Audiobook Review: 'The Bone Witch' (The Bone Witch #1) by Rin Chupeco, narr. Emily Woo Zeller and Will Damron

I love magic and I have been wanting to be a witch for as long as I can remember. So naturally I am drawn to all the books that combine magic and fantasy, especially if they have an edge of darkness. In comes The Bone Witch, which caught my eye straightaway. It took me some time to get to it, however. Now that I've listened to it, I can't wait to get on to the next installment. 

Original Pub. Date: 3/7/2017
Audible Pub. Date: 3/7/2017
Audible Publisher: Blackstone Audio

In the captivating start to a new, darkly lyrical fantasy series, Tea can raise the dead, but resurrection comes at a price.

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.

The world in The Bone Witch is inspired by the geiko (Geisha) and their apprentices, the maiko, but with an added heavy dose of magic. I loved the slow training process, the chores and drudgery combined with the high society of the tea house, the fine line between hard power and soft manners. For those looking for immediate action and fierce battles, this may feel redundant but it's actually in these scenes that the most character development takes place, which then pays of majorly when the action does come in. There is such a mystery around the Geiko/Geisha that it's own kind of mythology has sprung up about it in the Western imagination. I liked the way Chupeco worked with these different ideas, which grounded some of the more high fantasy aspects of the story. It also once again allowed me to enjoy Fantasy written from a non-Western perspective and because of that The Bone Witch felt fresh to me. I also adore necromancy, although it would terrify me in real life, and seeing a character deal with the moral complexity of that skill was really interesting.

Tea (not pronounced like the drink!) had no idea she had any kind of powers until she raises her brother from the dead. Unwilling to face a world without him, she follows the voice inside her and there he is, resurrected. In comes Lady Mykaela, a dark osha, who recognises Tea's potential and takes her on board as an apprentice. Dark osha, or Bone Witches, are both admired and feared, despised and yet highly necessary, and so Tea enters a confusing world. Much of The Bone Witch is dedicated to her training, which I have seen slowed the book down for many. I enjoyed that extensive focus and the slower place, since I really got to know Tea this way. I do understand that for some readers, however, this dragged. Alongside Tea remains her now undead brother Fox, as well as a friendship with the Prince and a variety of osha. The Bone Witch builds an extensive world and each of these characters is given plenty of space to develop and grow. A slow pace has its benefits! 

As is probably clear from the above, I really enjoyed the world-building of The Bone Witch. Chupeco has such an eye for detail which, even if sometimes it feels superfluous, is nonetheless gripping and evocative. I really felt like I could sink into this world. One of the things I adored was the frame-narrative which starts the novel. In it, a Bard comes to visit Tea, already an asha but now exiled to a Lake of Bones. She tells him her story, or at least part of it, and from there we get our flashes into her youth and training. The push and pull between these two narratives, the present at the Lake and the past full of training, is what motivated me to keep listening for much of the book. This frame-narrative had a downside, however, namely that The Bone Witch sometimes feels like a set-up rather than a novel in and of itself. So many hints are dropped in the frame-narrative of the Bard and Tea which are then never picked up, or rather actively ignored so they can come to play in the sequel. While I appreciate the need to set up a sequel, I don't really like it when a story itself is left unfinished in order to do so.

This is my second time listening to a book narrated by Emily Zoo Weller and I continue to be intrigued by her as a narrator. She puts a lot of feeling into her voice, often a kind of nervous energy which works really well in YA. But she also uses this nervous energy for moments I probably would have read as sass or cool reserve etc. But her reading is so evocative that she does really keep you going. I also enjoyed the way she managed to separate all the different characters and work characterisation into her voice. Will Damron is only heard now and then, as the Bard in the frame-narrative, and he does that job suitably. He brings a kind of cooler distance to the novel at the beginning, which slowly melts into warmth as he gets to know the older Tea better.  

I give this book...

4 Universes! 

While The Bone Witch has some flaws for me, I greatly enjoyed the world and the characters Chupeco created. I want to be an osha as much as I want to be a witch! I will be listening to The Heart Forger next!