"Bone Witch" Review

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars



An interesting premise that was not implemented as well as it could have been. The plot seemed thin and there was no clear end goal or purpose. The narrative meandered and lost itself in its extended flashbacks and occasionally over-zealous narration. I found myself falling out of the story rather than staying in it as there were some odd formatting issues and a decent amount of grammar and spelling issues (ARC). I also don't think some of the metaphors fit for the background of the protagonist. They just didn't seem like something she would say or know.

Some concepts were also left very abstract. After reading I still am not able to explain the concept of a heartglass. Is it made of the emotions you have? Does it take your heart literally out of your chest and transform it? How do you live without your heartglass if it gets lost or shattered? It is tied to your life so someone could break it and you die? Then how can you get another one if you lose one? That part unfortunately didn't make sense to me.

However this novel does have a lot of potential and I'm sure the grammar, formatting and spelling issues will be cleared by the time it reaches publication. I think the idea of bone witches, versus just the usual elemental witches is a unique and creative touch and I definitely enjoyed seeing that explored. Many of the characters were well-conceived and some of the in-the-moment plot points were original and fascinating.

I do think there was too much narration versus action (tell vs. show if you will). I most enjoyed the moments spent in the main character's point of view. I think that that the monsters too were creative and well-written. However, there was a lot of history introduced in large chunks that later was not needed. I think this slowed down the novel and a better integration of only the most core historical facts as needed would greatly improve the reading continuity, which as is is kind of choppy.

Overall there were too many little issues I found with the novel (its implementation not its concept) that I couldn't stay as into it as I really wanted to. While this book didn't resound for me, I look forward to seeing how this author develops artistically as she refines her style.
I received an ARC of this book for free for an honest review.