Seventeen-year-old Toma lives in the wilderness of the vast Kosa empire. Although the empire is turning in on itself, in the midst of a deadly revolution, Toma is unaware of the political tensions and ongoing civil war, having not been amongst other humans in years. Suddenly, the unrest is brought to Toma and her adoptive upyri family's doorstep with the crashing of an airship, holding only two passengers -- and one of them is Tsar Mikhail himself. Forced by disaster into a mission of her own, Toma accompanies Mikhail on his journey to destroy Koschei, the leader of the anti-Tsarist revolutionaries, picking up another straggler, Vanya, on their way. As the trio grows closer, Toma will be forced to confront her past and, even more frighteningly, her future -- and all three of them will learn that true monsters don't wear their wickedness on the outside.
Finally, a book from my list of most highly anticipated 2022 reads that didn't disappoint! Bone Weaver is everything I could ask for in a Russian and Slavic inspired fantasy, replete with folklore and monsters, all while addressing the proletariat revolution and the faults of its fantasy empire.
To start off, this book is simply full of monsters. Something that often bothers me when I pick up a fantasy book is that while it proclaims to have pages full of monsters and folklore, they seem little more than window-dressing. That's never the case in Bone Weaver: there are rusalki, mavki, upyri, and more, all written about with an admiration for their haunting, sometimes frightening, beauty. It's obvious from the first page that Polydoros loves writing about these creatures, and although this obviously deals with much more mature subject matter, it reminded me a bit of reading The Spiderwick Chronicles -- and what more could I ask for then that?
As for the characters, all of them are lovable, even when they are not nice or friendly or on their best behavior. Toma, of course, is my favorite, and she operates as the kind of heroine that is naive but not obnoxious (which is hard to do; instead, her naivete feels endearing). Her companions, Mikhail and Vanya, are equally wonderful, although I will say that it took me a while to warm up to Mikhail. Perhaps it's because I'm a bit biased, but I wasn't sure that I would buy into his rehabilitation, into the narrative that he will truly fight for change in his empire. By the end, however, I greatly enjoyed Mikhail's character, and even ended up rooting for him (which took me by surprise). He still wasn't quite on the level of Toma or Vanya for me, but nonetheless, I think that Polydoros did an incredible job crafting every single character we encounter on the page.
The worldbuilding has real depth to it. One of my favorite things in fantasy books is that feeling you get that, just beyond the page, there's a whole world out there -- real and fully fleshed out -- that we've yet to see. I never, ever say this, but I almost wish that Bone Weaver had been the first in a series. It feels as if there's so much more to explore, even with regards to Toma's background, for example, or Vanya's. My only real complaint about this book is that it simplifies the revolution, and in turn, simplifies its (amazing) villain. However, this is YA fantasy, so I don't mind it being boiled down to basics -- and that isn't to say that there isn't complexity or nuance in this book because there's plenty.
Highly, highly recommended. This is, without a doubt, the best Russian and Slavic inspired fantasy I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
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