Hey Fellow Bodies,
One of my goals for this year was to read more. So far, I have been doing awful with keeping up with reading, so I thought that it would be fun to do a little review of the books I read as well as be a way to keep me consistent with it. This is the first book review I’ve ever done, so I’m not sure exactly how I want to lay them out but I’ll figure it out as I go. Several of the reviews I do may not look consistent at first but I hope you enjoy regardless and find it helpful.
SUMMARY
“Sara A. Mueller’s The Bone Orchard is a fascinating whodunit set in a lush, gothic world of secrets and magic—where a dying emperor charges his favorite concubine with solving his own murder, and preventing the culprit, which undoubtedly is one of his three terrible sons, from taking control of an empire.
Charm is a witch, and she is alone. The last of a line of conquered necromantic workers, now confined within the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House, and the secrets of their marrow.
Charm is a prisoner, and a survivor. Charm tends the trees and their clattering fruit for the sake of her children, painstakingly grown and regrown with its fruit: Shame, Justice, Desire, Pride, and Pain.
Charm is a whore, and a madam. The wealthy and powerful of Borenguard come to her house to buy time with the girls who aren't real.
Except on Tuesdays, which is when the Emperor himself lays claim to his mistress, Charm herself.
But now—Charm is also the only person who can keep an empire together, as the Emperor summons her to his deathbed, and charges her with choosing which of his awful, faithless sons will carry on the empire—by discovering which one is responsible for his own murder.
If she does this last thing, she will finally have what has been denied her since the fall of Inshil—her freedom. But she will also be betraying the ghosts past and present that live on within her heart.
Charm must choose. Her dead Emperor’s will or the whispers of her own ghosts. Justice for the empire or her own revenge.” - Google Books
-My Thoughts
I was intrigued by this book admittedly by what the cover looked like. I know you can’t judge a book by its cover, but come on look at how beautifully edgy that cover is! Not only was the cover interesting, the summary was as well and I’ve been in the mood to read some gothic themed fantasy, so this seemed to be what I was looking for. However, while in theory this book seemed perfect, that didn’t end up being true…
MY EXPERIENCE
So, I have to admit, I didn’t actually read the whole book. Because of this, I was originally not going to write this review as I didn’t think it was fair to review something that I didn’t even finish. However, I changed my mind about that simply because of the reason why I stopped reading. I didn’t finish reading The Bone Orchard simply because of how badly I thought it was written. I so wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t get past the unclear world building. While the idea for the world and story was so promising with its boneghosts and necromantic mistress witch, it just wasn’t being explained clearly to the point of there being so much confusion.
Not only was it hard to understand the dynamics between the boneghosts that lived at the brothel named Orchard House but it was also hard to tell the difference between them. They all felt like they were written with the same voice. This feeling didn’t just stop with the boneghosts, but also extended to the other characters in the book as well. There are several aristocrats all on this council and there never felt like a difference in voice when each of them spoke. I always had to go back to make sure I understood who was talking and to make sure I understood what was going on. When you have to go back to reread sections several times it ruins the experience and flow of the book.
At this point I decided to go and look at other’s experiences with this book, and it turns out it wasn’t just me that felt this way. I found other similar reviews from people who found the world confusing and several wrote that the ending to the story was very underwhelming. At that point I thought I would just stop reading because it felt like more of a chore to read rather than something I wanted to do.
- Conclusion
I might continue reading this book in between finding other’s just so I can finish it but I’m just so bummed that this book wasn’t as good as it could be. At the most this book needs a rewrite, at least it needs some sort of index with world and lore info so there can be some more clarification with who each character is and the different elements of this interesting world.
Thanks for reading my little experience with The Bone Orchard. I’m about to start my next book, but since I’m a slow reader (and often get distracted) I’m not sure when that review will be out, but it is coming. For now, take care and happy reading.
-Morgue 🖤
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