Backlist 3: The Bone Witch

I am still doing the Backlist Reader Challenge

Sorry about the bad lighting, I am still trying to show off my still alive Pandanus plant, it has already been 2 months and still green and vibrant. Here is a better looking cover.

The Bone Witch
Author: Rin Chupeco
Series: The Bone Witch 1
Genre: YA fantasy, coming of age
Buy from: Amazon

Intro to The Bone Witch

If you are new to the Bone Witch series, welcome! Allow me to hopefully make you start looking into this book. First of all, this book is written for grade 7 and up. It has minor violence but mostly it is a story about a girl. Some people might hate the way the story is told, a flip to the past and present, but it does revolve around a girl name Tea. While the story is really slow, like glacial in pace. I am not going to lie, I stay for the world building and I stay because of the change in scenarios.

One is a 17 year old Tea, one is a twelve/ fourteen year old Tea. The difference of a few years has changed her into someone that the world fears, but we can see initially that she is not a bad person. Why 17 year old Tea is a villain, or the anti- hero now?

Characters

Aside from her, another key character in the book is her older brother Fox. He is the catalyst of sorts, without him, the story might have been a lot different. Tea found her powers a lot earlier because of him, we all know why. After the incident, Tea has to be inducted into an Asha house, where her skills can be honed. No one likes her powers, nothing against her, but a lot of people fear her powers. The world is not always in black and white, here we can see that the author is trying to show us that.

Then we have a lot of characters that are crucial in her development from an innocent girl, to a formidable Mother of Demons. The story does also have a love interest, which is a prince. Don’t we all love a good Prince and Cinderella story sometimes? But this Cinderella kicks ass, while the Prince takes a back seat in this one.

Story

Despite the slow pace, Tea is actually doing something, just not on screen/ book. After she got into House of Valerian, to gain skills as a Dark Asha, we learn a lot of things. First of all, there are eight Kingdoms, and they are at a kind of peace, because something bigger is threatening them. The only reason they are not killing each other is because demons are eating them, and dark asha like Tea have the power to kill these demons.

Mix this in with a mystery, some background story, and you will have something like Memoir’s of Geisha. The rumour has it, is that The Bone Witch is inspired by that book, so it does make sense to see some similarities when it comes to certain events. But I am here purely because I am curious, and I have accidentally read The Heart Forger before this one.

Verdict

You know that you hate or like the book within the first two chapters, because one is 17 year old Tea, and the other is 12 year old Tea. I think you should give it a go, but don’t force yourself too much. This might be interesting to me, but it is after all a book that is aiming at younger audiences.