Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon (Chantelle)

Title: The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Genre: Fantasy

Goodreads rating: 3.88 out of 5.00 (710+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Book Depository |


It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.


Review by Chantelle



The Bone Season was a book that screamed, HYPE! HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE. A comparison to J.K Rowling heeeere, most extraordinarily-talented-amazing-revolutionary-paradigm-shifting author over theeeere; basically, it was being predicted to be the next worldwide best-seller. And we all know, with hype comes expectations, and more often than not, these expectations aren't met. I mean, we book-nerd consumers are tough. These authors have to compete with the power of our imaginations, and when a book is built up so much, we expect no flaws (somehow), for the plot to blow our minds (somehow), for the swooniest of swoony romances (somehow)...

BUT! I must admit, I was not disappointed at all. In fact, the more I read, the more excited I got. This is no thin book, the size intimidated me at first (nearly 500 pages) but it completely sucked me in and soon enough, the chapters were flying by. WELCOME TO SCION. dun dun DUUNNN!

The world building in this novel is incredible, it's definitely the most complex aspect of this book, and the thing that will inspire the rants, and the lost nights of sleep. One of the greatest strengths of this book, is that the blurb gives us the barest hint to the world that is Scion, so the reader discovers it completely anew and each revelation is certifiably squeal worthy. I don't even know where to start, I don't think I could do it justice. It literally takes a couple hundred super exciting pages to discover one side of Scion, no doubt allowing the rest to slowly unravel in this 7 book series. Everything in it is so well thought out, the amount of detail is phenomenal, Samantha Shannon has created a world entirely unique that she knows down to the minutiae. When you open the novel, there is even a double page feature of charts showing 'the seven orders of clairvoyances' detailing the types of people, their abilities, how common they are, categories they fall under and so much more. So many charts I didn't understand. It built intrigue, so much intrigue. Basically, plot holes, you will not find.

The Bone Season revolves around this idea of clairvoyance; there are poltergeists and tarot cards and spirits and all these other supernatural aspects that do not usually interest me at all. But instead of making me feel eerily uncomfortable, Shannon's completely original style in HOW she blended these aspects together completely captivated me. Second to world building and originality would be her characters. What is with bad ass heroines and fantasy just going so well together?! It's fantastic, and Paige did not disappoint. This novel is told in first person, and even though I usually prefer fantasy in third person, it really worked in Shannon's favour because it preserved the mystery of the novel. If we only get Paige's POV, Scion's secrets are safe until she discovers them. And WARDEN! AAHHHH love him, love him so much. No instalove, hooray! Adversely, the romance wasn't so dragged out in the face of six more books that I got bored.

I'd like to emphasise, there is nothing boring about The Bone Season. It's chunky and magnificent and will appeal to young adult and adult readers alike. No matter what your views on this book are, from the blurb, from all these reviews, you won't really understand the world of Scion until you read this from cover to cover. The power of world building should not be underestimated, Samantha Shannon did a formidable job.


Insanely Creative 
Ratings
Overall: 9/10
Plot: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Cover: 4/5

16 comments:

  1. Great review! I keep seeing this book hyped up all over the place and I keep thinking that it's going to have to get negative reviews at some point or there has to be some proof it's not that good, but instead it keeps blowing people away! It's pretty crazy, especially since she keeps getting compared to JK Rowling. This is one I'm definitely going to try and get my hands on soon now that it's published!

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    1. hahahah that's so true, although it wasn't a "panacea candidate" for me if that counts for anything. It was however a complete surprise in how comprehensive and well written the story was.

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  2. I really want to read this book, but I am kinda intimidated! Everyone says it's awesome but has a lot of complexities to it. I keep wanting to buy it, but then I get scared because of the hype. I'm so conflicted! But your review was awesome, and did make me want to read it even more. :)

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    1. haha no I get what you mean! I'm not sure if I would've tackled this one so early either if I hadn't been provided with an ARC, but I think the complexities are relatively easy to absorb because she of her ease at storytelling.

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  3. Heard loads about this book! I'm glad it lived up to the hype and the world-building is good :) I think it's fantastic that finally an author is allowing expansion of a world through a series so throughout the series we'll get to explore the entire world and not just one aspect. I can't wait to get a chance to read this :)

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    1. I completely agree Charlotte, I think that's part of the reason there IS so much hype. Makes me quite impatient for the next books though hahaha

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  4. Everyone is really positive about this book. I'm especially happy with the complex world-building, that is always an important aspect for me. I'm looking forward to read this book :D

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    1. Yeah they are! I'm really curious about negative reviews though, they always come eventually with hyped up books.

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  5. This was such an awesome book! For me, it was a bit slow in the beginning, but once I got into it: WOW. I'm dying for the sequel, great review!
    -Scott Reads It

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  6. The Bone Season was one of my favorite reads this year, so it's great to see that you felt the same way, too! It took a bit of time for me to get into the rhythm of the story, but after that - WHOOSH. Seriously. Samantha knows how to write action-packed pages AND have wonderful world building as well! Lovely review!

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    1. I completely agree, once I got into it, I finished it so quickly because I simply couldn't put it down (even though it's fairly huge). Glad you liked it, great taste haha ;)

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  7. Ah, there's so much buzz behind this book I keep seeing it everywhere! I'm glad that you had enjoyed it despite all the hype. I already have a copy of this book so I look forward to reading it :)

    Great review!

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    1. Thanks :) Can't wait to hear what you think when you get around to it!

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  8. So good to hear you weren't let down by the hype at all! Because umm yeah, that was some insane hype for this book! And it's always so daunting. I must admit, I was one of the people that was a bit disappointed after having majorly high expectations, unfortunately. But I can't deny that this was one heck of a unique world and concept. I was absolutely floored by Samantha Shannon's creativity! At such a young age! Wow. Anyways, this was such a fun review!!

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    1. I know right! The amount of thought and detail she incorporate into Scion blew me away. It's a shame that overall it didn't wow you, what about it let you down?

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