*I received a free copy of The Bone Witch from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
The Bone Witch Series: The Bone Witch #1 on 7 March 2017
Pages: 411
The beast raged; it punctured the air with its spite. But the girl was fiercer.
Tea is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy makes her a bone witch, who are feared and ostracized in the kingdom. For theirs is a powerful, elemental magic that can reach beyond the boundaries of the living—and of the human.
Great power comes at a price, forcing Tea to leave her homeland to train under the guidance of an older, wiser bone witch. There, Tea puts all of her energy into becoming an asha, learning to control her elemental magic and those beasts who will submit by no other force. And Tea must be strong—stronger than she even believes possible. Because war is brewing in the eight kingdoms, war that will threaten the sovereignty of her homeland…and threaten the very survival of those she loves.
The Bone Witch had a very slow pace, and felt more like a prequel disguised as a novel than an actual novel. It’s like its whole purpose was to set up the next book in the series.
Story:
There are dragons. There are necromancers. There are monsters, and monarchs. The Bone Witch had a lot of potential, but didn’t completely live up to it in my opinion. The switching between the present and the past could have been smoother, for example, because both gave me some very good insights to what might be going on.
In a world where there are different kinds of witches, there is, of course a hierarchy among them. And Tea is kind of both at the bottom and the top of the social ladder. In some countries, she is feared, while in others, she’s revered. However, she’s not one to follow the rules, and this makes her life rather difficult.
As she gets educated on her powers and her place in society, there are many strange things happening. Among them, some of the dragons that were supposedly only waking once every year now are forcibly woken more often. Not only is Tea seen as dangerous, now it seems she has a connection to one of these dragons.
There is quite a bit of action and excitement, and of course, there is betrayal, too.
Characters:
Tea is a bone witch, which makes her feared by most of her peers. When her beloved brother died, she somehow brought him back to life, and now he’s her servant.
Tea has a visitor in the present time, and she shares her stories with him – but only what she wants him to know and see.
Fox, Tea’s undead brother is extremely loyal, and like a soldier.
The Prince… who has noticed Tea, and seems to be working to make life better for all his subjects.
Writing style :
Most of The Bone Witch is written in first person point of view, present tense from Tea’s perspective, but there are passages from the past including the oracle, and some passages from the present that are in third person point of view, and told from Tea’s visitor’s perspective. The pace is very slow, and I think I might have enjoyed myself more if there had been a little less telling and a bit more showing.
Feels :
I’m not sure exactly, I found many aspects of The Bone Witch interesting, but I wasn’t fully invested in the story, or in Tea.
Some of my favorite guests came from humble beginnings. Some of my worst guests came from the highest of positions. Breeding isn’t what you were born as; breeding is what you grow to be.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: ailynk
you are not the first one who notes that it is slow
I haven’t read any other reviews, maybe I should check some out?
Twitter: Kissinbluekaren
I started reading this and then just stopped around the 87% mark, I am not sure why. I feel like you review is completely accurate in how I felt about this book. I should just finish it so I can mark it off my list. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Great review!
Sorry you weren’t able to finish this one, Karen. I trudged through, and I’m not sorry I did. I still do have hope for the next book in the series, too, there is still a ton of potential here.
Twitter: limabean74
You did better than me. I liked the idea of the story but the pace was just so slow I couldn’t stick with the book. This was a DNF for me and I was so bummed since it looked so good. I love the breakdown in your review! Glad you liked it a little more than me! 🙂 (((hugs)))
I agree, it really did look amazing. Sorry you DNF’ed it, that always sucks.
Fantastic review!❤️ Oh so sorry this didn’t work for you. The story sounds so interesting. Agree with you it has definitely so much potential. ?
Thank you Geybie! I still think I’ll pick up the next book – because potential 😀
Aw too bad you didn’t enjoy it as much compared to my endless love for this book. Seems like the majority of reviews I’ve seen aren’t as possitive about it. Although 3 stars is still good! 😀
I’m really happy you absolutely loved it, Stephanie. I just found it to be too long and slow, but that doesn’t mean I have lost interest in what will happen next 🙂
Twitter: Mlsimmons
You had me with dragons. LOL Great review.
Dragons drew me in, too. And I really hope there will be more about them in the second book!
You did a great job explaining your rating, wifey. This is a book I’ve been intrigued by. It does seem to have a lot of potential with all the supes and the plot. It’s too bad it wasn’t executed better. I still may check out this one but I’ll check it out from the library. 🙂
I hope you’re having a great week! My company will all be gone today with the exception of Sky. She’s feeling better every day. I miss you! {{{hugs & smooches}}}
I was definitely intrigued too, wifey! It just didn’t live up to my expectations.
I hope we’ll have time to catch up soon, I still have tests to grade, and I want to get that done before we leave for Spain on Sunday…
Kind of how I felt. I wanted more from this one and it didn’t deliver. I am still curious if the next book fixes it. I think it can become more interesting and I hope it does. I’ve enjoyed her other books so that is why I am hopeful.
It was my first book by her, Melissa, so I don’t have anything to compare with. I just think that the whole world is so interesting – but I do need more plot to fully enjoy it, I think.
Nice review! I felt that this one was just too slow and had too much backstory. I never felt like we got the actual “bone witch” story.
Exactly! There was so much backstory, and that’s why it kind of felt like a prequel to me.
Do you think you will give book 2 a shot when it comes out? I think I may, just to see if it has more of what we are after, but I may not buy it right away.
Thanks for your review. I fell for the beautiful cover and exciting blurb. Still not sure if I’ll read it.
I think it’s worth the read, Laura, and maybe if you go into it with lower expectations, you’ll even end up enjoying it more than I did.
Sounds like the components are there for a good series. I haven’t read it, but from what you say it does sound like a lot of exposition prepping for the next book. Of course, if book one doesn’t leave you wanting to know more about the characters, there is not much hope for continuing. Unless you have a group who loved the rest of the series encouraging you.