Book Review: The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book. I applied for The Bone Witch because the premise sounded very interesting. However, the reality turned out much different. I was initially confused between the two ongoing stories. I don't particularly like long passages in italics that didn't seem to pertain to the main storyline (later I discovered that it's told by a bard about an older Tea).
Tea is a young girl who discovers she's a bone witch when she accidentally raises her brother, Fox, from the dead.   After this the story goes downhill. Tea is taken off to learn how to become an asha, and, as others have noted, this mirrors Memoirs of a Geisha very closely. The author is very good at detail and world-building. But there is very little actual story going on here so the detailed descriptions of everything just become mind-numbing. I'm normally a fast reader, but this book took me forever to finish. When I keep looking to see what page I'm on now and it seems like hours and you've only read ten pages, you know there's a problem.
I'm sure that some people will really like this book, but it was not for me.  I reviewed this book of my own volition.

Link to Amazon