Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Bone Witch

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

kiiieran's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

A refreshing new take on the structure of a magical society and the tribulations that come with the access to death magic.

Content Warnings

onthesamepage's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What I liked:

Tea is a fun main character to follow, which is good because it's all from her perspective.
I loved Tea's relationship with her brother, it was one of the highlights for me. The way they teased each other was really cute, and I liked how protective he was of her.
Parts of the worldbuilding, like the heartsglass and daeva's, were really interesting.
The dual timelines really built up tension. I rarely enjoy that narrative structure, but it worked out well here.
The writing flows nicely—descriptive enough, but not flowery.

What I liked less:

It's pretty obvious that the author used real world cultures and religions as basis for this fantasy world, and I wish it had been handled better. One of the cultures is clearly based on Muslims, with women wearing veils that cover their hair and sometimes their faces. There is one character from this Muslim-coded culture who plays a role in the story. She acts aloof and holier-than-thou, so I guess when it comes to representation, I wasn't thrilled with it.
There's a lot of blending of different cultures as well. Doesn't have to be a bad thing, unless it's noticeable, and it was to me.

Content Warnings

sullensunshine's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

For me personally, this was a little hard to get into. There’s a lot of world building and fantasy-like build up/descriptions in order to understand the culture and picture of our world setting. While I understand the need of this,,,it was SO hard to find interesting in the beginning. I found myself getting confused more often then not with certain terminology that wasn’t explained and it would take me out of the setting.

That being said…once it picks up it picks UP. Rin Chupeco does this really neat thing where she alternatives between future scenes and the current perspective of out main character. By the time I finished, I was completely enveloped into the story and ready to read the sequel.

The characters are incredibly diverse (genders, race, even a possible subtle message/context of a gender fluid character and plus size characters). The romance is mentioned but not focused on completely if that’s not your thing and the action scenes are pretty thrilling.

Content Warnings

kathrynleereads's review

Go to review page

challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco begins the story of Tea, a young girl who is brought to the city of Ankyo to be trained as an asha after accidentally bringing her brother back from the dead.

In my mind, this book can be split into two very distinct parts, the first being the majority of the book, and the second being the last 100 pages.

For most of the book, the pace is slow, the plot basically nonexistent, and the character development mild.

The last 100 pages, however, tell a whole different story. All of a sudden the pace turns nearly frantic, and the characters are challenged in new and difficult ways.

Tea- While reading, I constantly forgot that Tea is only 14 years old. She has the air of a much older and more experienced person, which I believe is one of the reasons that she is so powerful and (potentially) dangerous.

Fox- I’m not sure why, but I never completely trusted Fox. He obviously loves Tea very much and is there to protect her, but the whole time I was reading, there was some part of me that felt as if he’s got the potential to derail things for Tea.

Lady Mykaela- Despite having to deal with the daeva on her own for the most part, and without the presence of her heartsglass, Lady Mykaela is such a calming and positive presence. I do wish that she fought back against the kingdoms using her basically as a tool though.

Zoya-

Right from the start, I felt as if Tea’s relationship with Zoya was going to be that of enemies-to-friends, and I’m so glad that (as of now) I seem to be correct.

Likh- I wish Likh had been a little more present in this book. I love his character and the debate that his presence brings up about tradition.

Polaire & Althy- I love these two. They’re so different but also so genuine. Despite everything, they love Mykaela and Tea and do everything in their power to keep them both safe.

Flash-Forwards & the Bard- The presence of the Bard in the flash-forwards was ingenious in so many ways.

Having Tea explain things to the Bard was a seamless way to foreshadow, and to fill readers in on things they may have overlooked, but I think the Bard’s reactions to Tea’s stories are so much more valuable.

Fictional worlds are sometimes hard for readers to grasp because even with different customs and traditions explained through world-building, it is not always easy to gauge the level of difference between that world and our own.

Seeing how the Bard, who only knows the world of the Eight Kingdoms, reacts and responds to the information he is learning from Tea gives readers insight into the mindset of the people there.

Putting aside the Bard and the added world-building element that they provided, I enjoyed the presence of the flash-forwards because of the intrigue they created.

Obviously, there are some slight spoilers released through the flash-forwards, but they are so far-fetched from the current direction of the story that it only builds the suspense more.

World-building- In my opinion, world-building is what makes or breaks a book. I love seeing fictional worlds brought to life and reading about all the cultures and traditions that exist in each one.

I’ve never read a book about which I could say there was too much world-building.

Until now.

The Bone Witch has an amazing world that I loved learning about, but I think the reason it dragged so much for so long was because of the over-abundance of world-building.

There was so much information thrown at the reader so quickly that I got lost in the details numerous times.

It took me most of the book to determine that there is just one of each deava, and I’m still trying to sort out the major differences between the eight kingdoms (the guide at the end of the book would have been very helpful had I discovered it before finishing the book).

This book taught me that it is not world-building alone that makes or breaks a book, but world-building that is well-paced.

Despite this, and even though the book did drag for a majority of the story, I do think The Bone Witch is worth reading.

Rin Chupeco has built an intricate and beautiful world and has set the story up for great second and third books.

I can’t wait to find out what’s in store for Tea in the rest of the trilogy!

Content Warnings

dark_lyn's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

This was like Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Witcher. All centered around a powerful young heroine with much to learn and overcome. It felt really original, the world and magic system were very detailed and interesting.

I found it particularly hard to follow all of the character and place names, but I managed to muddle through. There are several maps, which looked pretty cool, and would probably be helpful. Sadly I found them tricky to read on my ereader or phone, and I'm not great with maps to begin with.

Content Warnings

directorpurry's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.75

Content Warnings

tifftastic87's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I appreciated the rich culture and world that Chupeco created in this story. It was pretty confusing at first but I did like that it unfurled as the story did. It may have been clearer in physical form and I think I will pick up the books for the rest of the story.

Tea is a necromancy witch in a world where witches are known. Female witches are trained to use their rune magic to both protect and entertain the wealthy and high class. In their training to entertain they are very highly educated in history, dance, musical instruments and song, as well as fighting. Male witches join the military ranks as Death Seekers. Tea discovers her ability as a Dark Asha by accidentally raising her brother, a fallen death seeker when she is only 12. From here the story follows Tea as she is trained in her craft, but the training doesn't come easy and Dark Asha's are more feared and ridiculed than respected.

The story itself was a little slow, but is told in two timelines. When the reveal of why happens the story starts to pick up. As with most YA stories, Tea is incredibly strong and special. But it didn't feel as Mary Sue as it could have. We see her struggle with many things and we see her fail and we see her punished. I did enjoy the aspect of her making mistakes and learning from them, we aren't told she is smart but we see that she is smart. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't make stupid young teen mistakes. Which I greatly appreciated.

The building of the world and weaving of cultures honestly gives it extra points for me.

Content Warnings

bookwyrmknits's review

Go to review page

slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I did not like this book, overall. There are some elements I liked: I like the framing device, where Tea is telling this story to a bard. I liked the way the asha pick clothing based on who they are and what matters to them. I like the way magic is woven into the dances they do. But those things do not make a book. There was not enough plot, not enough character development, not enough motivation for this to work for me. Also, the lack of any sense of time in the middle of the book drove me crazy: there's a big difference between a twelve-year-old (as Tea is when she arrives) and a fifteen-year-old (as she is at the end of the book) but I don't know when she grew up in the middle there, so some of those scenes were really uncomfortable or unrealistic for me.

Content Warnings