Review: Bone Weaver by Aden Polydoros

Bone Weaver

Aden Polydoros

Publication Date: September 20, 2022

Hardcover, 448 pages, Inkyard Press

Genres: YA, Fantasy, LGBTQ+

Goodreads

 

A haunting fantasy following Toma, adopted daughter of the benevolent undead, making her way across a civil war-torn continent to save her younger sister as she discovers she might possess magical powers herself.

 

The Kosa empire roils in tension, on the verge of being torn apart by a proletarian revolution between magic-endowed elites and the superstitious lower class, but seventeen-year-old Toma lives blissfully disconnected from the conflict in the empire with her adoptive family of benevolent undead.

 

When she meets Vanya, a charming commoner branded as a witch by his own neighbors, and the dethroned Tsar Mikhail himself, the unlikely trio bonds over trying to restore Mikhail’s magic and protect the empire from the revolutionary leader, Koschei, whose forces have stolen the castle. Vanya has his magic, and Mikhail has his title, but if Toma can’t dig deep and find her power in time, all of their lives will be at Koschei’s mercy.

My Review

Bone Weaver is the atmospheric tale of a young necromancer and the two boys she meets on her journey to save her sister. It has a whole host of creepy creatures that are all ready to take a bite out of anyone they can get their hands on, as well as some friendly monsters that are just misunderstood. This book combined the power elements of Shadow & Bone with sentient undead to make a unique world based on Russian/Slavic folklore.

Now, while Bone Weaver did have some unique elements, unfortunately, it didn't start off on a strong note. Why? Because I didn't know the protagonist, Toma, was a girl until 10% into the book. (I hadn't read the synopsis since I requested the book months ago.) I was so disoriented when it was finally revealed. That's the issue with first-person POV, it's hard to establish the main character outside of their thoughts. Toma is kind of a necromancer, but not. She weaves thread that helps put her dead family members—who are kind of like sentient zombies called upyr—back together when they start falling apart. When Toma's sister is taken, she meets two boys on her journey to rescue the little upyr. One is a serious prince, Mikhail, and the other is a not-so-serious commoner, Vanya.

I know what you're thinking, a love triangle is about to happen. But actually... no. This storyline had the potential to be a TRUE LOVE TRIANGLE. Meaning there's attraction between all three characters. Sadly, the relationships don't really go anywhere over the course of the story (so if you're reading it for the romance, you might want to bow out), but it was refreshing to see a love triangle done right, nonetheless. Unfortunately, the characters weren't as developed as they could've been, either. They lacked depth and were just kind of... there... in my opinion. I felt no connection to them.

As for the plot of the book, it was pretty straightforward and easy to follow until the worldbuilding got involved. Every time a fight scene was explained that involved some sort of political situation or the various locations or creatures were mentioned my brain just could not follow. During one particular mid-book fight scene, I had no idea why certain characters were doing certain things. Why were the townspeople fighting? What were their motivations? Why did the main characters get involved? It just wasn't very clear, even though it had kind of been discussed by the protagonists. Some descriptive element of scenes like this one were just missing somewhere. Until the ending, that is. Towards the end, things got a little better, but by that point, the book was over.

All in all, the political factions and random creature name drops made this a hard book to wrap my head around for quite some time. Bone Weaver had potential as a series. However, I'm not sure if it has a sequel coming out or if it's a standalone. The ending to this one was left pretty open, since not a lot was truly settled. I would say try Bone Weaver out if you're looking for something a bit creepier and different in your YA fantasy stories, but be wary of that potentially unsatisfactory finale.

*Note: I received a NetGalley ARC of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.