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eggcatsreads 's review for:
The Bone Roots
by Gabriela Houston
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Angry Robot for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This story is told from mostly two points of view - Vedma Kada, and noblewoman Sladyana. We also occasionally get a point of view from the fox - our main antagonist in this book, as well as Secha, Kada’s daughter. There are a few others sprinkled throughout, but these are the most plot significant.
Kada is the Vedma for the town she lives in, a kind of witch who helps people with their issues - delivering babies, curing ailments, as well as communing with the goddess Zemya - the source of the bone roots which gives the book its name. Her goal is to protect her daughter Secha at all costs - as her daughter will only become fully human, and safe from the goddess claiming her as her own, when she turns sixteen. Until then, she runs the risk of being captured by the fox and given to the goddess Zemya - unless Kada can stop her, even if it means betraying everything she’s worked for.
Sladyana is a noblewoman whose daughter, Luba, went missing 15 years ago - taken by the same fox hunting Secha. She has been searching everywhere for a trace of her daughter, but has also adopted a four year old mute child named Tula. Sladyana is convinced Kada - who is the woman who helped her have a child in the first place years ago - knows something about what happened to her missing daughter. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get her back.
The conflict in this book is between these two mothers trying to do anything they can for their daughters. However, we eventually find that only one of them can have a truly happy ending - and she must bring suffering to the other to achieve it.
Once the plot of this book kicks off, it’s easy to sympathize with both of the mothers and their respective scenarios. We might not agree with everything they do to achieve their goals - but we can understand them. There’s also a twist at the end that I very much didn’t see coming, but it recontextualizes previous scenes in a way I wasn’t expecting. The reveal at the end makes much of the earlier character’s actions (especially Kada’s) make significantly more sense than before, and I thought it was a really clever interpretation, as well as fitting into a common theme in folklore of hidden agendas and betrayals. I was especially not expecting how this book ended itself, with neither mother getting what they wanted or expected to happen by the end.
The biggest issue with this book is the pacing, and how it starts. Each chapter of this book is told from a different character’s perspective, which at the start of the book, with no knowledge of who or what these characters are - is very confusing and off putting. It was kind of hard knowing who was who, or how they fit together, until significantly later in the book.
As well as the fact that the two mother POVs aren’t connected to one another until later in the book, and I wasn’t aware until they met each other that they were happening at the same time, but separated from one another. I couldn’t tell if these POVs were past/present or who was what until this point, which made me miss a lot of the beginning context for the first 20% of this book.
Honestly, I think if you liked the premise given in this book, as well as stories focused on Slavic folklore - just read through the first 20% until it makes sense. Then, you can decide if you want to go back and re-read (or do what I did and just continue on the journey the book takes you.) Once you can piece together the relationships and how everything fits together, this is a very good book and I significantly enjoyed the last 70% and wanted to stay up to finish reading this to see how it resolved itself.
If you like Slavic folklore, I think you’d like this book. Even if you’re not too familiar with Slavic folklore, I don’t think this book will be altogether too confusing for you - as I’m not overly familiar with it and I was able to follow along fairly well. It was a really good read that made you understand the motivations and actions of all the characters, without a true villain in it causing the issues for you to root against. Even with the copious creatures and forms of magic present within the book, the conflicts feel real and grounded in a way I wasn’t expecting - nor was I expecting to be simultaneously rooting for the victory of both of the mothers at the end, regardless of what they had done beforehand.
This story is told from mostly two points of view - Vedma Kada, and noblewoman Sladyana. We also occasionally get a point of view from the fox - our main antagonist in this book, as well as Secha, Kada’s daughter. There are a few others sprinkled throughout, but these are the most plot significant.
Kada is the Vedma for the town she lives in, a kind of witch who helps people with their issues - delivering babies, curing ailments, as well as communing with the goddess Zemya - the source of the bone roots which gives the book its name. Her goal is to protect her daughter Secha at all costs - as her daughter will only become fully human, and safe from the goddess claiming her as her own, when she turns sixteen. Until then, she runs the risk of being captured by the fox and given to the goddess Zemya - unless Kada can stop her, even if it means betraying everything she’s worked for.
Sladyana is a noblewoman whose daughter, Luba, went missing 15 years ago - taken by the same fox hunting Secha. She has been searching everywhere for a trace of her daughter, but has also adopted a four year old mute child named Tula. Sladyana is convinced Kada - who is the woman who helped her have a child in the first place years ago - knows something about what happened to her missing daughter. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get her back.
The conflict in this book is between these two mothers trying to do anything they can for their daughters. However, we eventually find that only one of them can have a truly happy ending - and she must bring suffering to the other to achieve it.
Once the plot of this book kicks off, it’s easy to sympathize with both of the mothers and their respective scenarios. We might not agree with everything they do to achieve their goals - but we can understand them. There’s also a twist at the end that I very much didn’t see coming, but it recontextualizes previous scenes in a way I wasn’t expecting. The reveal at the end makes much of the earlier character’s actions (especially Kada’s) make significantly more sense than before, and I thought it was a really clever interpretation, as well as fitting into a common theme in folklore of hidden agendas and betrayals. I was especially not expecting how this book ended itself, with neither mother getting what they wanted or expected to happen by the end.
The biggest issue with this book is the pacing, and how it starts. Each chapter of this book is told from a different character’s perspective, which at the start of the book, with no knowledge of who or what these characters are - is very confusing and off putting. It was kind of hard knowing who was who, or how they fit together, until significantly later in the book.
As well as the fact that the two mother POVs aren’t connected to one another until later in the book, and I wasn’t aware until they met each other that they were happening at the same time, but separated from one another. I couldn’t tell if these POVs were past/present or who was what until this point, which made me miss a lot of the beginning context for the first 20% of this book.
Honestly, I think if you liked the premise given in this book, as well as stories focused on Slavic folklore - just read through the first 20% until it makes sense. Then, you can decide if you want to go back and re-read (or do what I did and just continue on the journey the book takes you.) Once you can piece together the relationships and how everything fits together, this is a very good book and I significantly enjoyed the last 70% and wanted to stay up to finish reading this to see how it resolved itself.
If you like Slavic folklore, I think you’d like this book. Even if you’re not too familiar with Slavic folklore, I don’t think this book will be altogether too confusing for you - as I’m not overly familiar with it and I was able to follow along fairly well. It was a really good read that made you understand the motivations and actions of all the characters, without a true villain in it causing the issues for you to root against. Even with the copious creatures and forms of magic present within the book, the conflicts feel real and grounded in a way I wasn’t expecting - nor was I expecting to be simultaneously rooting for the victory of both of the mothers at the end, regardless of what they had done beforehand.