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A review by catastrophic
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
3.5
So much was good in this book and so much...didnt work.
The good? The magic, wow. Very original, never heard of things like it before. It's necromancy, Frankenstein, with so much more depth. I did find it annoying how we're given no framework for this magic - contrast to a system like Sanderson's where there's always strcture built in. A good and evil, or 10 kinds of magic, or the four elements. It meant that some elements (like a talking animal, not really a spoiler) were less shocking. Even have some folklore references seeded through so we understood what it was and could brace for the magic. It would help with the deus ex machina problem, which was super obvious when the boat guy was about to lose to the cartel people and suddenly gets super strength, at the same time that his pet starts talking. that was a horrible plot twist, considering i had no idea that was possible.
The gay stuff was great. A bit hamfisted with their relationship, but it was two queer women who already knew that they were queer having genuine normal relationship problems not related to their queerness with a happy ending . Loved it. Plus all the seeding of different sexualities as being normal in this world?? Incredible.
I also liked the characterisation, especially Lin. I liked that she - and boat guy, forgot the name - was good at certain things but also clearly bad at others, and in ways that I havent seen in other characters. Like obviously they're tenacious, courageous, and ambitious. What protagonists arent? But we so clearly see that boat guy is only good at being a smuggler, so he's not good at other stuff. and his unique skill of lying cleverly is well-portrayed and I really enjoyed that tension. Lin's ability to read people's expressions and, similarly, manipulate, was great. I was sad that there were no grey characters, we had the Good Protagonists and Bad Baddies (they teased with making Lin and boat guy selfish but they never really were).
I almost stopped reading though because of how it was written. Lots of telling not showing, especially in the introduction of boat guy. Problems i mentioned before with how magic was introduced and seeded in. I kind of saw the twists coming. But i pulled through with the incredible magic and unique characters
The good? The magic, wow. Very original, never heard of things like it before. It's necromancy, Frankenstein, with so much more depth. I did find it annoying how we're given no framework for this magic - contrast to a system like Sanderson's where there's always strcture built in. A good and evil, or 10 kinds of magic, or the four elements. It meant that some elements (like a talking animal, not really a spoiler) were less shocking. Even have some folklore references seeded through so we understood what it was and could brace for the magic.
The gay stuff was great. A bit hamfisted with their relationship, but it was two queer women who already knew that they were queer having genuine normal relationship problems not related to their queerness
I also liked the characterisation, especially Lin. I liked that she - and boat guy, forgot the name - was good at certain things but also clearly bad at others, and in ways that I havent seen in other characters. Like obviously they're tenacious, courageous, and ambitious. What protagonists arent? But we so clearly see that boat guy is only good at being a smuggler, so he's not good at other stuff. and his unique skill of lying cleverly is well-portrayed and I really enjoyed that tension. Lin's ability to read people's expressions and, similarly, manipulate, was great. I was sad that there were no grey characters, we had the Good Protagonists and Bad Baddies (they teased with making Lin and boat guy selfish but they never really were).
I almost stopped reading though because of how it was written. Lots of telling not showing, especially in the introduction of boat guy. Problems i mentioned before with how magic was introduced and seeded in. I kind of saw the twists coming. But i pulled through with the incredible magic and unique characters
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Blood