i read the bone witch and knew before i even finished it that i was going to love the rest of the series. i hadn't, however, predicted how much it was going to crush me when it ended. this is me trying to convince you to read the bone witch trilogy anyway. i still haven't been able to collect my thoughts to talk about the other books that have really made an impact on me this year (patron saints of nothing by randy ribay and a very large expanse of sea by tahereh mafi), but i thought it'd be especially egregious if i didn't sit down and try to put some thoughts together about the bone witch trilogy. this year, i've been struggling with fantasy, mostly YA fantasy and all the books that the bookish community tends to hype up (books by sarah j. maas, cassandra clare, holly black, etc.). i was beginning to believe that i was never going to enjoy YA fantasy again, because of annoying romance arcs, repetitive worlds, redundant tropes, and more. but, oh boy, did rin chupeco change the game for me.
overview the bone witch trilogy follows tea pahlavi after she discovers she has the power to raise the dead and wield dark magic. over the course of three books, we witness as tea learns more about her powers, gets involved with magical politics, and tries to save everyone so that they can live happily and healthily. but it turns out there's a large price to pay to save everyone, and that it will take a lot to get there. i loved every moment of all three of the books. there was, in fact, so much that i loved that i don't believe i'll be able to sum it up all in one blog posts. the three facets that particularly stood out to be about these books is the characterization, the world-building, and finally the plot and writing. i'm going to do my best not to compare these books to any other unless necessary. characterization the bone witch trilogy features a rich cast of characters whom you get to meet and learn about in very intimate and detailed settings. it is one thing to tell the reader about a character by describing their background, their character, and their interests. it is another to do what rin chupeco did and introduce each character through their purpose, their mannerisms, and how they contribute to the overall story. the main characters featured throughout the series each get incredible growth and arcs, some independent of tea's story and some connected with tea's story. even more spectacularly, we meet dozens of minor characters, but they are given rich personalities and backgrounds that each character feels important and necessary. i will address this more in the world-building, but the people of different nations, professions, and backgrounds and they have been so clearly shaped by these factors that every character feels incredibly real. this created an unreal connection between me as a reader and the characters. the characters felt immensely real, and their relationships important and compelling. maybe i was in an emotionally vulnerable state going into this book, but i felt invested in each character, their growth, and their relationships. i was particularly affected by the marvellous relationship between tea and her brother, fox. in a lot of YA fantasy stories, our the-chosen-one hero is usually flung into a whole new world and told to save everyone all on their own. but as tea embarked on her journey, she was never alone, and she could always lean a little on her brother, which i thought was absolutely phenomenal. it did wonders for tea as a character and as a hero, and set up the story to be one that was interesting from the start. another huge effect that this characterization had was the creation of great relationships that i am still thinking about days after finishing the trilogy. this is going to remain spoiler-free, but there are four relationships, two of which are queer, that i really could not get enough of. there is a relationship that is particularly heart-wrenching, because the reader is told in the first book that one of the pair will die. but even with that preparation, and knowing that that death isn't final, their death was still one of the hardest things i've ever had to read. if you keep your eye out on my youtube channel, i will be uploading a vlog soon enough where... i cry. a lot. over this death. woof. world-building prior to the bone witch trilogy, i didn't really enjoy fantasy outside of urban fantasy (which is fantasy that takes place in the world we know but has fantastical elements, such as the percy jackson series by rick riordan or the gilded wolves by roshani chokshi). world-building is usually a miss for me for high fantasy worlds, so i was actually a little reluctant going into the bone witch. but rin chupeco flexed her incredibly large galaxy brain when creating this world that consists of seven nations, all of which are believable and introduced to the reader slowly so as it's all rather easy to digest. i think a really great example of the world-building and characterization coming together is shown in the yadoshans, who are probably the weirdest people you'll meet on your the bone witch adventure (in my humble opinion). they are known by people from other nations to act a certain way, which is slightly prefaced, but it is then shown throughout interactions tea and her team has with the yadoshans. even the way they talk is distinctive enough from the other nations for the reader, after a time, to be able to also roll their eyes and grown, "yadoshans." this is just one example of course; there are six other nations and plenty of villages and towns within those nations with distinct personality and the fact that rin chupeco seriously had a big enough brain to craft all of them so uniquely is awesome to me. the final piece of world-building that i really cannot rave enough about is the magic system. i'm not going to lie, i'm definitely one of those people who struggles with magic systems that aren't explained. the gilded wolves is an example of a book that outright explains how the magic system works, whereas a darker shade of magic by v.e. schwab (please correct me if i'm wrong, it's been a hot minute since i read this) shows you rather than tells you. i'm a simple girl: i like to be told. the first book is heavy with the world-building as tea is introduced on how to use and control her powers in order to become an asha (witch). it made it easier in later books when more complicated magic was brought about to understand how certain runes worked and came into play in important situations. i think this shows a lot of thought and care on the part of the author when it comes to guiding a reader and thought it was particularly effective here. i have more feelings, particularly about the seven daeva and the creation story, but this post is already getting a little too long and i'm hoping you haven't nope'd off yet, so let's move on. plot & writing alright. three books published over three (almost four) years. as with most YA fantasy series, i hadn't really expected there to be much continuity between books, outside of characters, the type of adventures they were going to go on, and of course romance. however, with the bone witch trilogy, what really stood out to me from the start of the second book was that all three books were deeply interconnected and told one huge epic story rather than three separate adventures of tea and friends. again, i really cannot sing the praises of one miss rin chupeco enough for the planning of these books because i was astounded at how wonderfully these books were woven together. while the dual timelines and major cliffhanger at the end of the first book hinted at a continuation of the story (literally just picking up where it had last left off), i hadn't expected for the second book to have so many aspects heavily based on the foundation set by the first book. there were so many things revolving around the politics, the growth of tea as an asha, and people to save that were first mentioned or hinted at in the first book that were planted in your mind then only to bloom in the second book (is my unnecessarily flower-y way of describing it, pun absolutely intended). again, i'm trying to keep this spoiler-free, but i really appreciated that new issues didn't really arise, and instead things that weren't previously issues became issues in the second book. i loved that? simply put. and i really cannot shut up about how every single action, every single lesson, and every single word spoken had a lot of weight to it without us as readers knowing it at first. only at the culmination at the end do we learn of the outcomes of all that tea has been through so far, and how every interaction was important in building up to the end. it's really hard to make a dual timeline work, in my opinion, but the parallel storylines converged perfectly and so satisfyingly that i think i have to go back and see where all the seeds were sown for the ending. there is nothing that you learn throughout this book that isn't important for the ending as the world snowballs into chaos at tea's feet. this was particularly powerful and really made an impact on me as a reader. summary essentially, i'm not sure that there was anything in this trilogy that i didn't like. i don't remember being this heavily emotionally invested in a series since i was a moody little teen reading the heroes of olympus. even if you're not a fan of YA or fantasy, i really recommend it for an incredible and fantastic story. as always, thank you so much for reading if you've made it this far. feel free to reach out to me on twitter or on instagram if you want to chat about the bone witch by rin chupeco or other bookish things!! stay tuned to see me cry about this trilogy and more great wikathon reads.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
hi, i'm mari, and i'm a STEM grad student, i watch baseball, and i read... a lot of books. i hope you learn some-thing new while you're here!
|