Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Daughter of the Bone Forest by Jasmine Skye

4 reviews

bookameme's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This book nearly became my favorite story of the year, that cliffhanger though 🪦

Thoughts:💡

I loved this story and up until the last 99% of the book I thought this would be my favorite story of the year. However, the ending was the most painful and frustrating cliffhanger I’ve seen in a while because it stole a solid ending from the story. A part of me wants to rant about it even though I waited to post my review until after I had some time to cool off.

With that said there are plenty of things the author did well. The plot was very detailed and the magic system was fascinating. I loved the way this book merged the idea of shifters and familiars and altered what the relationship between a witch and familiar entails. There were several dark secrets that revealed a broken society, and a few revelations that showed its progressive nature.

The relationship between Rosy and Shaw had a palpable sort of chemistry that stole my attention and my breath. They had completely different views of the world and were from different stations in life, but they also had some overlapping desires and strong self made moral codes. At the beginning Rosy and Shaw loathed one another but through their time together because of their fake dating scheme they learned to respect and fall for each other.

The narration was really good, if a little different because the author changed from first person present tense for one POV to third person past for tbe other. So between the different voices and verbage it was very easy to tell the two apart. Honestly, if you can overlook this book’s unfortunate ending then I would strongly recommend it, but if you can’t stand a cliffhanger where the author sets up a strong finish only to purposely withhold it, then wait on this one until book 2 is available and you can just read through it.

Fun Bits:

⚜️ A fake dating plot where only one of them was

faking

⚜️ Fated mates, pair bonds, and witch familiar

bonds mixed in a fascinating way

⚜️ Side characters that stole the show

⚜️ Excellent wold building with fascinating back

stories

⚜️ Heartbreaking losses and ☠️

⚜️ Elites behaving badly

⚜️ A powerful shifter from a poor family putting them in their place

⚜️ Extremely exciting action scenes

⚜️ Emotionally gripping struggles, monologues,

and heart to hearts

⚜️ A fascinating queernormative society

✨Note:✨ Ends on a horrible cliffhanger, book 2 isn’t projected to release until 2025.

Stats:📊

YA with no spice and very little steam

Characters: 💙💙💙💙💙

Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Narrators: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️ (Dual, chapter by chapter)

YA Epic Fantasy: Sapphic Queernormative, War College for Witches, Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Fake Dating, Hidden Secrets, Elite Nobility, Shifters 📘

Rosie’s POV, First Person, Present Tense

Shaw’s POV, Third Person, Past Tense

⚠️: War, Violence, Bullying, Death, Murder, Death of a Family Member, Fire and Fire related Injuries

Content Warnings

julalbert56's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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? No

4.0

THAT ENDING WAS SO RUDE I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL AHHH. Ok I have so many thoughts about this book, the main one being that this definitely felt like a prequel to what will be significantly higher stakes in the next book, which I’m excited for! I had some issues with this book, most notably that I struggled to root for Shaw/Rosamund’s relationship for 90% of the novel. It felt like Rosamund was so reluctant to hang out with Shaw the whole story and some of Shaw’s comments felt so uptight/malicious with no further explanation. I know she’s reserved but I wish we had gotten a few more POV chapters from her to get a sense of her internal monologue, cause she mostly felt bland to me. Like what are her interests (besides horses lol)? Her quirks? I have no clue. I couldn’t help comparing this book to one of my favorite series of all time, The Poppy War. The structure of the first novel is so similar in both. However, I felt like the Poppy war balanced its plot elements significantly better, as the action didn’t really start picking up in this book until the 70% mark.

Rosamund’s character also annoyed me at the end when she left her friends to fight and die in the inevitable war and only started to consider lending her ultra valuable skills when she missed her comfy bed at the school lol. But I thought about it after and I would also run away to not get drafted, so I guess I can sympathize. At least she came around at the end.

Overall, I’m mostly left feeling excited for the next book!

Content Warnings

ezwolf's review

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

Daughter of the Bone Forest follows Rosamund, a shapeshifter who only wishes to care for her imprisoned grandmother and the horses her family raises. By happenstance (or by nudging done by a friend with foresight) Rosamund meets Princess Shaw, saving her and her friends from an animal attack. To repay her, Shaw brings Rosamund to Witch Hall, a school for witches and familiars to learn how to control their magic and shifts. It's the last thing Rosamund wants, but she will do anything to help her grandmother and this may be the only way.

I really enjoyed this, even more than I thought I would. First and foremost because nearly every sapphic book I've read that claims to include horses only includes them at bare minimum. This book includes horses in many ways, from the ranch that Rosamund's family owns to her assignment working the stables at Witch Hall. Not to mention Rosamund's own shifter ability to turn into a horse (every horse girl's dream, or mine anyway).

Rosamund really sticks to her guns throughout the entire book, I feel like characters in this situation often change their points of view quickly. Rosamund was committed to keeping on the down low (admittedly not well, but the intent was there) and trying to find a way to help her grandmother be free of her imprisonment.

There was inclusion of a variety of gender identities and sexualities that were naturally included. This book also does not end with a romantic ending and I am so excited to see how it progresses through the rest of the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings

jaskye's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

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