Take a photo of a barcode or cover
katep27 's review for:
The Bone Orchard
by Sara A. Mueller
4/5stars
*I was provided with an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I really enjoyed this!! It's been a while since I read fantasy, and this was such a fun way to get back into it. One of my biggest qualms with fantasy recently is that it all feels very similar - similar characters, tropes, etc. But this was SO unique. The character of Charm is honestly enough to read this book - talk about a strong female character! She is, as I saw another reviewer say, she is "lost, a madam, a whore, a witch but also a warrior." She is so complex and interesting and shows so many sides of women and what it means to be a woman. Her story is both so inspiring but also absolutely heart breaking - this has quite a few trigger warnings for sexual assault/rape. Charm is made even more complex by her necromantic creations of her boneghosts who appear to be little piece of her soul that she has given their own body.
I really loved the atmosphere of this book. Especially the beginning, when first meeting Charm and "The Lady" and their creations of Pain, Justice, Desire, Shame and Pride, it weirdly reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. The atmosphere was just very gaunt and grey and the inclusion of the necromancy and creation of the boneghosts, it weirdly reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sally. Considering I love Tim Burton and TNBC, that's a big compliment from me!!
The reason I docked a star was a problem I have with a lot of fantasy and most likely because I'm so out of practice reading it so I apologize - but I found the writing of this kept me at a bit of an arms length. I really liked the characters, but I didn't always CARE about them, if that makes sense? I find it really difficult to truly love and care about characters in fantasies, and unfortunately this one had the same problem. I'm also just too dumb to read fantasy nowadays and kept getting a bit confused about the plot/politics and confused a few characters. But these are things I'm sure fantasy readers won't be bothered by.
Thank you again to Tor for this ARC and the opportunity to read this wonderful debut early!
*I was provided with an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I really enjoyed this!! It's been a while since I read fantasy, and this was such a fun way to get back into it. One of my biggest qualms with fantasy recently is that it all feels very similar - similar characters, tropes, etc. But this was SO unique. The character of Charm is honestly enough to read this book - talk about a strong female character! She is, as I saw another reviewer say, she is "lost, a madam, a whore, a witch but also a warrior." She is so complex and interesting and shows so many sides of women and what it means to be a woman. Her story is both so inspiring but also absolutely heart breaking - this has quite a few trigger warnings for sexual assault/rape. Charm is made even more complex by her necromantic creations of her boneghosts who appear to be little piece of her soul that she has given their own body.
I really loved the atmosphere of this book. Especially the beginning, when first meeting Charm and "The Lady" and their creations of Pain, Justice, Desire, Shame and Pride, it weirdly reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. The atmosphere was just very gaunt and grey and the inclusion of the necromancy and creation of the boneghosts, it weirdly reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sally. Considering I love Tim Burton and TNBC, that's a big compliment from me!!
The reason I docked a star was a problem I have with a lot of fantasy and most likely because I'm so out of practice reading it so I apologize - but I found the writing of this kept me at a bit of an arms length. I really liked the characters, but I didn't always CARE about them, if that makes sense? I find it really difficult to truly love and care about characters in fantasies, and unfortunately this one had the same problem. I'm also just too dumb to read fantasy nowadays and kept getting a bit confused about the plot/politics and confused a few characters. But these are things I'm sure fantasy readers won't be bothered by.
Thank you again to Tor for this ARC and the opportunity to read this wonderful debut early!