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A review by bookphile
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
4.0
2nd read.
I don't know why but it felt like it took me forever and half to finish this for the second time. My opinion hasn't changed, but god what a glacially paced novel.
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The Bone Witch surprised me. I was kind of swayed by the negative reviews into having low expectations, but a lot of people I know rated it well and I wanted to give it a chance. I definitely see why people dislike it and I think I would have too, except I read it when I was mood for this exact kind of book.
The Bone Witch is a slow, mellow paced bildungsroman about a necromancer witch who is discovered when she accidentally brings her brother back from the dead and brought to into training for other witches. The novel is all about her education, her growth from a village girl into a powerful witch. I really liked Tea as protagonist, she's smart, adventurous, kind, and willing to learn. I liked the side characters just as much, especially her brother Fox.
The other thing that really saved Bone Witch for me was the fact that the story is narrated by Tea from the future and we actually get to see where she ended up. And Tea's future is not a bright one, so the reader knows from the start that something will go horribly wrong for Tea to have ended up there. We also see how powerful Tea had become in contrast to her just beginning to learn. It really sets the mood and kept me flipping pages because I wanted to know how she ends up there.
I'm not sure about the setting to be honest, because it seems like a melting pot of cultures. I've recognized elements of Chinese and Japanese cultures specifically, but also there were Russian inspired characters here as well. And side note: the Russian was really terrible in this novel. Most of the words were in the wrong form, misgendered, or not correctly pluralized. There's literally no excuse because this novel seems really well researched otherwise, and not to double check the foreign languages is just really lazy.
Overall, this is a solid 4 star read for me. I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't perfect. If you're not in the mood for slow paced mellow action novels, I would recommend skipping this one until you are.
I don't know why but it felt like it took me forever and half to finish this for the second time. My opinion hasn't changed, but god what a glacially paced novel.
----
The Bone Witch surprised me. I was kind of swayed by the negative reviews into having low expectations, but a lot of people I know rated it well and I wanted to give it a chance. I definitely see why people dislike it and I think I would have too, except I read it when I was mood for this exact kind of book.
The Bone Witch is a slow, mellow paced bildungsroman about a necromancer witch who is discovered when she accidentally brings her brother back from the dead and brought to into training for other witches. The novel is all about her education, her growth from a village girl into a powerful witch. I really liked Tea as protagonist, she's smart, adventurous, kind, and willing to learn. I liked the side characters just as much, especially her brother Fox.
The other thing that really saved Bone Witch for me was the fact that the story is narrated by Tea from the future and we actually get to see where she ended up. And Tea's future is not a bright one, so the reader knows from the start that something will go horribly wrong for Tea to have ended up there. We also see how powerful Tea had become in contrast to her just beginning to learn. It really sets the mood and kept me flipping pages because I wanted to know how she ends up there.
I'm not sure about the setting to be honest, because it seems like a melting pot of cultures. I've recognized elements of Chinese and Japanese cultures specifically, but also there were Russian inspired characters here as well. And side note: the Russian was really terrible in this novel. Most of the words were in the wrong form, misgendered, or not correctly pluralized. There's literally no excuse because this novel seems really well researched otherwise, and not to double check the foreign languages is just really lazy.
Overall, this is a solid 4 star read for me. I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't perfect. If you're not in the mood for slow paced mellow action novels, I would recommend skipping this one until you are.