think the plot is interesting and because of the intertwining stories became one big one by the end of the book. One where we will find all the characters together at some point.
The focus lies with Jovis and Lin. They move the story forward with big sweeping stories. Jovis who stands outside of the society by being a haunted thief, just trying to find his wife by any means possible. It means he doesn't have that much contact with other people. Lin on the other hand is mostly stuck in the palace, her only interaction being her father and a taken in boy outside of the animal constructs. She sees how her father mismanages the empire and how he has little interest for their people. She wants to change that.
Both are great to follow as characters. Lin wants to learn, wants to do better. She thinks the way to that is the bone shard magic but along the way she learns to evaluate that. Jovis on the other hand is more focused on himself and doesn't want much to do with the empire's problems. That changes when he meets the creature Mephi. He opens his heart to it a little and along the way he finds himself falling into helping his people too. I loved his relationship with Mephi <3.
Character wise I wasn't quite as drawn to Phalue and Ranami. However their story was very important to tell next to Lin and Jovis. Because they gave the perspective of the society. How was it really in the rest of the empire? How is day to day life and how does the empire's rule affect their lives? The relationship between Phalue and Ranami is also interesting. How does their social standings influence their relationship. Phalue being a governor's daughter, has a very priviledged view on the world. Ranami tries to show her that. But it is not so easy when it is the one you love.
Overal I enjoyed The Bone Shard Daughter and there is so much great things to be found in his book. I hope that the next books dives deeper into these characters and this world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
ticktock's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
bertramshotel's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture, Violence, and Blood
bookishexpat's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
honeyreads1066's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I seem to be on a roll with brilliant fantasy books because this one also did not disappoint. I came into this with big expectations since this book was heavily spoken about and God was it brilliant.
This book is about identity, what makes a person good or bad and how far someone is willing to go to fix what is broken and find what is lost.
It begins with Lin, the daughter of an emperor who has become as paranoid as he is powerful. Lin competes with the Emperor's foster son Bayan for keys to opening the palace's many locked doors and eventually knowledge that will allow her to take over as emperor.
As this is going on we also follow Jovis, a smuggler who ends up with a strange companion when the island he's on sinks. This leads him further on a journey to find his missing wife with a lot of detours on the way.
The setting is so complex yet so realistic. Each island has its character and all feel like real places because of the people that reside on them. Even when you're only on an island for a moment, you're able to understand just how that island functions.
The characters themselves were incredibly complex. Every one of them was not wholly good or evil and they make decisions you don't necessarily agree with but this makes them significantly more human. Each character is full of depth and you understand just why every decision was made.
Despite this, the narrative changes I found a little irritating at times. This does usually happen when you have multiple narrative voices except here it was the opposite. Usually one of the stories isn't as interesting as the others but here I was so hooked on all of them that I got annoyed at times when there were large breaks of a specific narrative voice.
I love that the politics are not so black and white. Decisions that hurt some characters, save others and vice versa. It's nice to read something where judgements truly don't always end up with the outcome everyone wants. It's not all happy and that's brilliant.
One thing that did bother me was the magic system, though I found it unique and interesting in the end, it took a little longer than I would have liked to understand how it worked and who could do it etc. Despite that, I think it's well built and quite detailed.
I liked here how normalised things like sexualities were here, especially since it's in a fantasy setting. It's refreshing to see people being themselves and allowed to be themselves without the cliche hardships that are usually added in books.
Overall, I enjoyed this, I enjoyed all the stories and I'm excited to see where else each of the characters and decisions leads them to. I would recommend this and am eagerly awaiting the next one.
This book is about identity, what makes a person good or bad and how far someone is willing to go to fix what is broken and find what is lost.
It begins with Lin, the daughter of an emperor who has become as paranoid as he is powerful. Lin competes with the Emperor's foster son Bayan for keys to opening the palace's many locked doors and eventually knowledge that will allow her to take over as emperor.
As this is going on we also follow Jovis, a smuggler who ends up with a strange companion when the island he's on sinks. This leads him further on a journey to find his missing wife with a lot of detours on the way.
The setting is so complex yet so realistic. Each island has its character and all feel like real places because of the people that reside on them. Even when you're only on an island for a moment, you're able to understand just how that island functions.
The characters themselves were incredibly complex. Every one of them was not wholly good or evil and they make decisions you don't necessarily agree with but this makes them significantly more human. Each character is full of depth and you understand just why every decision was made.
Despite this, the narrative changes I found a little irritating at times. This does usually happen when you have multiple narrative voices except here it was the opposite. Usually one of the stories isn't as interesting as the others but here I was so hooked on all of them that I got annoyed at times when there were large breaks of a specific narrative voice.
I love that the politics are not so black and white. Decisions that hurt some characters, save others and vice versa. It's nice to read something where judgements truly don't always end up with the outcome everyone wants. It's not all happy and that's brilliant.
One thing that did bother me was the magic system, though I found it unique and interesting in the end, it took a little longer than I would have liked to understand how it worked and who could do it etc. Despite that, I think it's well built and quite detailed.
I liked here how normalised things like sexualities were here, especially since it's in a fantasy setting. It's refreshing to see people being themselves and allowed to be themselves without the cliche hardships that are usually added in books.
Overall, I enjoyed this, I enjoyed all the stories and I'm excited to see where else each of the characters and decisions leads them to. I would recommend this and am eagerly awaiting the next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Murder
Minor: Racism
aardwyrm's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-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
Incredibly well done. Balancing the POV characters and all the plot they have to unfold is particularly impressive, with the shifts from first to third person representing a daring choice that pays off. The worldbuilding and magic system, which are at risk in any undertaking like this of becoming a clunky book of lore, are juggled just on the precipice of mystery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Animal death
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
entazis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I listened to this in a few days, having so much fun. This world is fascinating, the concept of migrating islands and the way bone shard magic and constructs are explained giving us some terrifying images and situations. This is not a horror novel, but I will say that I find the constructs unnerving. If you've read T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones it's like whole bunch of effigies just used in everyday life as servants of the empire.
The story explores the ideas of free will, identity and agency. It also talks about corrupt governments and revolutions. Of loneliness and grief. It plays with old tropes (the smuggler, the missing wife, the mad scientist who is also a tyrant, the princess in the tower) and gives us something new which I specifically liked. And while I guessed something important from the beginning, the way character came to the answers was fun, giving us important worldbuilding blocks, and there was still something that managed to surprise me.
All in all, a lot of fun with a weird world where constructs of dead animal bodies walk around governing people.
The story explores the ideas of free will, identity and agency. It also talks about corrupt governments and revolutions. Of loneliness and grief. It plays with old tropes (the smuggler, the missing wife, the mad scientist who is also a tyrant, the princess in the tower) and gives us something new which I specifically liked. And while I guessed something important from the beginning, the way character came to the answers was fun, giving us important worldbuilding blocks, and there was still something that managed to surprise me.
All in all, a lot of fun with a weird world where constructs of dead animal bodies walk around governing people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Gore and Grief