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Leilanie Stewart

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The Buddha's Bone: A dark psychological journey to find light Kindle Edition

by Leilanie Stewart (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 20 ratings

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She was in Japan to teach English. She'd soon discover the darker side of travelling alone.

Kimberly Thatcher was a Londoner who set off to teach English in Japan on a one year contract. After escaping her abusive boyfriend back in London, she soon found herself pursued by a colleague - with even more sinister intentions than her ex. Kimberly would soon learn the darker nature of her relationships, forcing her on a soul-searching journey through darkness to find the light. What happened when you looked into the abyss?

FROM THE BACK COVER:

Death
Kimberly Thatcher wasn't an English teacher. She wasn't a poet. She wasn't an adventurer. Now she wasn't even a fiancée. But when one of her fellow non-Japanese colleagues tried to make her a victim, she said no.

Cremation
In Japan on a one-year teaching contract at a private English language school, and with her troubled relationship far behind her in London, Kimberly set out to make new friends. She would soon discover the darker side of travelling alone – and people's true intentions.

Rebirth
As she came to question the nature of all those around her – and herself – Kimberly was forced to embark on a soul-searching journey into emptiness. What came next after you looked into the abyss? Could Kimberly overcome the trauma – of sexual assault and pregnancy loss – blocking her path to personal enlightenment along the way, and forge a new identity in a journey of-

Death. Cremation. Rebirth.

TRIGGER WARNINGS/AUTHOR NOTE - This novel deals with serious and sensitive issues. Please take care of the following: Racist language (by the antagonist); sexual assault; rape; miscarriage; mental health issues; substance abuse; depictions of sex.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09BL92LCC
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Leilanie Stewart (October 25, 2021)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 25, 2021
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 687 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,696,238 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #5,002 in Psychological Literary Fiction
- #12,565 in Psychological Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #26,338 in Psychological Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 20 ratings

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Leilanie Stewart

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Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes paranormal and psychological fiction, as well as experimental verse. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry.

In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.

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Reads Alot

Both a Journey Abroad and an Inner Journey

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2022

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"The Buddha's Bone: A dark psychological journey to find light" by Leilanie Steward describes twenty-five-year-old Kimberly Thatcher's year abroad teaching English in a small Japanese city. The book reads like a memoir, which appealed to me. I enjoyed the story of Kimberly's journey, alone and nervous, to a country where she knows no one and does not speak the language. The story also read like a travel journal, with descriptions of the Japanese landscape, people, convenience foods, festivals. I loved the armchair traveler aspect of the book. Some reviewers commented that they felt the first part of the book was slow, but that was my favorite part. I enjoyed the details of Kimberly's arrival, settling in, meeting the various characters. Throughout the book, she goes through an inner journey, as much as a physical one. Her moods swing from loneliness to thinking she's made a big mistake to amazement at her adventure. I found this to be very real, how someone her age would feel. The darker elements are in tune with what many women face or fear, whether traveling or not. Kimberly is also a poet and her poems describing her feelings were a nice touch. I enjoyed this book. I was hooked from the Amazon preview and kept reading all in one go.

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2022

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I enjoyed reading about a year in Kimberley’s life while teaching English in Japan. Learning the language and culture alongside Kimberley was educational and interesting.

Kimberley made many mistakes in her romantic life and it was frustrating to watch her being abused emotionally and allowing herself to be insulted, bullied, manipulated and gaslighted by her fiancé. She made other mistakes and finally came to terms with her poor choices.

This was a spiritual journey for Kimberley and it was satisfying to follow her along the way to fulfillment. Kimberley matured and found peace, friendship and love.

There were many humorous moments too. The author made Kimberley a realistic person. I thought I was reading a memoir for half the book, before I realized it was fiction.

I read this book in 2 days, straight through. It kept me interested and wanting to find out what happened next. Great read!

Helpful

Reid Moore

Well written, but obnoxious main character

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2023

The writing is reasonably good with a few awkward turns here and there. The flow and dialog doesn’t feel bunched up, and it has a story to tell. It’s not a comfortable story, and it helps to already know a significant amount of Japanese and Japanese culture, even if what’s being said is explained.

That being said, it’s kind of like Scorsese’s movie “Silence” where the westerners come in like cowboys to tame the barbarians and are thoroughly knocked down. If you do not embrace Japan, it will politely drown you.

Is it worth a read? Yes. But… the rampant racism on the part of the narrator got irritating.

The main character (Kimberly)’s judgemental and paradoxically self-righteous and self-loathing toxic outlook on the world tended to make this a cringy read. To say I did not like her is an understatement.

It took half the story before it tapered off even mildly. Honestly, 90% of the book I wanted to kick her for being such a racist, insecure, imperialistic, narrow-minded and frankly stupid character. I had a really hard time believing someone with such a narrow-minded view of humanity would have had a master’s degree in psychology.

Did the world smack her down? Sure. Did I feel vindicated for it? Not really, because there felt like there was nothing redeemable there to root for.

The sights, sounds, set phrases and reminders of my time in Kyoto, Tokyo and Nara were pleasant and evoked clear memories, but they were ruined by the internal monologue of the narrator who seemed to exude hate at everything that’s beautiful and different from what she knew instead of embracing it. Which makes the premise of going to a foreign country to be a teacher seem kind of far-fetched. Last I checked, you had to have a minimal fluency and JLPT1 level of the langauge at least, which is more than me, and I got around just fine.

It was well-written if you like reading about obnoxious jerks finding themselves. Personally, I was trying to look past all the narcissistic drama and enjoy the scenery.

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ADG

A hard hitting beautiful read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 23, 2021

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The Buddha’s Bone by Leilanie Stewart is a dark psychological story surrounding Kimberley Thatcher, an English teacher landing in Japan to begin a year long adventure. The beginning of the book feels light-hearted and fun, promising us a tale of adventure and travel, but further on it explores a range of dark traumas. This book comes with a number of warnings, and deservedly so, and I give huge kudos to the author for the way she deals with them in a sensitive yet forceful manner.

The start of this book was a little slow as Stewart spends a long time laying the groundwork for the novel. We are introduced to Kimberley’s situation, her experience of culture shock, and a wide number of characters that come at you fairly quickly, making the book read like a very-well written gap year journal. I sometimes felt like the cast was slightly too large as I had trouble keeping up with who was who, and that at some points Kimberley’s trouble of adapting to a completely different culture was repeated too often. I soon realised, however, that this was on purpose and that it added to the story: Kimberley was too trusting of too many people who took advantage of her and the culture shock she was experiencing only heightened the sense of confusion and disorientation she felt later on. As I read on, I realised that Stewart added these things to give us some very interesting parallels around Kimberley’s character and situation.

On the subject of writing tradecraft, whenever I read poetry or songs in a book I always look for hints of foreshadowing, and there were plenty in this book. The poems range from soft and gentle to having some dark twists in them, and knowing what happened in this book later on it was interesting to go back in and find them, and then read them in a different light. It is a personal preference of mine to avoid books with sexual assault and other such themes, however the author dealt with them with grace and understanding, and this is a real credit to the book.

In this write-up I haven’t dealt much with the plot or the characters but instead I have focused on the themes of the book. Whenever a book makes a reader do this, I feel that it is a sign of a really well-thought out piece of literature as it makes the reader truly think about what they are reading. It is clear that Stewart has a good grip on her craft and is a thoughtful and compassionate writer, and it shows throughout The Buddha’s Bone.

Rita H Rowe

A painful but necessary journey.

Reviewed in Australia on December 20, 2021

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Kimberley is in Japan on the premise of teaching English, but it’s clear she’s escaping – of what, she herself is unaware, but she is determined to become who she wants to be, not who she is.
The Buddha’s Bone is a journey of self-discovery and determination to achieve more, and Kimberley is a character that can sometimes come off as weak minded – there were times I wanted to scream at her – but it’s ultimately her compassion towards her oppressors that determines the type of woman she is and always has been.
The characters in this novel were wonderfully developed, engaging, and each on their own journey – and I could even find pity for some of those who probably didn’t deserve it.
A sometimes confronting and thought provoking piece of work that enmeshes the reader in the darker side of life.

Christina Clarry

An intriguing read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2022

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This book will give you a revelation into the culture of Japan as experienced by the author herself in her time there as a private English tutor. The descriptions of the country and the mores are engaging. The quirks of coping with the intricacies of a complex language are prolonged.
In this story, the English/American tutors are mainly depicted as a hedonistic, heavy drinking group.
The main character, Kimberley Thatcher, is deeply flawed and weak when she arrives in Japan due to having been trapped in a highly abusive relationship she is trying to escape. I was initially taken aback by her perception of her house mate, but this was a clever ploy by the author to expose the extent of how much her attitude had been manipulated by her controlling boyfriend of seven years, whose influence had affected her attitude to others.
This boyfriend comes out to Japan and displays his controlling behaviour, bigotry and racism to name a few unpalatable traits.
Eventually, Kimberley begins to unshackle herself from this relationship only to get into deeper trouble with another abusive man. Her vulnerability is evident as seven years of being controlled have stripped her of judgement. Under the influence of alcohol she is raped and falls pregnant only to be abandoned. After a miscarriage she begins a journey of 'self discovery' with new perceptions of her house mate and friends.
Overall the book is worth reading as an insight into another culture.

Amy Finlay

Beautiful and creative story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2021

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The Buddha’s Bone’s story is created in a way that is interesting and easily imaginable. Being a reader, I can relate to the plot since I’ve personally known people who taught English abroad and can attest to the culture shock they experienced upon first arriving. Kimberly’s story touches on a lot of really important topics: misogyny, sexual assault, trauma, female friendship, loss, mental health. The story definitely took some interesting twists and turns, as well.

The titular “Buddha’s bone” story of Japanese tradition is beautiful and creative, and I really enjoyed this aspect of the book; it was like a shining beacon of hope for Kimberly in her darkest moment.

I like how readers catch a glimpse into the intimate thoughts of Kimberly through her poetry, as well. I like that the longer she is in the country, the more inspired she is to write poetry. Travelling can definitely create that kind of spark! One of my favourite poems was Abyss of Loneliness – I think it perfectly summed up her experience of being in an abusive relationship. There are also some literary references peppered throughout that I appreciated.

The characters are all unique and funny (except for Carl and Vince. I detest Carl and Vince.), and most of them showed growth throughout the plot. For me, Jei Pi's transformation from an annoying "ginger monster" to arguably, dare I say, the second heroine of the book was a great character development. I enjoyed the humour present throughout the book, as well and would recommend it to anyone looking for a (not so) innocent abroad story.

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Horsepower

A compelling journey.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2024

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The Buddha’s Bone by Leilanie Stewart is a book you won't be able to put down.
Kimberly Thatcher takes a job in Japan teaching English and basically throws herself in at the deep end. She only speaks basic Japanese and has little or no knowledge of the culture. Her plans are to explore both the country and herself. She’s on a voyage of self-discovery.
Her colleagues are an eclectic mix and, as she begins to know them, she is sure of some but not comfortable with others.
On top of that her partner, Carl, isn’t happy with her decision to come to Japan and he turns up, bringing along with him a suitcase full of racism, misogyny and an obnoxious personality. I really did not like Carl. I think Kimberly began to feel the same very quickly when she began to get the full Horrible-Carl experience.
I loved this book. Kimberley is a young, wide-eyed innocent in many ways and she ranges from confident and outgoing to insecure and alone as she comes to grips with the many nuances of Japanese culture.
But this is also a very dark book. Kimberley is raped by a colleague, and it’s only after this occurs that her real journey begins.
This is such a compelling book to read. As well as the story, the author gives us fascinating insights into the Japanese way of life. And she also teaches us a little of the beautiful language as an added bonus.
I am so glad I found this book.

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The Buddha's Bone: A dark psychological journey to find light Kindle Edition

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