REVIEW: The Bone Season

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Genres: Adult Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance
Published: August 2013 by Bloomsbury USA
Pages: 452
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 7.5/10
Description: 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.

The Bone Season is a very rich and unique take on a dystopian future in which clairvoyants exist, and are pretty much hunted down and murdered simply for existing. I enjoyed this fantasy thoroughly!

One of the biggest flaws in this novel is the beginning and how slang and unknown terms are immediately thrown at the reader. I felt like I was never really introduced to the terms of this book, and I had to flip to the back dictionary a lot, which took a lot out of the story line. Once I did get a feel for the language and slang, the book did get much better, however the confusion that those terms cause will turn off a lot of readers. The beginning was certainly the weakest part, as the starting chapters should draw readers in, not turn them off. 

The story line stayed at pretty much the same level the whole time. I rarely felt super nervous or happy or excited or scared for these characters or for the situations currently happening. It wasn't boring, and I personally enjoyed the slower, less-dramatic prose in which Shannon writes, but for anyone who is bothered by it, the story starts the same level throughout most of the novel. Toward the end, it does get super fast-paced and thrilling. It is worth to stick around for it.

I LOVED THE ROMANCE. I do not even care what anyone else thinks. It was FANTASTIC.
*Spoilers Start* I was secretly rooting for Warden and Paige to get together and they did AND IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. *Spoilers End*

The world-building was very rich in the book, but I definitely wanted more of it! There is a map of the city and some descriptions throughout, which are very interesting, but I felt like I needed more from it. The bits of lovely world-building that we do get are fantastic. I loved the atmosphere that Shannon created in Oxford, especially with the slums and the main halls. The ambiance of mysteriousness in the woods was great, it felt like wild, beautiful, and dangerous all at the same time. My problem with the world was that Shannon focused a lot on Paige's mind and her stream of consciousness, which is all well and good, but the world was just so rich that interesting that I felt we deserved a bit more of it!

Overall, The Bone Season was a great fantasy read. It was super unique; I rarely read books on clairvoyants. The action, especially at the end, was extremely thrilling and played out like a movie. The romance was perfect and not over-bearing. It was hardly part of the novel, but the small role it played was fantastic. The world-building was rich and intricate, and I definitely was left wanting to know more about this world. Recommended to those who are looking for a unique fantasy that is slower-paced and interesting.