Author: Samantha Shannon
Series: The Bone Season #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Release: 2013
Source: Kindle Edition
Pages: 481
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SYNOPSIS: The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people's minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.
It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.
The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.
EXPECTATIONS: First of all, my apologies for being so absent! between all the homework, projects, exams, and dance lessons I barely have time to breathe without feeling guilty.
Anyway, initially The Bone Season was a February read from ThatOneReader's Book Club omg it took me soooooooo long to read, but don't think it was because it was a bad book. I was just really busy.
THE WORLD: The story takes place in 2059 in Scion-controlled London. In this future there have been clairvoyant people for years now but it has been proclaimed unnatural and if you're clairvoyant you better hide because it's a crime to be clairvoyant (how can something you were born with be a crime?).
CHARACTERS: The main character is Paige Mahoney, she's a 19 year old Irish girl and also a dreamwalker, meaning she can walk into other people's landscapes (it's like a physical but intangible place representing your soul and thoughts etc). She is working with the Seven Seals, which is an illegal group of clairvoyants run by Jaxon Hall, scouting out in I Cohort, Section 4. Sounds difficult... it is difficult and that's why you need half of the book to assimilate all the information.
One day, on the train ride to her father's home in Oxford, Paige encounters another clairvoyant. They are the last two left in the train when two Underguards of the Night Vigilance Division come aboard on rounds. They attempt to capture them but Paige loses control of her ability and accidentally kills one Underguard and drives the other to insanity. After that Paige knows they're coming for her so she tries to escape but it's recruited by the Rephaim in "The Bone Season" and she's assigned (almost like a slave) to Arcturus Mesarthim aka Warden, who is the blood-consort of Nashira Sargas, leader of the Rephaim. These creatures –yeah they're not human– value the voyants highly as soldiers for their army because they're trying to conquer the world.
The book goes on with Paige's struggle training as a soldier for the Rephaim while she also tries to not get killed because the training is savage and Rephaim are not very nice... more characters are introduced as well but barely mention once Paige is recruited. The only important name of the secondary characters you need to remember is Nick.
ROMANCE: There is not much love. We get a bit of romantic action towards the very end of the book and I don't know how to feel about it... reminds me of Shatter Me in a way.
GOOD: So the first half of the book is really confusing and because I had to read at 2 chapters per week speed I was always forgetting details and then had to re-read uuughhh took me forever to get past 50% but afterwards it did really become much better! I think the last 20% of the book has so much potential and it's what gives me hopes for the 2nd book! (I've heard is better than the 1st).
The major plus I would say it's the main character Paige and her complex life. Her story is very interesting. Actually the world is interesting!
BAD: I've already said it. The first half was too slow and complicated but it definitely got worse because of my inability to read full speed. To be honest I would like to re-read this book in summer when I have more time so that I can judge more properly.
Nonetheless, if you are willing to sacrifice your time on the first half of the book afterwards it becomes much better and there is more action ;)
OVERALL: 3 stars. It was really hard to choose between 3 or 4 stars because I feel like I would've enjoyed the book much more if I had had more time to read it continuously instead of 2 chapters per week so I finally settled for 3 and I'll put it to re-read. This won't be the final rate until I re-read it properly. All being said, if you're up for high fantasy and you have enough time, give it a try!
The major plus I would say it's the main character Paige and her complex life. Her story is very interesting. Actually the world is interesting!
BAD: I've already said it. The first half was too slow and complicated but it definitely got worse because of my inability to read full speed. To be honest I would like to re-read this book in summer when I have more time so that I can judge more properly.
Nonetheless, if you are willing to sacrifice your time on the first half of the book afterwards it becomes much better and there is more action ;)
OVERALL: 3 stars. It was really hard to choose between 3 or 4 stars because I feel like I would've enjoyed the book much more if I had had more time to read it continuously instead of 2 chapters per week so I finally settled for 3 and I'll put it to re-read. This won't be the final rate until I re-read it properly. All being said, if you're up for high fantasy and you have enough time, give it a try!
HANNAHCASSIE'S REVIEW
EXPECTATIONS: I barely know any people left by now who has not read and loved this book. However, somehow I have been really struggling with picking this book up...there was just this vibe I had and in the end I kinda see I should trust that vibe more often.
THE WORLD: Alright as Laura already mentioned above we are set a little bit in the future where everything should be advanced...however it is more like the world as we know it went straight downhill and the world this story takes place in is very horrible and poor. There are always these people with abilities as well as sorta mutated/other races that pretend to be people. Basically yeah, a bizarre and complicated world. Frankly, most of the time I love bizarre and complicated but in this book it just did not work for me. I think it was a problem because the so called normal world was already complicated and then we move to this hidden place ran by other race which is even more complicated and in the end you just get super confused.
CHARACTERS: I think it is fair to say that this book is about Paige and Warden, now mind it is not his official name but he liked to be called this way so why not. So Paige is this girl who can dreamwalk, a rare ability that can be deadly. She is pretty young and is mixed up with a gang in so called normal world before she gets kidnapped and send to Oxford which is not Oxford as we know but a hidden place of monstrous creatures who imprison humans as slaves. So of course Paige becomes a slave and her master is assigned to be Warden. However, Warden is not all cold blood monster, he actually sees potential in Paige and of course is that only one creature that treats her nicely in private and horribly in public. Am I the only one who feels like this type of development line has been used at least in another 100 books? But yeah okay, so of course Warden despises what his race does and goes against his leader and blah blah. You get the idea, right? I would like to say I felt nothing for Warden but it would be a bit of a lie, I ended up being a victim of this cheap charm...not much but still.
ROMANCE: Would it be a spoiler if I said there is romance between Paige and Warden? I mean isn't it already completely and purely obvious when you read the blurb? But I did not like it. This style is used so often in books and is one of the things I really really hate.
GOOD: I kinda liked this whole idea of the secret place of monstrous race...I mean it was confusing but it was kinda cool I think. And yeah they are monsters but still they have all these politics and rules and all, in a way not very original but still appealing.
BAD: This whole story was one big cliche for me, something I have read many many times before and I mean even from the blurb you already get that hey a copy paste story once more. I really don't get why authors still write it, tho? No matter how good you are at writing if it has been done hundred times before it will not be different.
OVERALL: I was disappointed. I liked some aspects but other than that it was pretty straight line copy paste story full of cliches and predictable as hell. I just really did not get a feeling where you are intrigued to go on so I will not be continuing with the series.
What do you think about THE BONE SEASON?
