A bard has a dream that leads him to Tea, an exiled Bone Witch. The story is told in the present from the perspective of the Bard as he gets to know the exiled witch, and from the perspective of Tea as she recounts her story in the past.
You must think me too fastidious, listing an asha's hua in such detail every time I talk about one
Yes! Yes I do.
Every time we met someone we had to learn their backstory. Where they came from, what their family was like, what their goals were. Tea described what they wore and what they were holding and what the thing they were holding looked like. There was so so so much describing. I don't care to know all these details about someone if that person is never going to do anything.
And every time we saw a new place we had to know all about the architecture and the people there and what they were doing and what they were wearing. And how many rooms were in this house and what each one was used for. Not that anything ever happens in the cities or the house to make the information relevant.
The book is Tea telling the bard what happened in her life, and it very much reads like that. Rather than experiencing the story first-hand, we are often just told what happened. These are the people who lived in the house. Here is a list of the ways in which I was poorly treated by this person. This is what my daily schedule looked like. These were the foods we ate. We don't see Tea develop friendships but are rather informed that the friendships exist.
Know the people you entertain. [...] Our opinions do not matter, and if you have to swallow your pride to keep them happy, then so be it.
Being an asha is considered rather prestigious and powerful, but it really shouldn't be. The world of The Bone Witch is ruled by men. The asha, all of whom are women, don't do important things but rather entertain important people, who all just happen to be men. They can wield magic but spend most of their time learning to sing and play music and dance for the pleasure of the men who actually do stuff. The highest an asha can really rise is the very exciting position of wife-of-someone-who-is-actually-important. Sure, there are references in the story to famous asha who did famous things in history. And it's said that the asha fight in times of war. But in the present-day world we read about, an asha's purpose is to be entertaining to the important men around her. I could understand this if it were some dystopian world the characters were trying to change, but really they all seem excited about their life as asha.
The book wasn't all bad. It definitely picked up as it went along. Had the entire book been written the way the last 30% or so was written, it could have been an okay book. And I really enjoyed the magic system. Besides being able to control the elements, Asha could create runes that would make someone appear prettier or more graceful. I thought this was a really cool take on magic, that rather than change people themselves, it just changed how they were perceived. There were also attempts at addressing the sexism in the world, but more in the form of "why can't men be asha" than "why do asha do nothing but entertain powerful men".
⭐⭐
I give this book 2 stars. Very little happened in this book. It was far too slow-paced to keep my attention. I also found the writing style odd; at times it seemed as if I was reading a summary of a book rather than the book itself, though the writing style and pace improve throughout the book. I was also very bothered by the sexism in the world. There were pieces of it that were challenged, but it was mostly just accepted, even described positively. But perhaps that will be addressed in book two. While I wasn't a fan of The Bone Witch, the world definitely has potential and I could see this becoming a good series with a rocky start.
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