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srm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Well written with an interesting premise and worldbuilding that I don't want to say too much about, because it was great to discover as I read. Although, I'm seriously worried by ship is dead in the water, darn it. But maybe not. As twisty as this is, it could still happen. *fingers crossed*
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Confinement, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty
thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this! I will say it feels like a first book. I can tell that Stewart has some big ideas for the story, and a lot of this book's time is spent trying to hurriedly get piece into place. As a result, the pacing is a little off, and some of the relationship dynamics between characters feel rushed; however, Stewarts writing is super engaging, the world/magic is cool and unique, and the story is playing with some of my favorite tropes. I think there's room for this series to be something really special, and I'm looking forward to continuing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Child death, War, Kidnapping, and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Body horror
I'm not sure how to label it (I went ahead and tagged gore and body horror, but that's not exactly it), but the magic system here is bone magic so there's a lot of death-adjacent stuff going on with that. I didn't find it to be particularly graphic or icky, but you know...it's bone magic.alexijai98's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Love a story where LGBT characters get to just be part of the world!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, and Gore
Moderate: Xenophobia
booksalacarte's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
The bone shard daughter - 4.25⭐️ 1🌶️
The emperor's reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire's many islands.
Lin is the emperor's daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright - and save her people.
——————
✨My Opinion✨
This was a wonderfully woven beginning to such a unique story. The opening line pulled me right in and the characters strange and compelling stories kept me reading.
The story follows 4 POV’s, each voice completely unique. There was so much world bulding done in a beautiful way. You see the magic through Lin, the emperors daughter trying to earn the magic her father keeps hidden behind locked doors, and Jovis, a smuggler who experienced one of the islands sinking into the sea and his companion pet Mochi.
The tone of the empire is flushed out through Phalue, a governor's daughter who is trying to balance duty and her relationship with the woman she loves. And the empires dark secrets are given a backgrand with Sandu, a woman on an island with no faint memories of her life coming to light.
The characters get caught up in the different themes: morality, humanty, classism, grief, power, identity, complicated relationships, Love, trust, treason.
My biggest draw to the story is the relationship between Jovis and Mochi. So much is unknown, even to them, what is going on. I can’t wait to see it play out. Jovis’ POV Definitly got me through the heaviest world building.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and War
wombie's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Emotional abuse, Classism, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death
kaziaroo's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
On the whole I loved this – the characters, the magic system, the mystery were all amazing (plus a queer-normative world!). I would have liked it if the setting was more fleshed out, maybe going more into the cultures of the different islands rather than them all feeling the same, but overall the story was immersive enough and the characters lovable enough to look past that. I loved Jovis and Mephi in particular, and I liked Lin too; there's always a difficulty in amnesiac characters as they have such a short background on which to build a personality and identity, but I think the author did an admirable job. I wanted to see more of Bayan, alas... :(
My only real criticism is that I felt the book would have been better without Ranami and Phalue's POV chapters. Their story had an interesting message and moral dilemma but it just didn't seem to fit and their chapters were quite dull to get through compared to the rest of the book. As a novella on their own, those chapters would have been fine, but I found myself skim-reading them to get back to Jovis, Lin and even Sand. Maybe more will come of Ranami and Phalue in the sequel, but I just couldn't get behind their relationship or find the point of their storyline or its impact of the overall plot.
My only real criticism is that I felt the book would have been better without Ranami and Phalue's POV chapters. Their story had an interesting message and moral dilemma but it just didn't seem to fit and their chapters were quite dull to get through compared to the rest of the book. As a novella on their own, those chapters would have been fine, but I found myself skim-reading them to get back to Jovis, Lin and even Sand. Maybe more will come of Ranami and Phalue in the sequel, but I just couldn't get behind their relationship or find the point of their storyline or its impact of the overall plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Trafficking, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Body horror, and Medical content
Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Mental illness
Minor: War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There's a pretty large cast of narrators, listening via audiobook helped enormously with keeping track of them since there are three audiobook narrators to handle all the perspectives. Those performances are great, making helping keep the characters distinct even when the same performed voiced multiple characters.
The plot has several threads, following each of the main characters. The blurb implies that Lin is the only main character, but Jovis plays an enormous role (meeting all but one of the other main characters at various points), and the romance between Phalue and Ranami felt complex and real. Lin is the daughter of the emperor, trying to get her father's approval by getting back memories she lost in a sickness several years ago. Jovis is a smuggler who is trying to find his wife who was kidnapped five years ago. He ends up rescuing children from having their shards taken. Phalue is the daughter of a governor on one of the islands, and Ranami is her girlfriend who keeps turning down Phalue's marriage proposals because Phalue doesn't seem to understand the enormity of her privilege in comparison to everyone on the island. There's a woman called Sand who is trying to escape her current situation, I don't want to spoil anything about her but she seems set up to do much more in the sequel.
Lin has spent years trying to get her father's approval, and is frustrated by his ableist insistence that she's not whole unless she can get back the memories she lost. Desperate to get him to pay attention to her as she is and not as she was, Lin starts copying his keys to get access to rooms that might hold knowledge of the magic he should be teaching her. She's in competition with her foster brother Bayan since he regained more of his memories and seems to continually be one step ahead of her in getting the emperor's attention.
The relationship between Phalue and Ranami briefly dips into some toxic territory as Phalue doesn't seem to understand or know how to take seriously Ranami's concerns. It definitely helps that both of them are narrators, so their perspectives are shown directly at various points.
Jovis ends up with an animal companion after he saves it from the water during a disaster early one. Mephi is pretty cool and not annoying, which is a relief because sometimes I end up detesting animal sidekicks.
The magic system is based on using bone taken from the empire's citizens as children. The shards can be used to power constructs, and once in use they slowly drain the life force of their original owner. The emperor uses an elaborate array of constructs to do all the imperial bureaucracy which could be done by people, but he doesn't trust anyone else to do it right. This setup means that the way the lower classes are exploited is more than just cruelty and resource hoarding by the rich, but that their very lives can be taken, slowly, by an emperor they'll never see, if he happens to pick their shard from a drawer and use it to fuel a construct. I love the way the magic system is inseparable from the political structure and brewing uprising.
The plot has several threads, following each of the main characters. The blurb implies that Lin is the only main character, but Jovis plays an enormous role (meeting all but one of the other main characters at various points), and the romance between Phalue and Ranami felt complex and real. Lin is the daughter of the emperor, trying to get her father's approval by getting back memories she lost in a sickness several years ago. Jovis is a smuggler who is trying to find his wife who was kidnapped five years ago. He ends up rescuing children from having their shards taken. Phalue is the daughter of a governor on one of the islands, and Ranami is her girlfriend who keeps turning down Phalue's marriage proposals because Phalue doesn't seem to understand the enormity of her privilege in comparison to everyone on the island. There's a woman called Sand who is trying to escape her current situation, I don't want to spoil anything about her but she seems set up to do much more in the sequel.
Lin has spent years trying to get her father's approval, and is frustrated by his ableist insistence that she's not whole unless she can get back the memories she lost. Desperate to get him to pay attention to her as she is and not as she was, Lin starts copying his keys to get access to rooms that might hold knowledge of the magic he should be teaching her. She's in competition with her foster brother Bayan since he regained more of his memories and seems to continually be one step ahead of her in getting the emperor's attention.
The relationship between Phalue and Ranami briefly dips into some toxic territory as Phalue doesn't seem to understand or know how to take seriously Ranami's concerns. It definitely helps that both of them are narrators, so their perspectives are shown directly at various points.
Jovis ends up with an animal companion after he saves it from the water during a disaster early one. Mephi is pretty cool and not annoying, which is a relief because sometimes I end up detesting animal sidekicks.
The magic system is based on using bone taken from the empire's citizens as children. The shards can be used to power constructs, and once in use they slowly drain the life force of their original owner. The emperor uses an elaborate array of constructs to do all the imperial bureaucracy which could be done by people, but he doesn't trust anyone else to do it right. This setup means that the way the lower classes are exploited is more than just cruelty and resource hoarding by the rich, but that their very lives can be taken, slowly, by an emperor they'll never see, if he happens to pick their shard from a drawer and use it to fuel a construct. I love the way the magic system is inseparable from the political structure and brewing uprising.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Grief, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, Child death, and Death
Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Confinement, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, War, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Death of parent, Drug use, and Vomit
maelikesbooks's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Solid good time
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Grief, Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Animal death and Body horror
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
A very fun fantasy read! It reminded me a lot of reading Black Sun. All of the characters were great, especially Mephi! The island world was great, and Lin dealing with her dad’s boneshard magic and experiments was compelling. I did kind of wish the three characters who were barely featured had more POV chapters, because I kept forgetting about them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Violence, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Kidnapping, Death, Confinement, Torture, Grief, Child death, and Body horror
Memory loss, earthquake, natural disasternoellelovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings: Grief, loss, body horror, nightmares, murder, abuse, and mention of sexual assault.
The final prompt for the “Read Your Own Adventure” Tiktok readathon was to read a book that intimidated you…so I chose this one. There’s no real reason this book intimidates me but as it’s been on my shelf a bit and it is on the thick side…I figured it fit the parameters and dove in.
Having first heard about this book last year on Booktok I’ve been excited to read it for a while…especially since, although I’ve heard praise, I’ve never heard any specific details about the story so I had no idea what I was jumping into. I, luckily, follow fantastic Tiktok creators who are good about giving spoiler-free reviews or who warn before diving into any spoiler-like content. When someone gives away the entire story before you’ve had a chance to read it…it takes the joy out of discovering a book’s secrets on your own.
Like many of my favorite fantasies, we follow multiple [5 altogether] people around who seem to have no direct connection…and as the story unfolds further we see how close everything in fact is connected. The primary narrative is that of Lin, the Emperor’s daughter, as she attempts to prove to her father that she should be chosen to take the throne after him.
As we follow Lin we get to know more about the fascinating and complex system that is bone shard magic. We don’t get much in the way of world lore, though there are hints and little details, so I’m hoping we get more in book two to better understand how, and why, bone-shard magic exists.
Overall I really enjoyed the story and look forward to picking up book two to see what more we learn about bone-shard magic and the world it affects. If you’re looking for a fantasy novel with equal parts magic and mystery I recommend giving this book a look.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Grief, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Sexual assault