Everyone has heard of The Bone Season (if you haven’t, where have you been?) and it’s understandable why. This book is a perfect read, with a rich world and characters you don’t want to step away from.

I loved this book
I loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this book
I loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this book
I loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this bookI loved this book

I had been putting this off for a few years. I don't know why. I'm kind of kicking myself for it. I may have given this 5 stars if I read it years ago.

I ended up flying through this. Not wanting to put it down. After splitting this book into sections for each day I would get to the end of a section and want to carry on reading. It's why I managed to finish this in 3 days.

The world itself was more complex than I expected. As the book goes on more is explained and I could figure things out. I imagine I will learn more in book two.

The romance isn't a main focus, which I was glad about. But it felt not insta love but kinda. If that makes sense. Enemy to lover in a way. But maybe because I like Warden it didn't bother me too much.


Paige is definitely a 'chosen one' trope. But that doesn't bother me here. She comes across pretty likable so far. I'm not sure if that will stay being the case or not.

The story itself may not be the most unique story I've ever read but I did love it. I was captivated pretty much straight away. I'm left wanting to pick up book two ASAP.

Obviously this is only a very brief excerpt but seemed like a fantastic build up and premise to Samantha Shannon's series. It seems like a very unique world with lots of voyants and magical elements. I'd definitely love to read this series at some point and it's now on my TBR pile!

I felt that I should like this because it ticks so many of the boxes of things I like. And I probably should have given it a higher rating, but I had a sample rather than the whole book. This almost certainly affected my enjoyment, because there was an abundance of world-building in the sample.
Some authors manage world-building whilst creating an interesting story. Unfortunately, I spent so much time trying to understand the background, that I felt it detracted from the story itself.

Great start to a series. Really look forward to reading all the books in this series by Samantha Shannon.

I can already tell from the first chapter that I am going to love the rest of this book! This short extract gives you a glimpse into the unique world Shannon has imagined and the lives of its characters. I'm very much looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

This book I’ve been wanting to read for a while and when I got an ARC of it, I was really excited about a new fantasy book. It took a while for me to get to it but I had the second book in the series and really wanted to read this book first. Unfortunately, it wasn’t what I hoped.

In this book, Paige is a clairvoyant, a dreamwalker to be exact, and her existence is pretty much illegal in Scion London where she lives and she works in the criminal underworld of the city. During the course of the book, she is trapped somewhere much worse than Scion London and learns about a hidden layer of her world underneath everything she knew before. Along the way, she learns more about her world, her powers, the people around her and her past as well.

Paige’s world is intricate with meanings and details laced through everything, as we learn more about what is going on through Paige’s eyes. The flashbacks were useful at times and annoying at others, as they disrupted the flow of the story to give information that wasn’t needed right then, or could be summed up in a line or two. Samantha Shannon didn’t tell, she showed but I feel like the showing went a little overboard and it slowed the pace of the book right down. Many parts of the book dragged as it tried to introduce us to the setting, the main character’s background and the plot at the same time and it was a lot of information all in one go. I feel like I would have liked the world a lot more if I hadn’t had to try and remember what was going on with who. There were far too many characters and plot threads by the end of the book and in doing so, me caring about them was split between them until I found it hard to care about anything that was going on, including the main character.

Paige as a main character was a little on the bland side but I liked her well enough, at least enough that I wanted her to escape and survive. I liked how she explored her new circumstances and how the fear of being killed wrestled with her want to be free and I really liked how she looked at the other people she was imprisoned with. She feels very young at times and old at others and this was an interesting facet of her character.

But my big problem with this book was the love interest. The relationship between him and Paige creeped me out but since it only came up near the end of the book, I could deal with it. I couldn’t deal with the fact that we’re supposed to sympathise with him as he owns Paige. We’re supposed to think he’s nice because he lets Paige sleep in a bed, walk outside the building and eat sometimes when that was just the bare minimum of what he should do for her. Yes, the plot meant that he couldn’t show anything for her outwardly but his need to hide everything from Paige irritated me greatly. And when he justified invading her dreams and memories because she wouldn’t trust him, any chance of me liking him was out the window.

Despite this being an epic fantasy book that intrigued me with its summary, this book just wasn’t for me. 2 stars!

Unfortunately I couldn't get into this. I tried really hard but 50 pages in the plot was too uninteresting to carry on.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Upon opening this, I was immediately drawn to the ink drawing of SciLo or Scion London and various cohorts that the forbidden clairvoyants inhabit.

On reading I loved the description of how London keeps its dark historical undertones, and invites us into the criminal world that our protagonist describes.
I was however, disappointed to discover that I hadn't been given the entire book but only a single chapter. I was left curious and wanting to discover what was going to happen next. What the consequences were going to be for the two dead underlords and the voyant on the train.

So far I am in love with this book and I will most definitely be purchasing this asap.

I missed my chance at reading this arc, however, I was so intrigued by the premise I’ve since bought the entire series and I’m excited to get into it! Thanks so much for the arc!

I love different and I definitely got that! In a fabulous way.

I know this book is not perfect and I get that there are some things that might not necessarily add up, especially when your first impression is rather negative. You then find small parts that seem overly constructed, cannot feel any connection with the characters or have a general problem with the way the story goes. I have read books like that and felt this way so I get it.

I started and practically immediately fell in love. The thing that annoyed a lot of people actually drew me in. The amount of information and the glossary, it was great. I felt a refreshing challenge reading the book as English is not my mother tongue and yes, it was hard to get into it at first. But after a few chapters I was captivated and did not want to leave reading for anything (including food or sleep). I also like the fact that it is only told from Paige’s perspective, there are so many books with multiple narrators that don’t necessarily need them. And, oh yeah, there are actual chapter names not just boring numbers!

I truly loved the premise, a totally different world where maybe things don’t work like we are used to. Yet isn’t that the point of a made up world, that not everything makes sense at first because we are lacking information that is hopefully provided later?! It leaves the reader with some thinking to do. Other themes in the book include torture and slavery which are not light-hearted topics to read about. And as such, the characters are put trough some certainly cruel and disgusting situations yet being part of this made up word everything should be seen in this context.

I probably could have done without the romance, especially because of the characters involved and because there was so much potential for it to be not there. It is sad that so little YA books I read can do without this (Yes, I know, it’s YA so what am I expecting but a story does not unavoidably need this…). I see that it could end up being an essential plotline though. Taking all this into consideration, I liked the pace it was developed at so let’s see what the following books will bring.

What else was there for me?

The length, whereby when I think about it, no, it was definitely too short. I did not want it to end and I felt lucky for picking up the first book when the second one was already out so my craving for the second book was not all too long.

The action. And the progression of the story was going at exactly the right pace to give descriptions and feelings and information the room for unfolding.

Just all in all almost everything. Maybe less that there are 7 books planned and I have to wait for so long to know the overall ending. But then that is a good point so I will be able to enjoy so much more of this world and the characters and the language and the action and the scenery and everything.

This book sounds interesting. I will definitely give it a try when I get some time. However, an excerpt isn't really enough to give an informed review, which is why I've given it 3 stars for the time being until I read the whole book.

I enjoyed the preview of bone season and have ordered myself a copy. Paige is a strong willed character and I want to see how she gets herself out of her predicament

A book with a slow start but a very quick and thrilling end.
This book lacked generating interest in me at the start but as it progressed it became difficult to put it down. A new realm of fantasy is explored in this book and it is really difficult to understand what is happening at the start and needs a careful read to understand it all.

I received a preview copy of the bone season and have since bought the full novel so will be continuing to read on.

Characters

Paige
What I love about the development of Paige is the fact that nothing is made of her gender. There are comments of strength and weakness, but they are never in relation to her being female.
She is flawed, as the best heroes always are. Paige is our eyes into the world in which Clairvoyance has been declared illegal. She’s strong willed, moral (to a point) and selfless.

I love her and I can’t wait to delve into the sequels. At no point did I wish I could see the efforts of Jax, Nick et al once Paige had been taken. I felt like I was supporting her, just by being there. She had me hooked from the start and I will never leave Paige’s side so long as Shannon keeps writing.

Warden
Warden started life in my mind as a younger love child of Alan Rickman and David Warner. If I’m honest, he still remained that way, he just got younger as the book progressed. With an air of mystery, I wasn’t quite sure of him even as I closed the book.
However, his motives did seem clear as I came to the final act. Without spoiling them all I can say is Shannon excels in drip feeding believable hints that make the ending believable.
He’s someone I craved to see more and more throughout the book. I wanted him to be someone a little more than he seemed; Shannon does not disappoint.

Story

The story is artfully woven, throwing the reading readily into the world of seclusion, mythology and resentment. While there are action sequences, Shannon takes her time in building up relationships between characters.
Using whole chapters to delve into Paige’s past could, in other writer’s hands, seem clunky. However, Shannon develops these scenes and doesn’t allow the narrative to lose its flow while reading. Once you have finished the book, you will see how clever and creative these additions are to the story. Not only in terms of character, but to the plot and world building as well.
The story hints at a literary universe that will be with us for many years. Paige is for those of us who have needed something a little bit more substantial than the dystopian trilogies on offer. This story has given us enough questions to run for a series of books and perhaps be compared to that of Harry Potter and Cassandra Clare in terms of scope.
The most important aspect of this story is that it gives you a satisfying ending while leaving you with questions.

Writing

Part way through I text a friend and recommended this book to her. She loves The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothuss. I will have to relent and say this writing is better for me. The styles are similar, but Shannon is much more concise and flowing. As much as I love Rothuss myself, I have to read his work in chunks. The Bone Season would have been read in one sitting had I not been attacked by unrelenting conversations of my father.
For a story set in the future, I’m so happy that the writing still brought in an element of an old world. It drew itself back into nature. At least it did for me.
I would put this alongside Lani Taylor’s Daughter of… series too. The writing, like Lani’s, is griping, gritty and pure. It takes you to another world; something many writers would love to achieve and here is Shannon, doing so with an organic ease.

I’m very much looking forward to getting back to London so I can purchase the next two books available. I’m even ignoring my distress at having to buy the third in hardback.

I really enjoyed this except, it definitely drew me into the story and I'm sure I'll be buying and continuing with the full book soon

Started this but found the writing too dry. I really was looking forward to this book by Patterson but it didn't work. Haha

I received the first chapter in this book from Netgalley. It was almost too short! As soon as the chapter ended I wanted to keep reading. It sucked me right in and before I knew it, it was over. The author built the beginnings of a marvellous plot and world in the first chapter. The idea was fresh and new, not something I've ever seen before. I really enjoyed what I did read and would purchase this book for myself and recommend for friends.