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A review by bkwrm1317
The Bone Key by Mary Rajotte
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Read this as part of my judging for Indie Ink 2024-2025 awards cycle for the Writing the Future We Need category of Latine Representation by a Latine Author. Please note that the below review does not reflect my scoring of the novel for this award, or otherwise have impact on the way I judged the novel for the competition.
This is a debut novel by writer Mary Rajotte, where we follow the story and struggles of Valeria, our elder teenage MC. Valeria is struggling with the loss of her Mexican American father in her childhood, and struggling with her own identity and growing witch powers. Valeria's mother is the leader of her Canadian witch community, and the novel begins with Valeria struggling with being called to stand by her mother's side in a position of power/leadership while she struggles with her powers and abilities.
From the beginning of the novel, Valeria and her community are persecuted and hunted down by Los Cazadores, or The Hunters, an enemy sect of individuals powerful in their own right due to their own magical powers where they can see through the eyes of their coyote familiars, and use them to hunt down Valeria and her witch community across North America. Valeria and her family and community are part of a witch sect who can turn into owls, a magic passed down to them from one of Valeria's ancestors who sacrificed herself to imbue them with ongoing powers for hundreds of years.
The conflict with Los Cazadores goes back to the time of Valeria's ancestor, although a peace had been brokered. Somehow, Los Cazadores follow Valeria from her home near Toronto all the way to Los Angeles, where she connects with her cousin and other parts of their owl coven, leading the reader to believe Los Cazadores must have some sort of inside information or way of knowing how to predict the movements of the owl coven to which Valeria belongs, and her father belonged before her.
The build of all of this is done pretty well, particularly for a debut novel writer. Unfortunately, for me, a lot of what comes after/Rajotte is trying to build with the novel becomes pretty quickly confusing and disjointed. Further, it was really distracting and difficult for me personally to see past the constant errors in Spanish that the author makes. This could have been easily resolved with a sensitivity reader or two, given this is one of the author's identities, but this does not mean that she speaks Spanish.
Due to the plot becoming wobbly and disjointed, as well as just a lot of tightening up that should happen with characters, I think this novel would have been well-served by some solid edits/revisions in order to be a more compelling story, and tighter novel.
I really liked the sound of this novel, and the premise sounded really intriguing. Unfortunately, this one was not one I really enjoyed, and I struggled a bit even with the lens from which I was attempting to read the novel, regardless of some of the copy/line and content editing I feel like it could benefit from.
Secondary characters are inequitably developed, with only a couple of them feeling like more "real" characters. Additionally, a lot of the foreshadowing (and internal monologue, among other aspects of the writing) became very repetitive, with zero clue to the reader as to what they should be picking up on - the part that was obvious was just that something was up, but there were not any clues for the reader for the ultimate reveal, which makes for a much less interesting/exciting reveal.
This is a debut novel by writer Mary Rajotte, where we follow the story and struggles of Valeria, our elder teenage MC. Valeria is struggling with the loss of her Mexican American father in her childhood, and struggling with her own identity and growing witch powers. Valeria's mother is the leader of her Canadian witch community, and the novel begins with Valeria struggling with being called to stand by her mother's side in a position of power/leadership while she struggles with her powers and abilities.
From the beginning of the novel, Valeria and her community are persecuted and hunted down by Los Cazadores, or The Hunters, an enemy sect of individuals powerful in their own right due to their own magical powers where they can see through the eyes of their coyote familiars, and use them to hunt down Valeria and her witch community across North America. Valeria and her family and community are part of a witch sect who can turn into owls, a magic passed down to them from one of Valeria's ancestors who sacrificed herself to imbue them with ongoing powers for hundreds of years.
The conflict with Los Cazadores goes back to the time of Valeria's ancestor, although a peace had been brokered. Somehow, Los Cazadores follow Valeria from her home near Toronto all the way to Los Angeles, where she connects with her cousin and other parts of their owl coven, leading the reader to believe Los Cazadores must have some sort of inside information or way of knowing how to predict the movements of the owl coven to which Valeria belongs, and her father belonged before her.
The build of all of this is done pretty well, particularly for a debut novel writer. Unfortunately, for me, a lot of what comes after/Rajotte is trying to build with the novel becomes pretty quickly confusing and disjointed. Further, it was really distracting and difficult for me personally to see past the constant errors in Spanish that the author makes. This could have been easily resolved with a sensitivity reader or two, given this is one of the author's identities, but this does not mean that she speaks Spanish.
Due to the plot becoming wobbly and disjointed, as well as just a lot of tightening up that should happen with characters, I think this novel would have been well-served by some solid edits/revisions in order to be a more compelling story, and tighter novel.
I really liked the sound of this novel, and the premise sounded really intriguing. Unfortunately, this one was not one I really enjoyed, and I struggled a bit even with the lens from which I was attempting to read the novel, regardless of some of the copy/line and content editing I feel like it could benefit from.
Secondary characters are inequitably developed, with only a couple of them feeling like more "real" characters. Additionally, a lot of the foreshadowing (and internal monologue, among other aspects of the writing) became very repetitive, with zero clue to the reader as to what they should be picking up on - the part that was obvious was just that something was up, but there were not any clues for the reader for the ultimate reveal, which makes for a much less interesting/exciting reveal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Death of parent