The Bone Orchard

by Sara A. Mueller

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Gothic, Fiction, Adult, Witches

421 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2022

About the author

A seamstress and horsewoman, Sara A. Mueller writes speculative fiction in the green and rainy Pacific Northwest, where she lives with her family, numerous recipe books, and a forest of fountain pens.

In a nomadic youth, she trod the earth of every state but Alaska and lived in six of them.

She’s an amateur historical costumer, gamer, and cook.

The Bone Orchard is her debut novel from Tor, due March 22, 2022.

Reviews

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating and unique concept truly blew my mind! I can’t compare this book to any others because I’ve never encountered a story quite like it. The originality of the concept is unmatched!

It’s a political, historical, twisty, and dark fantasy with a touch of sweet romance—just give me this book and leave me alone! It’s even more promising than I expected.

The novel also tackles sensitive issues with realism, including sex work, abuse, and rape. If you enjoy dark fantasy reads with well-developed characters, breathtaking world-building, and mind-bending mysteries, this is the perfect choice for you!

Here’s a quick summary of the nerve-wracking, surprisingly outstanding plot:

Charm is the last in a line of conquered necromantic workers, confined to the yard of regrown bone trees at Orchard House. But are these trees her children, or are they different facets of her split personality? Each personality manifests as a bone tree, embodying a distinct purpose—Shame, Pride, Pain, Justice, and Desire, among others.

Charm is an incredibly complex and surprising character. She’s lost, a madam, a whore, a witch, and also a warrior, doing everything she can to survive.

As a madam, she runs a salon with powerful clients, including the Emperor himself. When the Emperor lies on his deathbed, he summons Charm, his loyal mistress, to help identify which of his illegitimate sons poisoned him—in exchange for her freedom.

The book weaves together two mysteries: finding the culprit behind the Emperor’s death and uncovering the dark past and hidden secrets of the bone trees. Reuniting the memories of Charm’s different personalities feels like piecing together a complex puzzle to reveal the full picture. It’s smart, moving, and enigmatic.

I added an extra star for the brilliant unfolding of the mystery! The epic ending was exactly what I needed.

I highly recommend this extraordinarily creative and intelligent book that left a lasting impression on me.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books for sharing this amazing digital review copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

medium.com
instagram
facebook
twitter

[Jess Owens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok maybe this is 2 stars and definitely not for me.

I just NEVER understood what was going on. I was in a state of confusion and befuddlement the entire time. I could never differentiate between the characters except the main gal, Charm. Everyone else ? Couldn’t tell the difference. There was a plot but I was never invested. I also always confused the sons of the king. TL; DR: was confused, bored, and never intrigued. This is why I have to stop reading books based on the cover 😂

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, this sucks! I was hoping to love this book and add the hardback to my collection!! I mean look at that beautiful cover!!

I have really no clue half of what was going on in the book. Damn it, the storyline with these bone ghost peeps is a good one too. Whatever!!!



Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Emma Cathryne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it hardest to rate books like this one: where concept and character outpace style and structure. Much like Charm's bone garden, Mueller has nurtured the seed of a brilliant idea: a necromancer captured in war opens up a brothel staffed by women grown from her own blood and bones to flip the script on her captors and build a life on her terms.

Charm and her ladies (particularly Pain and Pride) are fascinating protagonists, in no small part due to the circumstances of their creation, being personality splinters of a single mind. Because of this, each has their own realized goals and traits while still retaining core connecting features. This story also does an interesting deep dive into sex work and the dimensions of power, trust, and trauma associated with it. However, the lack of choice involved for all women besides Charm at Orchard House did leave a bad taste in my mouth: there is a weak attempt to justify Charm essentially pressuring her counterparts into their roles by virtue of their "shared" goals, but this is negated by the same attempts of the narrative to individualize and humanize them. This was especially underscored by the atrocities to which the Orchard House women are routinely subjected, minus any attempts by Charm or anyone else to protect them.

My biggest frustration with this novel, however, was the way it felt...underbaked. Like a cake that's not quite done out of the oven, there are choices made in pacing and logic that didn't just sit right with me. Why does Major Nathair, arguably the most compelling character outside of the main cast, make a brief appearance early on and then vanish for nearly the entire novel? Why do Charm's various aspects not share the same memories? Where do psychics come from, and what is the extent of their powers?. Concepts are dropped like bombs and then left to drift aimlessly, with the various plot points eventually coalescing into an ending that feels rushed and unsatisfying. I am all for stories that drop me into the deep end and leave me to feel my way out of the dark, but this novel does a poor job of lighting my way. The mystery surrounding the central concept of Charm and her boneghosts is a prime example: likely meant to be coy and intriguing, it ends up feelings frustrating far more than it does rewarding.

With a little more editing this could have been a masterpiece, but as it was it didn't quite live up to my high expectations.

[Jenny Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and unique sci-fantasy with great world-building. Necormancers and brothels = weird combo, but it works.

[Alexis Hall]

Source of book: NG (jesus wept, I am STILL and even more behind on my queue)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work.  Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.

---

Content warnings for sexual abuse, misogyny, coerced sex work, colonialism, mental health, death, paedophilia.

Yikes, according to Goodreads my last book review was in July and ... yep. That feels about right. It's not so much that I've been in a book slump. More just stressed out of my mind about a bunch of stuff – which, thank God, has mostly cleared up or entered the “well, nothing I can do about it” space.  Basically, I just wasn’t going to do justice to anything I tried to read. And hopefully I can now.

Irrespective of the mess of my brain, The Bone Orchard has been sitting in my NG queue for an unforgivably long time. I think you can maybe get a sense why from the general tenor of the GR reviews, with readers coming down pretty firmly on the side of "confused" or "adoring". Fortunately for me, I'm very much Team Adoring, but it took me a little while to get there. The world of The Bone Orchard is strange, dark and full of mysteries. While everything is ultimately revealed--and fits together extremely well--the opening of the book is, to put it lightly, somewhat challenging. There's a lot going on, and a lot of is fairly weird, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed by that. But once you get past the initial disorientation, and it really does only take about 10-20% for the plot to feel slightly more navigable, The Bone Orchard is an absolute fucking page turner, full of twists and turns, intrigues and reversals, and a steady drip feed of revelations that keeps the tension high and the momentum going right to the very end of the story.

Normally I feel somewhat ambivalent about insisting that people need to stick with something until it gets good (I remember doing this to a friend about Buffy the Vampire Slayer until we hit about season 3 and then had to face up to the fact she just didn't like the show—and, of course, it is always okay to just not like something) but, unlike three seasons of a long-running TV show, The Bone Orchard asks for a relatively low investment of your time/energy and, to my mind at least, pays that investment off spectacularly.

The book is, not to put too fine a point on it, a fucking ride. 

Anyway. How to give you a bit of grounding in what The Bone Orchard is, y'know, about, without spoiling too much? Because, as I've already said, this is a book that benefits from being allowed to unfold itself to you at its own pace. Let's start with our heroine. Charm runs a brothel called Orchard House, where her rich patrons are served by her "boneghosts" - animated human-like beings grown in vats in her laboratory, all flawed in their own way, and named things like Shame, Justice, Pride, Desire and Pain. Charm is also the mistress of the Emperor of Boren, a war prize taken from his conquest of Inshil. Inshil is a formerly independent country responsible for the development of the "mindlock", a technology that prevents psychics (which are a feature of the setting) from going out of their tree, as the mental strain of simply being psychic inevitably causes them to. The thing is, though, the Emperor has been able to modify the mindlock thing, not only to protect the mental wellbeing of the psychic but to implant specific orders and behaviours within their minds that it causes them overwhelming pain to disobey. Oh, and there's also Rejuv, an eternal-youth oral supplement also seized from Inshil.

Anyway, anyway, the book opens with the Emperor summoning Charm to his bedside because he's been abruptly and inconveniently poisoned. Releasing her from the majority of his mindlocked commands, he leaves her with a new set of instructions: find out who murdered him and murder them back, and ensure none of his four dangerously unstable sons inherits the throne. What follows is a deep dive into various mysteries (who killed the Emperor being, in some ways, the least interesting of them, and the most interesting being exactly who is Charm and what happened to her), a political thriller surrounding a city in the grip of a succession crisis, and a fascinating exploration of power, sex, gender, identity, trauma and survival.

To go into more detail would be to ruin the book and I'm already slightly fearful I've said too much. Because, despite my comments about its opening, I do feel The Bone Orchard is an intricately put together book that's worth experiencing on its own terms.  For me as a reader (your mileage may vary on this one, of course) there's a very rare and particular pleasure in giving a work your trust and feeling that trust was not only proven correct, but respected as well. By the end of the story, I felt like nearly all my questions had been satisfactorily addressed, and--for the most part--the various tensions and conflicts drawn towards emotionally resonant conclusions.

I will say that I felt the more psychological/metaphorical/allegorical aspects of the book tended to work slightly better than the intriguey-political sections but that could have been because I'm personally more interested in psychological/metaphorical/allegorical stuff than I am intriguey-political shenanigans. But it also could be a kind of ... scaling issue? In that one of the things I feel is unexpectedly bold about the TBO is that Charm leads a very insular and locked-down life, both in terms of her role and also geographically speaking (until she is summoned to the dying Emperor's bedside she has never left the walls of Orchard House), and this insularity pervades the book. Charm is a marginalised person, existing on the margins of her society, and this does not change when it’s plot convenient (well, at least, until right at the end, when the bloke invading the city who, admittedly, is not right in the head, bashes down the gates and barges straight to a whore house to have beef with a courtesan).  In general, though, I did find the way book deals with a heroine who is limited by both gender and circumstances refreshing, especially compared to all the fantasy sex worker protagonists who manage to not only be present at but completely central to an unfathomable number of global crises – looking at you here, Phedre no Delauney. However, it does also mean TBO is at its best when it’s focus is at its narrowest.  Because Charm's story is so intensely microcosmic, and so deeply embedded in her fractured sense of self, this can make the bigger events, like riots, parliamentary coups and enemies at the city gates, sometimes feel ... oddly vague? Despite the emotional hooks the book offers for all of them.

To give a specific example of this (mild spoilers ahoy) one of the major "city in dissolution" events I referenced earlier is a riot in one of the poorer sections of the city that is, shall we say, violently curtailed by the army. Obviously this is abstractly a pretty horrible event but, in fiction (as in life), abstractly horrible doesn't always cut it. And TBO, I think, attempts to address this by ensuring we-as-readers suffer the loss of a character we knew, thus making the political as personal as it needs to be in order to be more than abstractly pretty horrible. Unfortunately the person in question is … like … in a single scene. So while it was, y’know, sad she died in a riot—very much a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time—it wasn’t quite enough for the riot to matter to me or feel as real as anything that happens to Charm (or affects her more directly than her laundry not getting done).

I will also say that, looking back on it now, I think there’s a degree to which TBO carries you along on its conviction and its … well … charm. Because the story combines a surprisingly compressed and pacy narrative with a richly detailed study of its central character, there isn’t a tonne of spaces for … anybody else. I ended up caring about quite a few of the supporting cast but I honestly couldn’t quite tell you why. I was intrigued by many of them, and the world they inhabit is a complex and deadly one, but I think I was more sort of … caring in the gaps? Or caring on principle. That doesn’t, of course, mean I didn’t care but I do retrospectively wish there’d been just a touch more space to develop at least a couple of the more plot-central characters – Major Nathair, for example, Ylsbeth, the deceased Emperor’s wife, or Oram, the de facto leader of the Emperor’s army of identity-stripped, mind controlled psychics. I also find myself wondering if the author perhaps slightly over-extended herself in the Emperor’s four—count ‘em four—fucked up sons. They’re all absolutely terrible people, partially because terrible things have happened to them, and partially on their own account, and at least two of them are severely mentally compromised, Phelan from his father’s botched attempted to surgically modify his psychic powers (to save him from future insanity) and Aerleas for being an empath and waging an incredibly bloody war. Luther has been banished for unspecified reasons (reasons we find out later) and Strephon seems to be just a basic shithead. To be fair, I found the mystery of Luther genuinely super interesting, especially because he initially seems like the best of the bad lot and I didn’t mind Strephon being a bit of a one-note monster, because some people kind of are? With Phelan and Aerleas, though, it’s more complicated, because they’re kind of victims as well as villains, and I never felt that this was explored, or even acknowledged, more than glancingly. I mean, maybe it wasn’t meant to. But that’s complicated in a different way, since trauma and survival are such important themes in the book as a whole.

By the time Aerleas shows up, he’s incoherently unwell, which I think is okay, but it mostly manifests in calling Charm a bitch. And Phelan … oh Phelan. I ended up feeling more for Phelan than I think the text wanted or expected me to. Like—and this is where it gets messy—he’s randomly and openly a paedophile (he’s allowed to get away with it because he’s a prince), as a direct result of his father’s digging about in his brain. I don’t want to get into the whole paedophilia-as-mental-illness thing or even remotely suggest that the pain some paedophile’s clearly suffer is more significant than the harm caused to some of the most vulnerable people in society. This is not me defending paedophilia or even defending this fictional character who is a paedophile. It’s more that I see no narrative reason for Phelan to be a paedophile, if that makes sense. And by “narrative reason” I’m not talking about the makeup of the character (people don’t “need” reasons to be a certain way, positive or negative), it’s more I don’t see why this creative choice was necessary or what it was textually achieving that could not have been done in a less distasteful way. Like, the paedophile and the uncontrollable violence are direct results of the surgery—not traits endemic to Phelan personally—and he would have been equally unsympathetic as a character if he’d sexually abused adults. I guess it was possibly there to make the point that the social dynamics in play here are so massively corrupted in favour of those at the very top that, with enough power behind you, it’s possible to get away with even the most condemnable transgressions. But, to be honest, I felt it mostly as a blunt tool employed by the author to ensure that Phelan remained hateable. I mean, there’s a scene towards the end, when he’s succumbed almost completely to madness but, amid the ranting and misogyny, he talks about how they ruined him with the surgery, and I found the whole scene—his plot arc in general—really harrowing. I think because there’s such a long history of queer people forced to undertake medical and surgical procedures, aimed at correcting who they are, that this just struck at me in a really painful, fundamental way. I know it’s not the same, because psychic powers do literally drive you mad in the setting of TBO, but … I mean, as someone whose mental health is not the best, my right to remain myself *in spite of that* is deeply important to me.

ANYWAY.

You know, it occurs to me I’m doing that thing where I say how much I really loved something and then pick at it like an unhinged crow for thousands of words. It is, however, genuinely my love language. This is me being deeply interested by a book.  The Bone Orchard is a unique and ambitious work, full of complicated ideas that—and your mileage may, of course, vary here—I’m not sure it always wrangles successfully. For example, hotly anticipated moments like Aerleas’s return, or Charm’s confrontation with Luther (which, to me, lacked the bite I expected, simply because it consists of Charm discoursing at him) fall a little flat. I could also have done with learning a lot more about Inshil, since there’s a tonne of backstory there, especially about Inshil’s treatment of psychics and Charm’s role/complicity in that, that remained a bit … hazy-feeling, right to the end of the book. And, honestly, I couldn’t always tell if the character work was nuanced or … err … incoherent. Particularly when it came to the Emperor, since there seems to be a “well, he did the best he could” type undertone sometimes, even though he has mind-controlled and stripped of personhood a subsection of his citizenry. We’re offered the fact he didn’t sleep with Charm for twelve years—that they did, in fact, become friends, and the lovers was an optional part of their dynamic, despite her being his mistress—as evidence he broadly did good by her, but she is also literally his prisoner? His mind-controlled prisoner. Who he insists keeps the body of a nineteen-year-old? Um. Of course, Charm is an unreliable narrator, and caring for people we shouldn’t care for is another theme of the book so … who knows?

Finally, I always wrestle a bit with books that explore themes of social and political upheaval but ultimately re-establish the exact same power structure as were proven corrupt and inadequate by the upheaval. I mean, I’m not saying TBO should have end with Charm, somehow, instituting democracy in Boren. But the future of the empire seems to come down to nothing more than “let’s make a decent man Emperor and hope for the best”— which is fine, as a compromise, but everyone seems broadly chill with it. And maybe I’m just a natural cynic but, while I’m willing to concede that a decent man is definitely going to be a better Emperor than a mentally ill misogynist, I’m not sure being a decent man makes you a good emperor? I’m kind leaning towards thinking it might make you a bad one. They also discover that it’s possible to use the mindlock technology to prevent psychics losing their mind without also using it as a form of mind control. Again, though, call me a cynic … if the technology already exists to mind control people, I’m not sure that’s a world domination cat that’s returning to the whoops bag any time soon.

Political concerns, however, the book ends with two women and a SPOILER character, sitting round a kitchen table, all of them in some way freer, happier, and gifted with greater knowledge and self-knowledge than they were at the start of the book. Irrespective of whatever happens to Boren in the next five years, or even the next fifty, I found this a deeply satisfying conclusion to the core the story itself. All of which is to say, as an exploration of political change, The Bone Orchard may falter now and again. But as a deeply personal story about a shattered woman doing whatever she can to put herself back together—including fighting against herself when she has to—it is beautiful, profound, messy and damn near perfect.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes when you pick a book for its cover without reading the synopsis you get surprised by bone ghost prostitutes.

The structure of the book is frankly weird. It's a real cluster fuck in the beginning that makes more sense over time. Early on it's pretty frustrating and I understand why so many people DNF.

While the narrator did a decent job, I wouldn't recommend the audiobook. Due to the complexity of this story a physical copy would make the content easier to track. There were so many characters; some with double identities, a lot were similarly named or had similar roles.

While there is a murder to solve the bigger mystery is what the hell is going on. I'm still not sure if I really liked the book or I'm just relieved it stopped being so confusing.

[Elle]

once again reiterating my love for creepy hands on book covers

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

If this doesn't get a Hugo or Nebula nom, I'm going to kick someone.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

My full review will post to my blog, The Suspected Bibliophile, on April 7th

[megs_bookrack]

I'm putting this one back on the shelf for now. I'm getting too distracted by other things and feel like it may be a better selection for me in the Fall.



Original:

ARC received. Thank you so much, Tor-Forge!!!



I can't tell what the heck this book is about from the synopsis, but I'm seeing some of my buzzwords, so am hecka intrigued. I can't wait to check it out!!

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only is this imminently readable, it's also ghoulishly clever.

A little admission: I didn't read the blurb, so going entirely by passive recommendations and a bit of judging a book by its cover, I figured this would be a rather standard horror tale.

I'm so glad I was wrong. Indeed, this is a lusciously crafted fantasy with necromantic elements, deep worldbuilding with careful plotting, and quite reasonable developments that kept me asking new questions.

It's a mystery, first and foremost, but with all the other hard questions about sex work, abuse, mental rape, and body horror -- AS AN INSTITUTION -- I wouldn't say this is a light tale. Indeed, it is handled very well and with poise and even a little charm. Because, let's face it, sometimes the only weapon anyone might have in a bad situation is charm.

I often got upset, but never with our MC. I was right there and invested the entire time. I was most impressed with how much epic fantasy intrigue, SF worldbuilding, and careful characterizations. It reminded me fondly of Gideon the Ninth, but more of a standard mystery tale.

I'm looking forward to reading a lot more by Mueller.

[Spencer Orey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This did some fresh things with character and magic. Some really cool psychic magic things and a good schemey plot. The middle flagged a bit but it was overall excellent.

My only real gripe is that in this story about empire and subjugation, the focus is on the nobility and elites (to an almost Shakespearean degree). We get a sense of them suffering (and they really DO suffer), but only little glimpses into all the other people who are dying because of the empire.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Slow-moving, intricate, and somber, The Bone Orchard stops just short of magnificence. The initial setup and political intrigue are reminiscent of Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor, but the story is more like something Sharon Shinn would write if she were less optimistic about the impact of profound trauma on the human psyche.

Let's just say that romances and happily-ever-afters do not feature prominently in thie story, and I liked it the better for it.

The emperor - all but immortal due to rejuvenating drugs - is dead by poison. He leaves behind several violent, potentially murderous, and completely unsuitable sons, and a final injunction to his mistress Charm: find my murderer. Remove my sons from the succession. Find a worthy successor. And then be free.

Simple enough, right? Except Charm's already complicated life is about to become even messier. First: there's the mindlock the emperor installed in her head that keeps her obedient to him even beyond his death. She doesn't have a choice in executing the his last directive. Second: the emperor's sons, who are as terrible as their father feared ('stone bastards, every one'), are now scheming for control and factions are forming. Third: there's someone else in her head (okay, several other people that she can push out into their own bodies after growing them from bone - hence her harem of boneghosts, Pride, Pain, Justice, Desire, and Shame). And that's to say nothing of the skeletons in her past that seem to be rising to the surface all at once.

Ensue swirl of courtly politics, strategic maneuvering, strange memory gaps, poisoning attempts - all while presiding charmingly over the most notorious house of ill-repute in Borenguard and its accompanying bone orchard.

The characters and relationships are particularly nuanced and morally ambiguous in The Bone Orchard - between Charm and the emperor and their decades-long...association, between Charm and her own boneghosts whom she pimps out to the volatile / pedophiliac / otherwise gross princes on the logic that a) she can't turn down a prince; and b) better they hurt a boneghost, who can be fixed by spending some time in a tank of empathy fluid, than an actual human, between Charm and her own, largely repressed, traumatic past.

I also found this world, a weird but seamless mix of high society, alchemy, and something akin to necromancy, to be fully immersive. The writing is unobtrusively good - hard to quote but easy to read. My one real lament is that the titular bone orchard takes up so little space in the book, which is almost exclusively spent in indoor spaces. I wanted to know more about how to plant bones and grow bone trees.

The Bone Orchard isn't quite like anything I've ever read before, but it's definitely going to linger in my brain. I'm willing to read anything Sarah Mueller puts out next on the strength of this one. 4.5 stars.

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Reading Vlog: https://youtu.be/PYRn9-TJsz4

In one of the biggest turnarounds I've had in a long time, I went from thinking of DNFing this book to kind of loving it!

The Bone Orchard is an intriguing debut novel that blends sci-fantasy, horror, and murder mystery into a twisty narrative about the trauma, the pressures placed on women, and the treatment of sex workers. Filled with court politics, dark secrets, and lots of twists, it's a book that will grow on you. Much like the way Mistress Charm grows the girls for her pleasure house.

Mistress Charm is the mistress of the emperor, imprisoned with a magical mindlock. On his deathbed he promises to free her if she can uncover which of his sons betrayed and poisoned him. I had some major qualms about how this book would handle sensitive issues, but it ended up doing a pretty great job for the most part. Though I still don't love the choice to have a teen girl as one of the pleasure workers who is abused (off page) by a grown man who is a prince. Making someone a p*dophile is a cheap way to denote them as a villain, and while it's kind of addressed later in the book, for me it was inadequate and that's what brings this down for me from 5 stars.

Otherwise, I think this book is very good in terms of plotting and thematic explorations, though the prose quality can be inconsistent. But overall, I ended up really liking this and I'm curious to see more from this author. The way that sex work is handled in this book is really excellent. I received an advance copy of this book for review from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Content warnings include sexual assault (off page), sexual abuse of a minor(off page), domestic violence (on page), suicide and suicidal ideation, death, murder, gore, body horror, emotional abuse, mind control, mental illness, human experimentation.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. What a beautiful, grotesque, intelligent blend of horror, sci fi, and fantasy. The conception and delivery of this novel was stunningly brilliant, but sort of confusing for me to really grasp at points. I’m also still unsure about the pacing and plotting, but the characterization of split personalities and selves through the bone ghosts and lady charm was very cool. The way misogyny, the violence of men, war, violence, and class stratification plays out through intricate political maneuvering and intrigue, hidden and alternating identities, and embodiment of prostitution and sexual violence through the characters and plots and unique perspectives we occupy as readers— TOR rarely disappoints.

[Celene Seals · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of those books I wish I could have not finished, so I could move on to a *hopefully* better one. It's clear from the ratings so far I am an outlier, but I just didn't care for this book at all. It wasn't the content but more the execution for me. I felt lost the entire time. Like I needed cliff notes to help me and I'm not sure if that was an editing flaw or what exactly. Maybe the people who gave it high ratings had said cliff notes.

Usually with fantasy, when you start the book you have to get your bearings, you may not understand who, what, where in that moment, but once you start reading, it all gets laid out and you understand the world you've entered. I never got to that point. The beginning started out confusing and we never get proper clarification on many things. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this book. But I felt like I didn't understand what was going on the entire time, like where do psychics come from and what do they do? It got to the point where I really didn't care and I just wanted it be over.


**Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion. I am posting this review to my Goodreads account immediately and will post it to my Amazon & Instagram accounts upon publication.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charm is a bone witch, a prisoner, and a whore. Alongside the boneghosts that she grew in her laboratory, she runs a brothel at Orchard House. When her keeper the old emperor lies dying, poisoned, he charges her with safeguarding the empire and finding out which of his sons was his killer.

Firstly, that cover is utterly beautiful.

Now that this important matter is acknowledged, let us go on into the story. I saw a lot of complaints that it was difficult to understand, for the author plunges us straight into the plot and leaves it to the reader to figure out how to navigate this new world. However, I thought the world-building was well done and understanding unfolded quickly enough – you only need to pay close attention.

The characters are each distinct and well-realized, and I enjoyed the complex relationships between Charm and each of her parts. The boneghosts embody her cast-off split personalities, and so the interactions between them provides a fascinating commentary on trauma and identity. I also liked all the politicking and Charm’s machinations to keep herself and the others afloat amid all the upheaval . You well know I am a sucker for political intrigue, and The Bone Orchard explores how women can manage it in a society that does not give them much power through characters like Charm, Pain, and Ylsbeth.

However, I found the piecemeal delivery of Charm’s backstory somewhat unsatisfying – there are a lot of gaps left in it still, though I think that was an intentional choice on the author’s part. A plot twist was telegraphed to the point that I did not realize it was meant to be a plot twist, though another related to it did catch me off guard. Finally, my only major criticism, I thought the climax got somewhat rushed after the leisurely pace of the story, so that I did not realize we had come to the end until we had.

Overall, a solid debut, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for future work by this author.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's set in a world where psychics, empaths, and other humans with strange abilities live. The entire premise of the story is really weird, and I had problems understanding what was taking place a great deal of the time. It’s a strange world where if there you have an emotion or a feeling that is too strong, you can push it out of your mind and send it to live in an artificial body next to you. Charm is the owner of the Orchard House, a place for gentlemen to eat, drink, play cards, and generally just have a good time. The woman that serves the men of Borengaurd with her other selves who represent a part of her that she doesn’t want to feel. After almost fifty years of being ageless and living in Orchard House, the Emperor who took her from her homeland and who she came to love, dies. With the Mindlock implanted in her head, he orders her to find his killer and to kill any of his sons that take the throne, but still needs to put a person that will take care of the realm; if she does all this, she will be free to leave. Some books catch the reader’s attention through the covers, others with the summary of the story. What caught my attention with this one was the idea of characters being able to harvest from a "bone tree". Not only is there the character of Charm but we also find that Pain, Pride, Desire, Justice, and Shame are also their own personas. At this point I was more than lost. I gave it 2 stars, because I simply didn't understand it enough to make a fair judgement of weather it was badly written or a bad story....but I don't believe I have ever encountered anything quite like it.

[Rhiannon Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

I was drawn to this book by its publisher's summary, great cover art, and the fact that this is a debut, but I stopped reading around the 30% mark, and here is why (no spoilers): When a reader begins a fantasy novel it is expected that we won't know what is going on. It is up to the author to build an entire world, describe characters with special traits, and interest us in unique struggles by dropping clues and information while also keeping us guessing. Unfortunately, I was guessing almost the whole time about almost everything. There was not a bread crumb trail rewarding me with any "aha" moments. I was just absolutely lost the entire time. When I reached a section where a particular item that was constantly hinted about was finally described, I was disappointed in how it was done. I knew then that I had to move on. ⁠
⁠
At over 400 pages, I believe that a strong editor could have polished this into a slightly shorter and much more tightly written novel. ⁠




Come chat with me about books here, too:
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest

[Cozy Reading Times · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75*
Enthralling, unique and a bit eerie.
Perfect for autumn but also some rainy days in April.

it's complicated to explain why I loved this book so much. But there are a few components that can be pinned down:

1. the riddle of it all. I love books about political intrigue but I also have very high standards. Comprehending character relationships, political interests and parties, is something that's quite easy for me. But that also leads to some books seeming to "easy" to be intriguing (i.e. A memory Called Empire or Warbreaker) - I don't look down on others if they think differently, there are more than enough subjects that I have a hard time keeping track of and am mediocre at comprehending at best.

This book I've often seen deemed too complicated, too convoluted to be enjoyable. I found it, while challenging, just convoluted enough to be extremely enjoyable. Against other people's judgement, I think there are plenty of clues and hints but they are very subtle and easy to be overlooked. I loved this subtlety which was perfectly woven in with the story and slowly but surely let it all click into place until it all made sense.

2. Charm and all that she's made of. This book is at its core, a character study but in a very unique form. It deals heavily with trauma and how a person might deal with that. It also showcases the human mind in all it's nuance and contradictions. I love her conflict between what the person she once was would do and what the person she is right now - and wether her trauma and situation justify her actions, no matter how controversial they are. A major aspect of Charm's personality is her dissociative identity disorder which in my op was very well incorporated and discussed in the story. I would still recommend you to look for own voices reviews as their perspective is more important here than my own.
The entire supporting cast was amazing as well, even the smallest side character was intriguing and well fleshed out.

3. The themes: What characteristics dominate a person and which expericences decide who you are or aren't. Do you decide who you are or are you involuntarily shaped by others and what life brings you? What makes a good ruler and was is morally right or is that all hypocrisy?
And how much is the good of sociaty worth sacrificing? Your own freedom of mind? Your sanity? Your own happiness?
There are many questions ask in this book and it's not on the nose with its answers but rather leaves the reader to decide what to believe.

4. the athmosphere and the world. I loved this world and wpuld love to see more of it, even though this story is definitely told - maybe in form of novellas or short stories. It's dark but beautiful. In some aspects it reminded me of Arcane (there'sa strong segragation between social groups and gates that connect the uppor, middle and high class). At times beautiful and lush - like Orchard house, the opera or the ball at the palace - at others gruesome and eerie - the laboratory or the stories from Charm's home country. The immersive prose plays wonderfully into all of that.

I could continue gushing about this book for ages but instead, I'll just tell you to pick this new release up yourself and just try it. It's by all means worth it.

[Madi]

DNF @ like 75% so atmospheric but the plot got lost on the way to the party

[Kate♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5stars

*I was provided with an ARC by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

I really enjoyed this!! It's been a while since I read fantasy, and this was such a fun way to get back into it. One of my biggest qualms with fantasy recently is that it all feels very similar - similar characters, tropes, etc. But this was SO unique. The character of Charm is honestly enough to read this book - talk about a strong female character! She is, as I saw another reviewer say, she is "lost, a madam, a whore, a witch but also a warrior." She is so complex and interesting and shows so many sides of women and what it means to be a woman. Her story is both so inspiring but also absolutely heart breaking - this has quite a few trigger warnings for sexual assault/rape. Charm is made even more complex by her necromantic creations of her boneghosts who appear to be little piece of her soul that she has given their own body.

I really loved the atmosphere of this book. Especially the beginning, when first meeting Charm and "The Lady" and their creations of Pain, Justice, Desire, Shame and Pride, it weirdly reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. The atmosphere was just very gaunt and grey and the inclusion of the necromancy and creation of the boneghosts, it weirdly reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Sally. Considering I love Tim Burton and TNBC, that's a big compliment from me!!

The reason I docked a star was a problem I have with a lot of fantasy and most likely because I'm so out of practice reading it so I apologize - but I found the writing of this kept me at a bit of an arms length. I really liked the characters, but I didn't always CARE about them, if that makes sense? I find it really difficult to truly love and care about characters in fantasies, and unfortunately this one had the same problem. I'm also just too dumb to read fantasy nowadays and kept getting a bit confused about the plot/politics and confused a few characters. But these are things I'm sure fantasy readers won't be bothered by.

Thank you again to Tor for this ARC and the opportunity to read this wonderful debut early!

[Cortney - Bookworm & Vine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent this entire book mildly to extremely confused. That's the thing with high fantasy and made-up worlds, it's up to the author to spell it all out for us. As a reader, I'm ready to believe whatever world you spin, but you have to explain it to me first.

That being said, even with my confusion, I still liked this book. The characters and the story were great. I just wish I understood more. I even contemplated dropping it a few times within the first 100 pages. I'm glad I stuck with it, but this book was WORK.

3.75 stars rounded up, if for no other reason than that stunning cover.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated this one. It’s a very dark fantasy, and it definitely requires the reader to pay attention and slowly piece together what’s going on, but it rewards that attention. It’s a meaty plot with large-scale consequences and yet satisfying in a single volume. And it’s a unique exploration of trauma, exploring one woman’s coping strategies for a very dark past without ever becoming gratuitous.

In a dark and Gothic land that feels inspired by 19th century England—one that never forgets that at this point in history it was an empire built on conquest, not just a country—Charm runs a high-end brothel staffed by “boneghosts”: essentially clones of herself, grown in a vat and animated by fragments of her own consciousness that she’s thrown off to survive. Charm is more or less a prisoner of the Emperor, who upon being poisoned, secretly charges her with finding his murderer and getting someone better onto the throne than any of his sons who might be interested. All four sons are nasty pieces of work in one way or another, and Charm and the boneghosts have their hands full just trying to stay above water as the empire rapidly begins sliding toward destruction.

It’s a compelling story, and well-written. The setting and characters feel real and textured, and the concept of the boneghosts and how the seven pieces of Charm all relate to one another (and often don’t get along!) is fascinating to read about. I appreciated that none of them (except perhaps Pain, who’s more of a supporting character) are lacking in flaws and complexity, and that Charm is able to use her femininity and social skills and lack of scruples to achieve her goals. And that in the meanwhile, some of the worst characters in the book still carry a bit of pathos—they’ve been driven mad by their psychic powers, and they know it; they haven’t chosen evil. I liked slowly putting together the pieces as we learn more about the world and the psychics and Charm’s history. There’s a lot going on here, and I didn’t have any idea how it would all turn out.

It isn’t a perfect book. While reading carefully and accepting that you don’t know everything at first should get a reader through the initial confusion—and I appreciate a book that expects readers to pay attention—there was something about the way characters communicate with each other that left me sure I was missing some emotional nuance—I didn’t always feel quite on the same wavelength as the author. There’s also an odd juxtaposition of elements that are extremely realistic—like the dire consequences of careless economic policies—and elements that feel much too easy. Pain somehow becomes a citywide favorite because she sometimes gives day-old bread to beggars—is this that unusual? And it seemed to me that Oram becoming emperor was supposed to be a happy ending, which after all that realism about governance struck me as jarring, because he has no qualifications other than bloodline and sanity. The Emperor was looking for a worthy heir, and yet seems to have dismissed him, presumably for some carefully considered reason! There’s a lot here about what the world expects of women, and how living up to expectations for graciousness and fragility can leave one open to abuse and unable to deal with harsh realities, but there are also moments that feel a bit too on-the-nose.

All that said, I enjoyed and was impressed by this—it’s intricate and complex and thoughtful and angry and in the end satisfying. I’ll be very interested to see what Mueller writes next.

[Melanie THEE Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

While the Old Emperor is on his deathbed, Mistress Charm is given a task: to find out which of the emperor's sons are responsible for his death.

The Bone Orchard was incredible. If someone were to ask me what this book was about, I would say it's about bodily autonomy and the things we're willing to do to protect ourselves. I would keep it vague because you have to experience this book on your own. That third act is amazing. But don't worry, if you're like me and aren't into dark or sad books, the ending is hopeful. Don't get me wrong, it's a heavy read but it doesn't have an ending where you regret reading it. The final scene is so wholesome and it’s well-deserved after what these characters have endured.

I took off half a star because it was pretty confusing in the beginning, the world building was a little fuzzy, but I started to understand what was happening about halfway through the book. But yeah, while I understand why so reviewers DNF'd this, I'm a little sad because the last part was great.


TW/CW: death of a child, violence, murder, trauma.

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a intriguing story. I couldn't put this book down. What I enjoyed most about The Bone Orchard was it’s magic system. Sitting somewhere between necromancy and Frankenstein-style science, it allows Charm to grow companions in vats, who act almost as extensions of her own personality and staff the tea house. This is pretty unique and I found it quite interesting to read. The Bone Orchard is reminiscent of a puzzle where pieces need to be slotted together, of a game of chess where the figures start out as pawns and take the shape of the more complex figures as the game goes on and they move across the board. But nevertheless, they conform to archetypes more than truly human characters. I am waiting on your next great book Sara A. Mueller. Highly recommend.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher Tor Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I’m struggling to find a way to discuss The Bone Orchard, because I honestly struggled to follow the book while reading it. It’s an ambitious, wholly distinctive look at the mistreatment of sex workers under the guise of a fantasy story. The main character Lady Charm is the madam of a brothel who “employs” (used very loosely) girls created from fragments of her own consciousness. She’s equally as much a necromancer as she is a scientist. And if that sounds like a fascinating concept, it's because it absolutely is. But a creative concept does not make a brilliant book.

I’m not one to hyperfixate on worldbuilding in fantasy books because the characters will always matter more to me in a story. But I will notice worldbuilding when it isn’t there, or when it is so muddled I'm left in a constant state of never quite feeling like I have my bearings in any one setting in the landscape of the story. The Bone Orchard unfortunately had me feeling this same disorienting sense of being in a fantasy universe without ever really getting to know it at all. And that's in large part the result of the majority of the book taking place in a single location - The Orchard House brothel. It creates a similar kind of insular atmosphere of a closed-circle mystery, only the borders aren't completely closed and the author is trying to convince you of a a whole fantasy world rife with geo-political conflicts. Those two things just don't mesh together.

Perhaps if the characters themselves were distinctive enough to detract from the ambiguous worldbuilding, I would have had a better time with this. But the characters all seemed to blend together into nebulous groups of protagonists, antagonists, and the ambiguous side characters that could swing either way.

1. Protagonists - Charm and her collection of prostitute bone ghosts who are in a constant flux of living and dead. Despite having names like Shame, Desire, and Pain their personalities were confusingly interchangeable even with the range of virtues they were supposed to symbolize.

2. Antagonists - The emperor’s sons, painted as cut-and-dry evil men with no gray area in between. There’s really no easier way to illustrate a character deserves every ounce of fury wrought upon them then by establishing them as a pedophile.

3. The rest - The Empress, and to a certain degree the guards that frequent Charm’s brothel. I couldn’t tell you any of their names, but they're there and they're politicking.

I understand there’s a feminist reading that underlies the entire story here - most apparently commentary on women’s perceived lack of power in a world dominated by men. But you can’t outright vocalize the inequality between genders like The Bone Orchard does and then have an entire organization of male and female royal guards that do not reveal their sex and are treated as a monolith of agender beings by the general populace around them. It’s sending two very different messages.

I want to give this book credit for what it is - totally unique and an ambitious standalone fantasy with some heavy handed commentary on sex work as it can be applied to our own world. But in terms of my own enjoyment, I felt a complete disconnect from a narrative and setting that never seemed to really find steady footing. I can’t say The Bone Orchard is a book that's going to stick with me - besides a niggling feeling of never quite connecting all the dots on a page with too many to count.

[Lyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not without it's flaws, but I love it all the same (if not more so because of its imperfections). I loved the characters and the story was convoluted but brilliant, it's absolutely getting added to my collection & is my favourite book of 2022 so far <3

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5/5

So in theory I really like the project of this work and it really stuck the landing with the ending, for me, but this was a bit of a chore for me to read, which is not what I want from my reading experience. This has a very dark atmosphere in a world where people with psychic powers music be controlled for their own good and our main character handles her trauma by putting parts of her personality in different bone ghosts that help her run her brothel. This is a very bleak world and the plot takes awhile to become engaging and since our main character is pretty isolated (even from herself) in the first part of the book I did not have character interactions to engage me while I waited for the plot to show up. But once it did I read the second half of the book in one sitting and really appreciated a lot of the reveals and character development we were able to witness. This will not be for everyone but its a very unique experience so if you think it might have themes you want to explore and an atmosphere you enjoy in your fantasy, I would give it a try.