The dramatic finale to The Bone Witch series! Tea’s dark magic eats away at her, but she must save the one she loves most, even while her life—and the kingdoms—are on the brink of destruction.In the Eight Kingdoms, none have greater strength or influence than the asha, who hold elemental magic. But only a bone witch has the power to raise the dead. Tea has used this dark magic to breathe life … to breathe life into those she has loved and lost…and those who would join her army against the deceitful royals. But Tea’s quest to conjure a shadowglass, to achieve immortality for the one person she loves most in the world, threatens to consume her.
Tea’s heartsglass only grows darker with each new betrayal. Her work with the monstrous azi, her thirst for retribution, her desire to unmask the Faceless—they all feed the darkrot that is gradually consuming her heartsglass. She is haunted by blackouts and strange visions, and when she wakes with blood on her hands, Tea must answer to a power greater than the elder asha or even her conscience. Tea’s life—and the fate of the kingdoms—hangs in the balance.
“Chupeco delights. Exceptionally written from beginning to end.” —Buzzfeed on The Bone Witch
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At the end I cried cried cried and cried some more it not just because I finished Lady Tea’s story but it is also because it was nice to know she was reborn
The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch Book 3) by Rin Chupeco
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!
The Shadowglass now wraps up everything in the series.
It is still a continuation of what happens after Tea’s world has imploded with death and carnage. Tea changes in a big way, and this book tells everything – becoming a full-on Ashia and then becoming more than anyone could imagine for her. In the story, Tea is alone – no friends or family (her brother abandoned her) while on the run with charges of treason charges and murder. But, Tea is not alone somewhere along her journey to help “save the Kingdoms”; she was able to call forth a unique person from beyond that defied all known laws of magic.
Tea has to make many sacrifices – some more shocking than the others. Readers can expect deceit and manipulations before the book is over – some shrouded in mystery until the end. In trying to clear her name and find a way to disconnect herself from her brother, Tea will give ultimately sacrifice. Many amazing things were happening within Tea as her magic grows into fantastic proportions. To be mature enough to wield such power, such as the guidance of love for country and family, was overwhelming. She is torn yet with a few good reasons for the two options she has: (1) accept the status quo and run away from the problem, or (2) face it head-on, end it all and run the risk of people she loves for the future peace.
One way or another, she will make things right and give everyone the HEA they all deserve.
The author’s storytelling style is indescribably unique. The story ran in parallel – past Tea and current Tea. I didn’t realize this until it was 3/4th of the book that I saw too many coincidences that were more than flashbacks. Granted that the flashbacks changes from only Tea’s now to the bard’s own. The story was moving at different times of Tea’s life, then meeting in the middle to merge and have this epically memorable fight! I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT
This series deserved better editing for what great concepts it has.
The Faceless seek the power found within shadowglass, and Tea is determined to reach it first. But shadowglass is a double-edged sword. While it will grant power, it will also cause corruption and demand sacrifice. Tea’s power will begin to eat away at her sanity and her life. But to Tea, her life is just one more thing to give up in her quest to save those she loves. When she begins to unravel the long told lies of the Asha, she will do everything in her power to bring them to their knees. The world is about to change, but is it for better or for worse?
The magic system in this trilogy is brilliant. While it plays on elemental magic, it takes it to a whole new level. The use of heartsglass and special runic magic puts a creative twist on a favorite. Even after the reader thinks they know everything there is to the magic system, Rin Chupeco throws another twist. The same can be said for the world building, as the history readers have come to know is torn apart and rebuilt.
The Shadow Glass is a dark and thrilling conclusion to a phenomenal series. Rin Chupeco pulls you into the complex relationships she has built with all the characters, tugging on the reader’s heartstrings every chance she can. I could not stop listening to this book. The depth of emotion the narrators Emily Woo and Will Damron added to the characters enhanced the experience. You felt everything Tea experienced and rode the wave of emotions each step of the way. I can’t wait to read more of Rin Chupeco’s books.
This book was a satisfying conclusion to the series. The only thing I had trouble with was the back and forth with the what was going on and what was being told through the bard. There was lots of twists in the series. I liked the concept.
The Shadowglass is the final book in Rin Chupeco’s The Bone Witch series, drawing together the action and character development of the past two books to create an ending bittersweet and covered in corpses. The stakes get higher as our dual timelines begin to converge; the Tea of the past grows more corrupted as what began as a personal struggle grows into an international war, and the Tea of the future, already entrenched in Dark magic and nearing death, closes in on the final stages of her plan. Both versions of our protagonist find themselves with the world turned against them, a villain in both the eyes of their once-loved ones and themselves.
The fight with the Faceless is finally brought to the forefront of the novel, the war that was on the horizon for two novels coming home at last. As this looms, Tea and her band begin to explore the mysteries of the daeva, the undead creatures of conglomerate animal parts, and why the elder asha have been hiding the fact that the Dark asha do not have to limit their own lifespans to keep them down. They’re also on the hunt for the cure for another mysterious sickness, one that turns its victims into monstrous creatures, mini-daeva. This novel finally consolidates the legend of the shadowglass, the item that future Tea has been trying to create for several novels now, an item entrenched in the creation myth of their land and said to either bring about immortality or the end of all magic. As you can see, there is a lot happening here, the final intersections of plot lines that have been building for the entire series. A lot of mysteries woven through the past two novels get explained here, down to the tiny details, and the fact that Chupeco has given so much thought to the ending of this series so far in advance is phenomenal.
The way morality is approached in this novel (in the whole series, but particularly this one) is incredible; this is a novel for young adults but pulls no punches when it comes to the cruelty of the world and the way “right” and “wrong” are skewed depending on one’s personal priorities. Tea has always been a little off in comparison to her friends, who have more commonplace and rigid rules of morality in play: good guys do not kill people, bad guys commit bad acts. Tea walks this line, she is not sorry for the deaths she caused and continues to cause and sees them as necessary for her purposes, while also acknowledging that the villains are doing the same thing from their perspective. This isn’t a Batman/Joker situation where people can choose to argue that despite the two characters’ vast differences they have similar cores, Tea and the Faceless are almost exactly aligned in both goals and methods. They’re very similar, and the novel doesn’t shy away from the fact that Tea is always one step away from becoming the real villain of the novel. I perhaps could’ve done without the traditional we’re the same, you and I speech that one of the villains gives Tea at the end of the novel, which is less subtle than Chupeco’s usual workings, but overall the effect is perfect for this gothic novel.
The one thing that prevents a full five-star rating is that with international war comes the vast array of international armies and leaders, and we land on shaky ground here. Tea, her brother Fox, her lover, and several of her friends and mentors are along on this journey, already a large cast to balance to begin with, and then towards the end as we approach the frontlines of the war, the cast becomes just too large. Having dozens of characters running around one scene is confusing; we have to try to keep track of who all the new characters introduced are, what country they come from, and how they relate to the plot while they are often in dialogue-laden scenes that make it difficult to keep up with the conversation. This was the culmination of a series, so I expect a large cast, but there was a better way to balance it than to have four countries and twenty characters all fighting for page time.
The Bone Witch trilogy still comes to a wonderful ending. This is such a unique series, in morality, in seriousness, in its fixation on death and its influence on the living. Chupeco weaves a gothic tale and manages to balance an intricate plot with a massive amount of worldbuilding to create a magic system and setting that feels fresh. I know she is currently working on a new young adult series, but I would love to see her luxurious style of writing and penchant for atmosphere be directed at an adult gothic novel. It’s not a genre we see a lot of these days, not in books or on the screen, and she really does it so wonderfully I ache to think this is the last we’ll see of this style from her. The Bone Witch is perfect for someone who wants to see more diverse worlds and darker topics in their YA fiction.
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I’M SO LOOK SAD IT’S OVER!!!! I Love this trilogy so much! It’s like a mystery that constantly keep you guessing until the very end!!!