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erica_o 's review for:
The Bone Witch
by Rin Chupeco
Really, I'd give this a 2.5 but that .5 is not strong enough to round it up to a 3.
I loved the concept, here, but, man, the execution was painful.
We've got a girl named Tea. Like the drink. It makes sense when you find out her siblings have names like Lilac and Daisy and Fox so, sure, Tea. Only it's not pronounced "Tee," it's pronounced "Tey-uh," which you find out on page 272 after you've been mentally pronouncing it like the drink for most of the story.
Anyhow, this girl named Tea, she accidentally raises her brother from the dead (not a spoiler, it's stated on the cover and the back, as well) and finds out she's a dark asha (witch) who can't use elemental runes but can wield dark magic and her heartsglass is silver.
At first, I was reminded of Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky series in that this is a non-Anglocentric fantasy that focuses on a variety of cultures, their beliefs, and their practices. And like Bear, this author uses words in a wonky way but unlike Bear's writing, it doesn't work. Words are misused or unnecessarily repeated, malapropisms abound, and dialogue is stilted and off-kilter. It's not an affectation of a word-loving writer, it's lack of decent editing. Seriously, who edited this? I need to talk to that team because some of these problems are glaring and ridiculous and should never have gone to print.
So we're in this world and necromancer Tea is a normal teen, crushing on a cute prince who, for some reason, is quite interested in her, as well. Her dead brother is her familiar and she has to do blood magic on him to keep him fresh. She goes to fancy Asha school where she learns all sorts of things like dancing, singing, instrument-playing, world history, combat, magic-wielding, and party etiquette. She's powerful and special so she rises from kitchen drudge to novice to asha (geisha) pretty quickly. She gets to wear beautiful and intricate huas (robe-like dresses that I think are supposed to be similar to kimonos?) and magical combs and pins in her hair. She makes enemies, respawning daeva have to be put down and their bezoars removed, the Faceless are out to get everyone, there's a lot of stuff about everybody's heartsglasses, and hijinks ensue. And this is all told to a wandering bard as Tea, who has already lived all this stuff and has since been banished, plans her revenge.
If you feel there are gaps in that description, if you're thinking, "I don't know what that means," then welcome to the club. This is a book that throws down all the things and you've got to piece them together yourself. The world-building is mostly up to the reader. You're given the words but you have to figure out how they make a picture. Sometimes there's context, other times, there's not.
In addition, it's obvious the author knew what she meant, what she saw in her head, but the way she described it didn't translate. For instance, Tea walks into a room where ducks (NOT geese) are wandering around (because why not?) and she trips over one and it bites her. If you've ever walked into a duck, and I think not many of us have, you probably expect it to attack your front, like maybe your shin, possibly your knee. Ducks are pretty short so they'd have to fly up to bite anything else. And while the instance is not described in detail, the scene ends with Tea leaving the room holding her butt, implying the duck bit her in the ass. I believe Tea is not that short so I'm not sure how the duck got her butt or why it was behind her when it bit her and I am not sure of these things because the scene was not set up in a way that made me think those things. Again, what made sense to the writer often failed to translate into this reader's mind.
So while I liked the overall idea - teen finds she has the power of death-magic and is reviled for it though she still has to be trained ends up being pretty good at her job but others hate her and there are monsters that need to be dealt with - the writing really brought the whole thing down. I blame the publishing company for that nonsense because nearly every mistake could have easily been caught and fixed by decent beta readers and editors.
I loved the concept, here, but, man, the execution was painful.
We've got a girl named Tea. Like the drink. It makes sense when you find out her siblings have names like Lilac and Daisy and Fox so, sure, Tea. Only it's not pronounced "Tee," it's pronounced "Tey-uh," which you find out on page 272 after you've been mentally pronouncing it like the drink for most of the story.
Anyhow, this girl named Tea, she accidentally raises her brother from the dead (not a spoiler, it's stated on the cover and the back, as well) and finds out she's a dark asha (witch) who can't use elemental runes but can wield dark magic and her heartsglass is silver.
At first, I was reminded of Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky series in that this is a non-Anglocentric fantasy that focuses on a variety of cultures, their beliefs, and their practices. And like Bear, this author uses words in a wonky way but unlike Bear's writing, it doesn't work. Words are misused or unnecessarily repeated, malapropisms abound, and dialogue is stilted and off-kilter. It's not an affectation of a word-loving writer, it's lack of decent editing. Seriously, who edited this? I need to talk to that team because some of these problems are glaring and ridiculous and should never have gone to print.
So we're in this world and necromancer Tea is a normal teen, crushing on a cute prince who, for some reason, is quite interested in her, as well. Her dead brother is her familiar and she has to do blood magic on him to keep him fresh. She goes to fancy Asha school where she learns all sorts of things like dancing, singing, instrument-playing, world history, combat, magic-wielding, and party etiquette. She's powerful and special so she rises from kitchen drudge to novice to asha (geisha) pretty quickly. She gets to wear beautiful and intricate huas (robe-like dresses that I think are supposed to be similar to kimonos?) and magical combs and pins in her hair. She makes enemies, respawning daeva have to be put down and their bezoars removed, the Faceless are out to get everyone, there's a lot of stuff about everybody's heartsglasses, and hijinks ensue. And this is all told to a wandering bard as Tea, who has already lived all this stuff and has since been banished, plans her revenge.
If you feel there are gaps in that description, if you're thinking, "I don't know what that means," then welcome to the club. This is a book that throws down all the things and you've got to piece them together yourself. The world-building is mostly up to the reader. You're given the words but you have to figure out how they make a picture. Sometimes there's context, other times, there's not.
In addition, it's obvious the author knew what she meant, what she saw in her head, but the way she described it didn't translate. For instance, Tea walks into a room where ducks (NOT geese) are wandering around (because why not?) and she trips over one and it bites her. If you've ever walked into a duck, and I think not many of us have, you probably expect it to attack your front, like maybe your shin, possibly your knee. Ducks are pretty short so they'd have to fly up to bite anything else. And while the instance is not described in detail, the scene ends with Tea leaving the room holding her butt, implying the duck bit her in the ass. I believe Tea is not that short so I'm not sure how the duck got her butt or why it was behind her when it bit her and I am not sure of these things because the scene was not set up in a way that made me think those things. Again, what made sense to the writer often failed to translate into this reader's mind.
So while I liked the overall idea - teen finds she has the power of death-magic and is reviled for it though she still has to be trained ends up being pretty good at her job but others hate her and there are monsters that need to be dealt with - the writing really brought the whole thing down. I blame the publishing company for that nonsense because nearly every mistake could have easily been caught and fixed by decent beta readers and editors.