The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Summary:
The Sukai Dynasty has ruled the Phoenix Empire for over a century, their mastery of bone shard magic powering the monstrous constructs that maintain law and order. But now the emperor’s rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.
Lin is the Emperor’s daughter, but a mysterious illness has stolen her childhood memories and her status as heir to the empire. Trapped in a palace of locked doors and old secrets, Lin vows to reclaim her birthright by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
But the mysteries behind such power are dark and deep, and wielding her family’s magic carries a great cost. When the revolution reaches the gates of the palace itself, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her throne – and save her people.

Review:
The Bone Shard Daughter follows quite a few different characters. Because of this, it was hard to really get into until a decent way into the book. It felt like it took a really long time to get to know each of the characters because we were following so many different people. Despite that, I did end up really enjoying this book. I did grow to love all of the characters and their individual journeys. I liked how each of the characters played an important role in the overall plot. Stewart really did a great job bringing the story full circle so that all the bits and pieces connected to one another. The plot felt like it was really well done. It was complex and detailed, but still pretty easy to follow. There were some mysteries that I thought I’d totally put together only to find out in later reveals that I was wrong. I love books that surprise me, so I really liked this.
The world building was also really interesting. It felt a little bit out of balance though. So, the Empire has many islands. It says that right in the summary. But because of the characters we follow, we only see maybe three islands total. We don’t really hear very much about the other islands either. It was just a little unbalanced to me because if there really is a full-scale rebellion going on, shouldn’t it be happening on all of these many islands? Aside from that issue that I had, I thought the world building and the setting was great. I could really see in my head what was happening with the island that sank. I thought the setting of the palace was a good one. But I think what interested me the most was the mythology and legends of the people that came before. Those that Lin’s family defeated and supposedly protects the Empire from their return. I’d love to know more about them.
Overall, this was a slow buildup of a story. I think the second book is going to be way more fast paced since so much of the buildup was done in the first book. It has characters that I found myself invested in (some queer!) and eager to know how things will unfold for them. I really liked that the reader got to see and learn things that the characters didn’t know yet. It did a wonderful job of creating suspense and anticipation while we waited for the characters to learn what the reader already knew. I definitely can’t wait for the second book.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.