Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Medium: Print, paperback
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Blurb: When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha―one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice.
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(Note: I will be mentioning the Captain America movies in this review to accurately describe how I felt about the book. Captain America: The First Avenger is great for worldbuilding and letting someone get to know the character. I appreciate that but I didn’t care for it. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best Captain America movie, in my opinion, simply because it draws on more emotions than the first did and depicted Steve Rogers trying to find a balance between what he knows from the past and what he knows now. Captain America: Civil War was sub-par but was good for showing both sides of the story. In that movie, [although I’m on Team Cap] I can switch sides because I see why it’s wrong on different levels. Now, having explained that, on with the review!)
First of all, the cover of the book is gorgeous. Initially, this is what attracted me to the book: the deep shades of purple as well as the pale gold details surrounding the title and author. As a person who loves book covers and sometimes does judge a book by its cover, I was really appreciative of how the cover was designed.
Let’s start off with the pros of the book:
- The lore: the lore surrounding the bone witch–and the other witches in general–is gorgeous. Clearly inspired by multiple Asian cultures, I loved the description of the hua that the witches wore. It was tailored especially for them, and it was taboo to steal another’s hua. Here’s a quote from the book describing the garment: “A hua collection is as personal and as distinctive as a face or a voice. We can identify a particular asha (another name for “witch”) simply by looking at her dress, for no one would think of wearing the same hua. To put on someone else’s would be an invasion of privacy, like stealing into her house or secretly assuming her identity.”
- The formatting: This book is written slightly different from others that I’ve seen, and that’s what makes it more unique. Though confusing to explain, each chapter ends and begins with Tea talking about herself in the past, consistently providing context to what is going on in the next chapter. In those breaks, she is talking to a bard/storyteller about what she learned after raising her brother from the dead and how she got to where she currently resided in the book.
- The character development: Even though it’s really slow, there is development for Tea in the book. Tea starts off naive and questioning–an eager student. As time goes on, she learns not to ask questions (but doesn’t lose her curious nature) and becomes more observant of her surroundings.
Now, for the cons:
- The pacing: this book is really slow. Like, really slow. I appreciate the author building a world that is so culturally rich and different, but the constant description of customs get in the way of what’s actually going on. The pacing of this book actually hindered my reading progress, because it was so slow and so time-consuming to read that I didn’t want to continue. Because of this reasoning, I consider this book the Captain America: The First Avenger.
- The action: There is very little action. If there is, it’s small actions that lead on to the bigger picture. The most action in the book–besides Tea raising her brother from the dead–was an event that caused Tea to actually move up on the ladder about a third of the way into the book. Because of the lack of action, I only got halfway through before quitting the book. I feel as if there will be action nearer to the end, but there wasn’t enough for me to keep me interested.
Though the pros outweigh the cons, the cons are the reason that I ended up not finishing the book. While I appreciate worldbuilding, I wanted less of that and more of the action that was promised. I didn’t even get to the romantic bits of the book because I couldn’t read anymore without constantly getting distracted by outside factors. Rather than forcing myself to finish the book for fear of resenting it, I simply did not finish.
That isn’t to say that I won’t come back to the book! Maybe when I have more patience I will come back to it, but now isn’t the time and today isn’t the day.
*Sorry for the late upload. Expect Children of Blood and Bone next week and Emergency Contact after that!
**I am still in the process of figuring out a review format that works for me and makes it easier for the audience. Let me know if you’re a fan of these longer reviews or of shorter ones!
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