Book: The Bone Season
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury
ISBN: 9781408836422
Rating: A
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.
Phenomenal.
I got the email about this book and even though it was New Adult I knew I had to read it. The story idea itself had me gripped and just reading some of the glowing praises left me hungry for this. I admit when It popped though the letterbox I was a teeny bit daunted by the size of it but I do not regret reading it. It's such a quick, amazing novel you'll barely notice time fly by as you're sucked into Shannon's stunning world.
The plot of this is so unique and such a killer story that not once will you be bored. We follow Paige Mahoney, through a dystopian world in which Clairvoyants exist in society and are shunned. She find out she is a Clairvoyant, but unlike typical YA she's known for a while. anyway she get's taken to a place called Sheol - not going to talk about this part because there are too many spoilers - and she falls in love {though romance plays a pretty low key in this) and they uprise and leave you on a cliffhanger, thirsty for book 2. What I loved about this is whilst maintaining the main theme of Fantasy, the novel wove in some many other genre's like Romance, Dystopia and even a little Sci-fi.
The plot really was unique. The whole story covered everything you want to know and although it's a series It hast left me with any major unexplained questions apart from what happens next. The whole story flowed extremely nicely and all made sense, and like I said it contained all the memories and thoughts you needed for all the answers to explained, whilst still keeping you interested. The separate parts of the story were seamlessly interwoven and every chapter has so much actions and mystery there wasn't a day that went by when I wouldn't stay up to read this.
The setting of this was quite unusual. The inner cities I've found fairly normal as far as future Dystopian cities go but Sheol, the main fantasy location - and where the majority of the novel was based - was built up on an already existing places so it was interesting to see how Oxford was transformed into this new eccentric and fantastical setting. even iconic location like Port Meadow were completely redesigned and I think the use of current locations with twists really helps to build up he we see the settings because we already have a basic idea of what the lace should look like.
Beyond that though I think it's fait to Say Shannon has mastered the art of World Building. This way she creates the new world, the way the whole style of the Sheol builds up is perfection. I liked how instead of taking key design features from time periods Shannon created her own and her new world was truly her own. Every idea and concept was perfectly drawn from Shannon's imagination and pushed into ours and it just worked perfectly.
The writing of this was on a whole other level. I'm not sure I can even quite describe it. Whilst keeping very neutral and very balanced it still had that certain type of personality that marked it as Shannon's. Shannon s definitely a very skilled writer and looking at her background - she studied English Language at Oxford - I wouldn't expect any less. The writing was a pleasure to read. The words were well crafted and the story flowed, one chapter leading on from another. She used the perfect words in both description and dialogue and the way the images and scenes built in my mind were just glorious. This whole novel is just dripping with talent.
The Characters. Well what makes this interesting in it's own way is that within the set of characters there were different species, and yet again Shannon has managed another amazing feat in this novel. She has successfully and believably created her special (Rephaim) and created them in such a way there is nothing to question. One things I loved about this book is that although there was a lot of supernatural elements these elements were all explained and had reason which made them more real to me. More real than a book where the author says there is no explanation, it's magic because it is. Another interesting aspect of this was that although there were only a small set of main characters is that the set of main characters changed as the novel progressed, always with Paige at the front though.
The characters were all explained, history and all revealed, though I still feel like Shannon will hit us with more surprises and new secrets in book 2. The characters were formed well in our minds and the emotional connection were there but like with any book 2 I think we'll see everyone's true colours in the sequel which is something I'm raring for.
So this is one of those book that there are so many words to describe it with but even then they're not enough. Because quite honestly The Bone Season left me speechless.
Phenomenal.
