REVIEW: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Information:
Title/Author: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Series: The Bone Season #1
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Dystopian
ISBN: 9781620401392

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.

I picked this book up at a used book sale a few months ago with no clue as to what I was getting into. I skimmed through the synopsis on the front flap, thinking that I may enjoy it, and put it into my bag of book.  It’s been months since that happened, and I finally decided to pick this book up from my TBR shelf. I was nervous going into it, but it turned out to be one of the best books that I have picked up this summer.

The Bone Season is the first book in an adult series of the same name by debut British author, Samantha Shannon. This book was super addicting, fast-paced and had the right amount of romance to satisfy me. If you are a fan of books by Sarah J. Maas or Leigh Bardugo, The Bone Season is for you!

What I liked…

So much to love. But, the number one thing that I liked about this novel was the writing! Sometimes you go into a new author’s writing and it doesn’t capture your attention (*cough* Sarah J. Maas *cough*). But, Samantha Shannon’s writing style is brilliant and elegant. It captures your attention from the beginning until the end and makes you crave more!

Samantha Shannon also created a super unique dystopian world. Basically, we time travel to 2059, where England is no longer as we see it today. London has become Scion London, or SciLo. Oxford has become Sheol I. Two very different places with very different people. Both are what voyants call home, but it is your view on home that matters. Scion London and the other major Scion cities are what the wandering voyants of the world call home. Sheol I is what the Rephaim and stolen voyants call home.

If you haven’t read the book and are wondering what a voyant is, it is basically a clairvoyant human. Samantha Shannon goes into further detail about the different types of voyants throughout the book and there is even a whole page showing each type at the front of the book! But, we see through the eyes of Paige Mahoney, a rare type of voyant known as a dreamwalker.

I loved Paige’s character. She was spunky, and willing to talk back to anyone. Literally I wish that I was as brave as her. She spoke back to her leader, she spoke back to her enemy, she even spoke back to the man she was falling in love with! She had her mind set with her every move, and she didn’t want anyone to stop her.

I always really REALLY loved Warden. From the moment he saw Paige in the crowd, I knew that there was going to be something brewing between them. And no, it wasn’t coffee. LOVE! The past few books that I’ve read this summer didn’t have romance, so the romance in this book really satisfied me.

I also found that this book was a lot like A Court of Mist and Fury, the second book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses trilogy. Specifically the romance between Warden and Paige. Alike Rhysand, Warden was protective and caring over Paige. And it took Paige forever to trust him, but she ended up giving in. Paige was also a little like Feyre. Although she had no known art talent, she was stubborn and didn’t want people to boss her around.

The final thing that I liked about this novel was that it wasn’t written with the tongue of an adult novel. The main character may have been nineteen, but The Bone Season felt like your classic YA novel.

What I didn’t like…

It felt as if Paige would never be the strong heroine that we dreamed of. She was constantly getting injured and was saved by Warden. She was always the “damsel in distress” who was saved by her prince charming. Although I didn’t totally hate this since I think it helped the romance, but I would’ve loved to see a slightly more powerful version of her.

Nashira was horrible. She was the villain that you never want to see in a book. From the moment she laid her eyes on Paige, she knew that she wanted to kill her. I don’t even want to talk about Nashira, so we are just going to drop that topic.

Overall…

I loved this book so much! It was the first book in such a long time that I was able to binge-read over two hundred pages. Everything about this book just made me want more and for that, I gave it 5/5 stars.

I cannot wait to pick up the other books in the future. I just learned that there are going to be seven books in this series, and I cannot wait to read them all. I just know that Paige and Warden’s story will be a good one.

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Happy Reading,
Alaina