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A review by chronicallybookish
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
Did not finish book.
DNF at 27%
I hate DNFing books, but I am just not vibing with this one. I’ve given it 2 chances now, and both times I just felt… bored.
I first picked this up in 2019, read maybe 4 chapters and “soft” DNFed it. I wasn’t able to get engaged with it, but I didn’t want to give up on it completely, so I set it down and said, “I’ll come back to this later.” Close to 4 years later… I still hadn’t felt inclined to pick it up. I stuck it on my “if I don’t read this book in 2023, im unhauling it” shelf, which finally convinced me to give it another shot.
This time I tried the audiobook. This book is narrated as if the MC is telling you a story (her life’s story), and I thought maybe that narration style was part of why I struggled the first time, and maybe it would be better executed via audiobook. It wasn’t.
Because of this narration style, everything was very “tell” not “show”. I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t connect with Tia or the story. Every other chapter is narrated by a bard who in the future came to ask Tia about her life story. I think this was an interesting premise, it sparks Tia to tell us her story. But we kept going back to the bard and future Tia…and for what? These scenes added nothing to the story. They just felt like filler. I think it would have been great to have the first chapter, him asking her to tell her story, be the prologue and then just go into her story and stick with that. Because every chapter from his POV (at least through 30%) is completely unnecessary.
But even the chapters from Tia’s POV were boring. They suffered from the distancing narration style, and there was no plot to speak of. Nothing happened. We had our inviting incident, a mini travel compilation… and then the next 70 pages… nothing. Slice of life, but it’s a boring life. And there was no narrative value of what was happening. It wasn’t going anywhere. The book needed a second inciting incident… but I kept reading and reading and none came.
At this point I’m sad to say I’m putting it down for good. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind, but I know there are better books out there for me, and I’d rather spend my time reading those.
I hate DNFing books, but I am just not vibing with this one. I’ve given it 2 chances now, and both times I just felt… bored.
I first picked this up in 2019, read maybe 4 chapters and “soft” DNFed it. I wasn’t able to get engaged with it, but I didn’t want to give up on it completely, so I set it down and said, “I’ll come back to this later.” Close to 4 years later… I still hadn’t felt inclined to pick it up. I stuck it on my “if I don’t read this book in 2023, im unhauling it” shelf, which finally convinced me to give it another shot.
This time I tried the audiobook. This book is narrated as if the MC is telling you a story (her life’s story), and I thought maybe that narration style was part of why I struggled the first time, and maybe it would be better executed via audiobook. It wasn’t.
Because of this narration style, everything was very “tell” not “show”. I couldn’t feel anything. I couldn’t connect with Tia or the story. Every other chapter is narrated by a bard who in the future came to ask Tia about her life story. I think this was an interesting premise, it sparks Tia to tell us her story. But we kept going back to the bard and future Tia…and for what? These scenes added nothing to the story. They just felt like filler. I think it would have been great to have the first chapter, him asking her to tell her story, be the prologue and then just go into her story and stick with that. Because every chapter from his POV (at least through 30%) is completely unnecessary.
But even the chapters from Tia’s POV were boring. They suffered from the distancing narration style, and there was no plot to speak of. Nothing happened. We had our inviting incident, a mini travel compilation… and then the next 70 pages… nothing. Slice of life, but it’s a boring life. And there was no narrative value of what was happening. It wasn’t going anywhere. The book needed a second inciting incident… but I kept reading and reading and none came.
At this point I’m sad to say I’m putting it down for good. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind, but I know there are better books out there for me, and I’d rather spend my time reading those.