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.
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Does The Bone Season have flaws? Yes. Does it have too much
confusing slag in the beginning? Yes. Does the world-building not make
sense at times? Yes. Is the romance problematic? Yes.
But despite its flaws, I enjoyed the HELL out of this book. The writing was solid, the world was interesting, and Samantha Shannon built up suspense so damn well I couldn't put this book down. I have two final papers due for university next week and what did I do instead? Read The Bone Season.
Two things pleasantly surprised me: the world-building, and the relationship between Paige and Warden.
World-building is one of the things that draws me most into a story. If you've got an interesting world, my chances of enjoyment increase tenfold. While Shannon's world doesn't always make sense, you can tell there was thought behind it. She tried to make it layered and complex, and back it up with a sense of history, even if the pieces don't always fit together at times. In an age plagued by YA romances masquerading as fantasy or sci-fi, the amount of effort Shannon put into her world was refreshing, even if it feels very much like a debut novel. (This is not a YA novel, but in terms of voice and writing style, it is definitely borrowing from YA, hence my comparison.)
Part of what makes Shannon's world-building effective, despite how it fails to stand up under a microscope, is how entertaining and addicting it makes the story. Shannon nailed the tension and pacing, especially in the first half of the novel. So even when the flaws in the world-building became obvious, I was already so swept up in the world of clairvoyants and Rephaim that I was willing to overlook the flaws and enjoy the story.
Based on reviews, I knew going into this novel that Warden and Paige have a master/slave relationship. I do not condone romanticizing such a relationship at all, but I can at least appreciate that Shannon executed it in a way that made it as least icky as possible. Warden is not violent toward and does not sexually assault Paige, and when something physical does between them, it is consensual. Of course, unbalanced power dynamics will never make their relationship completely consensual, but it struck me as consensual as possible within those limits. Several other reviewers point out all the ways in which their relationship is problematic, and I agree - but despite the facts of what is done to Paige as a slave, the presentation doesn't make it feel gross and romanticized, as though Shannon has some kink for this. For me, that's the difference. I still really wish that Shannon had avoided such a problematic relationship entirely, but it didn't feel excessive and fetishistic. I thoroughly enjoyed Paige and Warden's relationship, despite its problems, and Shannon captured the tension between them excellently.
The plot and writing quality definitely started to unravel in the last hundred pages or so, but overall this was such a fun novel to read. It brought me back to my days of reading dystopia when I was a teenager, but in a refreshingly mature, more nuanced way. I also see similarities between this and SJM's early writing, before everything became snarling males and bloated novellas. While I can completely understand why the reviews are bad, I'm so glad I picked up The Bone Season.
But despite its flaws, I enjoyed the HELL out of this book. The writing was solid, the world was interesting, and Samantha Shannon built up suspense so damn well I couldn't put this book down. I have two final papers due for university next week and what did I do instead? Read The Bone Season.
Two things pleasantly surprised me: the world-building, and the relationship between Paige and Warden.
World-building is one of the things that draws me most into a story. If you've got an interesting world, my chances of enjoyment increase tenfold. While Shannon's world doesn't always make sense, you can tell there was thought behind it. She tried to make it layered and complex, and back it up with a sense of history, even if the pieces don't always fit together at times. In an age plagued by YA romances masquerading as fantasy or sci-fi, the amount of effort Shannon put into her world was refreshing, even if it feels very much like a debut novel. (This is not a YA novel, but in terms of voice and writing style, it is definitely borrowing from YA, hence my comparison.)
Part of what makes Shannon's world-building effective, despite how it fails to stand up under a microscope, is how entertaining and addicting it makes the story. Shannon nailed the tension and pacing, especially in the first half of the novel. So even when the flaws in the world-building became obvious, I was already so swept up in the world of clairvoyants and Rephaim that I was willing to overlook the flaws and enjoy the story.
Based on reviews, I knew going into this novel that Warden and Paige have a master/slave relationship. I do not condone romanticizing such a relationship at all, but I can at least appreciate that Shannon executed it in a way that made it as least icky as possible. Warden is not violent toward and does not sexually assault Paige, and when something physical does between them, it is consensual. Of course, unbalanced power dynamics will never make their relationship completely consensual, but it struck me as consensual as possible within those limits. Several other reviewers point out all the ways in which their relationship is problematic, and I agree - but despite the facts of what is done to Paige as a slave, the presentation doesn't make it feel gross and romanticized, as though Shannon has some kink for this. For me, that's the difference. I still really wish that Shannon had avoided such a problematic relationship entirely, but it didn't feel excessive and fetishistic. I thoroughly enjoyed Paige and Warden's relationship, despite its problems, and Shannon captured the tension between them excellently.
The plot and writing quality definitely started to unravel in the last hundred pages or so, but overall this was such a fun novel to read. It brought me back to my days of reading dystopia when I was a teenager, but in a refreshingly mature, more nuanced way. I also see similarities between this and SJM's early writing, before everything became snarling males and bloated novellas. While I can completely understand why the reviews are bad, I'm so glad I picked up The Bone Season.
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