Title: The Bone Season

Author: Samantha Shannon

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury US

Format: Paperback

Pages: 480

Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

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 forever. 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.

Review:

I don’t normally read futuristic dystopian novels, so I was really going out of my comfort zone for this one. And I’m glad I did because I enjoyed this book more than I was expecting to.

Shannon has created a world in which clairvoyants are hunted and not respected by society. The main character, Paige, is part of the London underworld, and is the second to a gang leader. When Paige is taken from her home and forced to live in a penal colony in Oxford, she learns a lot more about her society and the workings of it.

I really enjoyed the character development and world building in this book. For Shannon’s first novel, I’m pleasantly surprised at the detail that was put in to the novel. There were some parts that I felt were slow and dragged on, but for the most part the plot was fast paced enough to keep me hooked. I read some reviews on this after I read it saying that it was just a knock off of previous works of young adult fantasy, but I thought it was an interesting take on the paranormal and supernatural. I also thought Shannon did a good job of explaining the different clairvoyant gifts; ex Paige is a dream walker, so her spirit can exit her body and enter someone’s dreamscape.

I also thought that the romance in the novel did not overpower the story, which can happen a lot in YA books. The romance kinda came out of nowhere (in my opinion) but after looking back it kinda made sense.

Anyways, I think this review is more of a ramble of my thoughts but I’m looking forward to reading the next one!

Happy reading!