The Bone Witch

This book has so much potential. I think the story is fascinating, but the writing leaves so much to be desired. When I got to the end of the book, the author's bio says that she used to write manuals for computer programs, and it dawned on me that maybe that was the problem. The story was SO boring despite there being quite a bit of action. There are 2 different time streams going, one where Tea, the main character is retelling her own story of becoming a bone witch, which is essentially a necromancer. The other time stream is the present, in which we know Tea has been banished from her land and her duties, and she's on a quest to raise daeva (Monsters) to avenge herself. Unfortunately, I just wish the author had chosen to go with one time stream or the other. The breaks in chapters when we are confronted with the present take away from the overall story. There is already so many things to keep track of: magic, runes, characters, heart glass meanings, etc. without also trying to track time. Also the past storyline was so detailed that it felt like I was pursuing a story that would never end. I admit, I ended up skimming through a vast majority of the chapters. I still don't think I missed anything really relevant having done that. I swear the only time the story got a little bit interesting was the “twist” in the romantic angle toward the end. I'll also give it some credit that unlike most YA books that focus a lot on the romantic element of the book, there was much more of a focus on Tea rather that Tea's crush. I also like the way the author set it up for Tea to be much smarter that YA heroines usually are when it comes to the love interest by giving her a mentor who was totally screwed (pun intended) by the love game. Her mentor serves a cautionary tale, but she also makes it so that Tea naturally would be less focus on that aspect of her life considering she was 11 to 15 the majority of the past story line. Anyway, I say all this to say that I like the story enough to pursue the next book, but I definitely need a break before I attempt to dive into the abyss that is this book again.