THE BONE WITCH
by Rin Chupeco
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pub Date: Mar 7, 2017
Publisher: Sourcefire Books
Length: 432 pages
Spoilers: N/A
Goodreads ♦ Amazon($7.99)
I received this free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there’s anything I’ve learned from him in the years since, it’s that the dead hide truths as well as the living.
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.
You’ve been Chopped!
This story started in a bad place. I get why it started where it did, but nothing happens for the first 50% of the book. Everything that happened in the first half of the book could have been summed up in a few paragraphs, which would have left the rest of the book for actual plotting and action and… something. Anything!
More Textbook than Story
I love world-building. I find it intricate and fascinating and huge part of the story and plot, but there is such a thing as too much world building. That is when there is more world-building offered than actual action or plot, which is exactly what happened in this story. Sadly, there was so much information about this world and so little context offered that I retained next to nothing. Thus, even the extravagant world-building fell flat.
Who was the MC again?
It’s quite a shame, but Tea was not memorable. I learned more and felt more about the other characters than I ever cared about her. She was flat. She was boring. She didn’t care about anything or take any actions. She simply… let the world move her around. Frankly, she didn’t have a personality and I don’t care about 2D characters with no personality. What’s worse is that her deceased, risen-from-the-dead brother has more personality than she does.
That Ending Though
I decided to read this all the way through (because I don’t DNF). When it started to pick up after the half-way mark, I thought maybe it would have a redeeming ending. Maybe something amazing would happen. Maybe the ending would be able to make up for the garbage first half of the book aaaaand… no. -.- Nope. The ending simply fell into the world of the cliche, the ‘what the hell is going on,’ and the ‘well, I saw that coming twelve chapters ago.’
Melanie Noell Bernard 
Oh I’ve seen some mixed reviews on this book! Some say yes, some say no! I’m so confused that I have to read it now!! 😂
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Hahahahaha! I mean, I’m extra critical (as you well know), but I think it depends on what you’re looking for from this book. I wanted plot and I got world-building.
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Melanie! You speak my mind! Haha I thought EXACTLY the same, her brother is so much more intriguing than her 😂 The first half of the book, I was joping for AT LEAST a romance between Tea and the Prince… or anything, but as you said, nothing really happened. The extra shifts to the present did give her any depth though I felt they should have provided that.
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My biggest problem with the first half of the book was that is was all background information: her learning to be an Asha and blah, blah, blah, but that isn’t the story. Her training wasn’t the story (because nothing interesting happened during that period of time). Her story was being a Bone Witch and being shunned by people, which was never given appropriate emphasis to actually manifest into a plot.
And I honestly was expecting some romance to be happening in the story, as well, given the emphasis that seemed to be placed on it during the little pre-chapter snippets.
The shifts to the present were just worthless. She had even less personality in those sections than she did in the past. eye roll
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Will be interesting to see if other readers think the same thing!
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So far they don’t.
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