Haunting, vivid, and often charming. 

 

Bone Weaver is a dark, queer, YA fantasy that blends Jewish & Slavic mythology and folklore in a delightful way.

 

We follow Toma, a teenager who has been raised by upyri (the undead) after being orphaned in the wilderness. She doesn’t remember much about her past life, but is jolted out of the safety of her blissful bubble when her little sister Galina is kidnapped by Koschei, the leader of the revolution.

 

Toma makes her way across the civil war-torn Kosa empire, desperate to protect her family and cautiously curious about her own history, especially when she discovers she might have some magic of her own. Along the way, she meets charming Vanya (whose magic has been branded as unclean witchcraft), and the dethroned Tsar Mikhail. The trio has to try to save the empire and Toma’s family before all is lost.

 

Most of the writing was breathtakingly beautiful – and thematically, Bone Weaver packed a punch. There was a lot of talk & imagery around monstrosity. In this world, some people come back to life after death (in various forms) and others do not. So we as readers are questioning: who comes back? The oppressed? Is it a reclamation of power that sometimes accompanies a loss of humanity?

 

 

I will say that the dialogue was not always at the same level of lyricality as the rest of the writing. It fell flat to me at times, especially moments that were very clear ~exposition chats~. 

 

And while (as I mentioned) the writing was often gloriously cinematic & haunting, certain elements of the world felt under-explained. How exactly does the magic system work? 

 

The ending also felt a bit jolty (so much so that I questioned if this was the first in a series – I don’t believe it is). For storytelling that delighted in moral murkiness and “no perfect side” and that dove into trauma and history and deep, deep problems … the ending felt naively optimistic and incomplete. 

 

I don’t need things tied up in a bow, but some clarity around the themes and also an honest outlook for the future of the empire would have been appreciated. It just seemed like there were missing beats - and that the revolutionary aspect was simplified while the metaphors were a little too convoluted. 

 

But overall, I felt altered by this book and know I’ll reflect on it and keep certain moments in my memory. 

 

It had a lovely found family. It asked thoughtful questions about humanity vs. monstrosity and reclamation of power and trauma passed through generations. And of course I want to highlight the Jewish themes and representation (though fantastical/metaphorical) and the queer representation as well.

 

Please keep writing, Aden Polydoros. I can’t wait to see what you do next. :) 

 

CW: murder, death (including child death), body horror, gore (including dismemberment), grief, war, gun violence, religious bigotry, antisemitism, homophobia, medical content, prejudice, eugenics, confinement, sexual harassment & mention of rape, drowning, fire

 

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)