For the month of July, my good friend Maria and I are reading The Bone Witch series. Maria recommended the series to me a while back when I was looking to get into fantasy fiction.

The series is written by Rin Chupeco, a Chinese-Filipino young adult fiction writer. They are the author of The Bone Witch Trilogy (The Bone Witch, The Heart Forger, and The Shadow Glass), The Girl From The Well, The Suffering, Tales of Unquiet Women, The Never Tilting World duology, and more.

The story takes place in a world of eight kingdoms: Istera, Tresa, Dannoris, Yadosha City-States, Kion, Odalia, Arhen-Kosho, and Drycht. All of which have their own cultures and practices, but they all share commonalities as well.

The story continues to feature two different timelines one in which Tea is now a 15 years old Dark asha who is highly requested to protect others and attend royal events, and one that is a future timeline where she is a 17-year-old Dark asha fighting the absorbance of the dark rot while seeking to clean up the world of evil Faceless forces who have invaded several of the kingdoms.

In the present storyline, Chupeco focuses on Tea and the gang (Zoya, Kalen, Khaled, Likh, and some others) uncovering corruption and evil within the eight kingdoms. In the future storyline, the plot following Tea’s path to revenge unfolds. Chupeco beautifully balances this dual plot novel and successfully merges the two plots together with a WILD twist at the end.

The final book of this trilogy certainly did not disappoint. There is the continued development of the characters which includes the formation of romantic relationships but also the acceptance of one’s identity and place in the eight kingdoms. My favorite of these has to be the acceptance of one’s identity. Likh and Zoya in particular both begin to openly live their truths and it’s quite beautiful that the rest of the characters, even extremely minor characters, are respectful.

The theme of loyalty to one’s self, kingdom, and friends is central to the plot and runs through the entire trilogy. However, the author doesn’t let loyalty overshadow what’s right and even more so, doesn’t let loyalty stop the characters from questioning those around them including people of authority like emperors and kings, but also within their own friend group. Tea and the gang often check each other but remain very good friends. In doing so, Chupeco presents a realistic and healthy example of friendship.

One of my favorite lessons from the book is spoken by Khaled, a close friend of Tea’s,

“People never believe paint is wet until they have touched it for themselves.”

Unlike the second book in the series, they don’t drop too many subtle reminders throughout the novel. Because of this, I would not recommend reading this as a stand-alone novel. I would recommend reading from The Bone Witch because you gather a deeper sense of the characters and the plots that took place that led Tea to diverge a path all her own.
Like The Bone Witch, I would recommend this novel (and the whole trilogy) for those interested in stepping into the fantasy fiction world. This book is young adult-friendly. There are brief mentions of what we would consider self-harm, and of course, descriptions of death. However, the author does an excellent job of not making those parts the center of the moment and not portraying those actions in a positive light.

Thank you for reading,