The Bone Season Author's Preferred Text

I just finished reading this book and my expectations were definitely met. It is different from The Roots Of Chaos series in writing style (and the other elements too, of course, but I’ve seen this criticized a lot), but that is because the narrator is the 19 year old protagonist (who is very sassy and I love her for it), which makes it very fitting. Since I first picked it up, I could not put the book down. I was hooked from start to finish and I‘m sad that it’s over now. The pace was perfect, the characters and character dynamics interesting and realistic, the plot very exciting and intriguing and the world building immaculate - every new piece of information was revealed at the perfect time. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series.

I felt a sense of relief when I finally finished The Bone Season. This book was way too long and did not work very well for me for a few reasons: The worldbuilding was way too complicated. Shannon was inventing slang and concepts left and right with no rhyme or reason. Terms are never introduced naturally and readers have to flip back to the glossary way too often. I couldn’t see a reason for using new terms for things that already existed within our world. The plot was simply too slow. All of the action is packed into the last 100 pages of the book and by the time I got there I just wanted to get things over with and could not be brought to care about events. Paige is not a very proactive main character. One of the things I cannot stand in books is when the main character just waits for things to happen to them. Up until the last 100 pages of this book all Paige did was walk, be bossed around and make meaningless smalltalk with side characters (which I think was supposed to get readers emotionally invested in those characters, but unfortunately did not work for me). This was really surprising for me as I had really enjoyed Samantha Shannon’s previous writing. The writing itself was good and you can tell Shannon is a good author, but I don’t think any editing in the world could make this clichéd 2013 story line work for readers in 2024. I look forward to seeing what Shannon does next but I will definitely not be picking up the rest of this series.

In a world where clairvoyance (voyance for short) exists and is forbidden, Paige is one of them. She has one of the rarest gifts called dreamwalking. After she got caught in Scion, London, she is sent to the penal colony Sheol 1 in former Oxford where an otherworldly race called Rephs rule. She is selected as a slave by her Warden Arcturus who is training her to master her gifts. Paige navigates this new cruel world. She must decide whom to trust to fulfil her only goal in her new live: Getting out of Sheol 1 and back to her criminal friends in London. The story is rather generic if not for the overcomplex magical system. There are over 20 different types of clairvoyants with complicated names originated in Latin and Greek. Don’t worry to learn all the expressions because a ridiculously extensive glossary will help you to look up strange expressions when they pop up, which is happening all the time. Other words never get explained, so the glossery is your best friend while reading Bone Season. Although only one or two different voyant powers play a role in the story, the book tries to fool you in believing, the voyants are solely characterized by their powers. Of course, a slow burning romance between Paige and her slave master evolves. Luckily this romance never takes centre stage. The supporting cast stays very bland, the world centres around the very special heroin Paige and her love interest. Although the whole concept was cool, the execution falls flat. I recommend the book to readers (especially women) who enjoy simple stories with snarky female protagonists and can immerse themselves in faulty worldbuilding. It helps if one doesn’t know too much about the working of penal colonies, nor logistics to run a place.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for the review copy, which was provided to me by the publisher and Tandem Collective. This fact does not in any way affect my personal opinion of this book. This post contains advertising and the rights for the book belong to the publisher. Of course, this is only my personal opinion of the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean, that everyone will have that opinion. Holy shit, I loved this book! This was so awesome!! So far, I’ve only read „The Priory of the Orange Tree“ by that author and it’s a chunk. I always wanted to read The Bone Season but wasn’t so sure because of different reasons (ongoing series, huge commitment, long books etc.), but to be honest: I am glad that I finally read it. It took me a second to understand the world and get a feeling for it, but other than that I have no complaints. The writing style hooked me, and I fell in love with the characters and their dynamics. It also does not lack action, and I am so excited to see how everything will continue in Book 2. I could rave for hours, but I want you to experience it for yourself Conclusion I loved this book and will make it my personality!

Als Einstieg in die Reihe ein guter Start. Das Worldbuilding ist meiner Meinung nach sehr gelungen. Ich habe The Bone Season schon 3 mal gelesen <3 Normalerweise bin ich kein Fan von Ich- Perspektiven, aber Samantha Shannon schafft es damit wunderbar Paige's Kraft und innere Welt darzustellen