“Strength lies in who you are rather than in what they expect you to be”: Rin Chupeco’s ‘The Bone Witch’
“We can endure any amount of sadness for the people we love.”
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is a richly-wrought dark fantasy that follows the titular witch, Tea of the Embers, as she trains to be an asha, the Geisha-like mages whose powers range in this world from the elemental to the necromantic. Plucked from her poor provincial town by fellow bone witch and dark asha Lady Mykaela, we soon learn only they can tame the brutal forces of nature ravaging villages the world over known as the daeva, demons first created by the folly of the false prince. There are barely any bone witches left, they are feared, often reviled, but their calling is a sacred one.
“I understand now why people fear bone witches. Theirs is not the magic found in storybooks, slaying onyx-eyed dragons and rescuing grateful maidens from ivory towers. Theirs is not the magic made from smoke and mirrors, where the trap lies in the twitch of the hand and a trick of the eyes. Nor is theirs the magic that seeds runeberry fields, whose crops people harvest for potions and spells. This is death magic, complicated and exclusive and implacable, and from the start, I wielded it with ease.”
It’s crafted with an immersive structure in two alternating POVs, both 1st person: Tea relating her past as though from an embittered and disillusioned authorial present, and the italicised interludes with the bard, a mysterious traveller who washed up on her exiled shore seeking answers to the vision that led him there… and it’s mesmerising.
“I collect stories,” I continued. “I was born in Drycht but was banished when I came of age for my freethinking ways and for singing against the tyrant kings. Since then, I have made my living on tales and ballads. I have seen with my own eyes the endless wars of the Yadosha city-states. I have broken bread with the reindeer people and have danced with the Gorvekan tribes on the Isteran steppes. I have seen princes poisoned, have watched a Faceless follower hanged, and have survived in a city that’s been swept out to sea. My name is known in many places; my reputation is more than modest.
“But I know very little of the workings of the asha. I know of their dances and of their weapons and of their legends but not of their quarrels and their gossip and their loves. And until today, I have never seen one slay a daeva.”
Luscious tears in rain vibes…
The core cast around Tea is comprised of:
- Her stoic brother, Fox, raised from the dead in the first chapter to the general discombobulation of the family assembled at his funeral.
- Her aforementioned mentor Lady Mykaela, a dark asha who lost her heart years ago to the Odalian king’s brother, an unnatural and barbaric act that’s been sapping her power ever since.
- Cinnamon roll Prince Kance, second son of King Telemaine and heir to the Odalian throne, one of the eight kingdoms, which “wore its people for emphasis, like giant exclamation marks that walked in every street and loitered at every corner” (is that not just the best description of a city you’ve ever read). He’s embroiled in several royal scandals along the way but remains a fierce supporter of Tea amidst all the chaos she knowingly and unknowingly wreaks on the melting pot of the city.
- Lord Kalen, the cousin, confidante, and companion of Prince Kance, goth edgelord whose derision for Tea drips from his every word even as a bond starts to knit together between them, especially when she learns about his past and what it could mean for their future.
- And finally her sweet friend Likh, who designs her huas (the elaborate dresses/robes the asha wear) and dreams of becoming an asha himself, of singing and dancing like the crest of a wave despite the rigid gender norms that govern their unforgiving society. Likh also has one of the coveted silver heartsglasses that mark him out as someone who can wield runes but is destined to become a soldier due to these constricting norms.
“Perhaps we should carve a world one day where the strength lies in who you are rather than in what they expect you to be.”
After that initial glimpse into Tea’s present by way of the bard, we dive back into her past to discover how exactly events unfolded to see her outcast, banished, and alone, bitterly sifting for bones amidst a sea of skulls in her grand scheme to raise an army of the undead capable of sweeping across the eight kingdoms in vengeance for all the wrongs done against her, those she loves, and everything she stands for.
Legend says she’s been accused of treason and conspiracy, of killing a king and an asha, of becoming one of the faceless, of betraying the eight kingdoms… but as she tells the bard… she’s only guilty of one of those crimes.
Book 1 is just the beginning…
Also…
THERE’S A DRAGON.
In sum, it’s a bright and vividly imagined fantasy suffused with necromancy, dancing sorcery, sumptuous fashion, demons, dragons, and an enemies-to-lovers slow-burn for the ages. The rich sensory world-building weaves a fierce colour palette of opulent hua robes and blazing heartsglass, the pendant that betrays emotions, fears, and desires to those who can read them in a luminescent microcosm of the wearer’s soul, and it’s undoubtedly my favourite element of the magic system.
“He is a wise man but often sad—though I have found that both frequently go hand in hand.”
Also the whole series has gorgeous cover art. If I saw these covers at a bar I’d be buying them breakfast.
Thanks to Imi of Beyond a Bookshelf for the recommendation (and for gifting me the ebook).
“Where would you like to begin?”
“I am more concerned,” I said, “of knowing where it will end.”
She laughed, a mirthless sound. “Where it always ends, Bard. With me.”
DID I SAY THERE WAS A DRAGON.
