Update (03 Jan 2019):

I now have hardbound copies of the first two books, and I've decided to reread The Bone Witch as a way of starting my 2019 right (wink, wink). Needless to say, I found the story more enjoyable and more satisfying the second time around! I discovered a few details and foreshadowing bits that I overlooked during my first read. I think The Bone Witch is one of those books that I can repeatedly reread and still find something new to appreciate (and to fall in love with).

Tea is still hands down the best protagonist I've ever encountered, and I both love and fear her. Rin Chupeco's writing style is phenomenal, and we honestly do not deserve the gift that is her storytelling.

With all that said, I'm changing my initial rating.

Rating: 5 stars
* Read the full reviews in my natural habitat: The Bone Witch | The Heart Forger | The Shadow Glass

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From this synopsis alone, we are led into thinking that The Bone Witch is about a girl named Tea learning to become one of the asha. However, at its innermost core, The Bone Witch is about an innocent girl gifted with necromancy and the events that changed her into a vengeful, terrifying force to be reckoned with. At its innermost core, this is, more or less, a villain’s origin story (although using “villain” oversimplifies too many things).

And I think that’s why this novel has garnered an ocean of mixed opinions and responses from readers. With mentions of witches, necromancy, and war, many readers, myself included, start The Bone Witch with expectations that are formulaic to the fantasy genre: girl learns about her powers (in this case, by accidentally raising her brother from the dead), girl is taught to control said powers, girl faces off with antagonist, and girl triumphs.

But the book actually veers away from this linear formula. Told in dual perspectives with different tenses of time (i.e. past and present), we are immediately shown the aftermath: Tea abandoning the traditions of the asha and getting herself exiled from the eight kingdoms. We then spend most of the story trying to make sense of the past in order to find answers to the questions: What went wrong? Why was Tea exiled? What does present Tea plan to do next? In many ways, reading The Bone Witch felt like assembling an extremely complicated, occasionally perplexing puzzle, and I immensely enjoyed doing so.

The asha were actually less like witches with black cats and broomsticks and more like geisha-esque female magic wielders and strategists. I was recently told by the author herself that while the asha were inspired by the geisha culture in Japan, the conceptualization of bone witches was actually rooted in Filipino folklore(!!!). Specifically, a bone witch is essentially similar to our mangkukulam, which is sort of a cross between a witch doctor and a voodoo priest/priestess (segue: I suggest you look it up because Filipino folklore is incredibly fascinating!!!).

What I love even more is how the author managed to maintain a lovely balance between presenting a seemingly utopian magical world and not shying away from societal, economic, political and ideological imperfections. Power and gender struggles were seamlessly incorporated (e.g. only women were allowed to become asha, and likewise, only men were allowed to become deathseekers).

With an ability to effortlessly spin words into wonderfully breathtaking imagery, a natural expertise in navigating through complicated webs of details (most of which are probably of her own making), and a knack for creating compelling and complex characters, Rin Chupeco wields magic of her own whenever she writes. Her writing style is thoughtful, deliberate and secretly calculating, veiled under descriptive flourishes and vivid images. The Bone Witch was extremely heavy on details and nuances, but they’re not without purpose.

Wrapped in intrigue, mystery, and high fantasy, The Bone Witch is a magnificent gift to the literary world. Tea’s story is impactful and inspiring. Is this a book I’d actively recommend to everyone? Not exactly. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this to readers with very little attention spans or who are only looking for thrill and action sequences. The book leans more heavily on engaging rather than exciting. Reading The Bone Witch requires a great deal of patience and open-mindedness, but trust me, the rewards at the end of the story are worth a hundredfold.

Quick disclosure: I received a digital copy of The Bone Witch as part of my participation in a blog tour for its sequel, The Heart Forger. This neither affects my opinion nor the content of my review. Thank you very much to the blog tour organizers (The Fantastic Flying Book Club) and the publisher for the opportunity!

Actual rating: 4 stars
* Read my full review in my natural habitat! Trust me, I have more to say about this one.