Style/writing: 3 stars
Themes: 2 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 3.5 stars

This book was recommended to me by my flatmate, who ended up loving it so much that she bought the entire series (sans the fourth book, which she will be getting soon). I already had another book by Samantha Shannon on my TBR list (The Priory of the Orange Tree), and decided that this would be a good way to see her writing style before I dived into that behemoth of a book. 

The series takes part in the year 2059 during an alternate reality in which those who can use clairvoyant powers (voyants) are persecuted by those that cannot. Our protagonist, Paige, is one of the rarest and most hunted form of voyants: a dreamwalker. She can break into the dreamscapes of other people, and does so at the behest of her employer and head of the Seven Dials (a criminal voyant underworld gang) to gather information on other gang leaders. However, the inevitable happens and Paige is found out, kidnapped, and taken to a place that does not exist on any maps. A penal colony where she is taken as a slave to an otherworldly race called the Rephaite. She is assigned to Warden, a higher up and consort of the Queen Nashira. Paige must use her wits, her resources, and help from unexpected quarters to escape a life of eternal slavery to the ruthless Queen.

There were many things I loved about this book. The characters were well written and fleshed out really well. I actually cared for the characters and found myself second guessing others. I could feel everything the characters were feeling, which of course meant I had my heart ripped out of my chest on more than one occasion. I could feel the homesickness Paige felt as well as the distrust she felt towards he captors. I was also a fan of the worldbuilding. I thought it was very interesting to see that each of the criminal sectors in London were sort of “stuck” in the era they were created. It made for a very interesting mesh of Victorian slang, fashion, an mannerisms with the technology of the modern world. 

This book was definitely a page turner and I oftentimes could not put it down. I am really looking forward to starting the second book soon. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of dystopian fantasy, found family tropes, and the feeling of getting one’s heart unceremoniously ripped out and stomped on. 

Diversity: An #ownvoices book with notable diversity, given that the main character is queer and Irish (although her queerness has not been explicitly revealed in this book of the series), and two major characters are gay.  Additionally, the series so far as book four has also included a Deaf signing character, a character who uses they/them pronouns, strong LOTE (language other than English) inclusion, and an increasingly ethnically diverse range of characters. The author has publicly identified as a queer person with a disability.

Paige is a rare type of clairvoyant, living under a repressive regime that actively hunts down people like her, with special abilities stemming from an intimate connection with the aether. For protection, she has joined a criminal underworld of clairvoyants and has worked her way up to being the heir of a powerful mime lord, Jaxon Hall. A simple ride on the London underground leads to her being detected by night vigiles, and soon she is captured and sent off to a concentration camp in the abandoned city of Oxford. Her captivity leads to discoveries about the true nature of Scion, and the otherworldly race that lingers in the shadows. Her escape becomes contingent on a rebellion.

I first bought this book as a signed copy when it was first released in stores as a paperback, drawn in by its vibrant cover and its promise of a fast-paced fantasy adventure. I was living at home at the time, and my mum had called my teenage self out on my slobby housework in my room. True to the nature of a strict parent, I was not going to be in her good graces until it was clean. My ADHD brain rebelled, and all I know is come sunset, I was turning the last pages of a book I'd started early that morning to avoid cleaning (the room wasn't cleaned that day, go figure). Paige, the clairvoyant criminal underworld, the strange futuristic London she lived in, and diving into a mystery that was fanning the flames of a rebellion had swept me away and left me reeling. I may have been sucked in for a day, but I would have to wait two years for the next book, a few more for the next two, and the wait continues.

It goes without saying that a book (or series) that has held my attention (poor as it often is) for almost a decade and counting would sit amongst my favourites. Naturally, it seemed a wonderful choice for fulfilling one of the prompts for the Reading Women Challenge 2021 to "reread a favourite", and the reread of this and the second and third instalments proved to be vital revision for the release of book four earlier this year. I personally love it. I've been sitting here working myself into a headache trying to decide its flaws so that I can write a balanced review, but based on my experience, I reckon its bloody perfect. With that said, I gave a copy of this book to one of my closest bookish friends, and she's almost finished it. I asked for her impression to aid with the writing of this review, and she felt that it is worth noting that the world building and characters are quite complicated, and the set up required at the start to explain everything from the authoritarian republic of Scion and its history, the underworld, the orders of clairvoyance, and Sheol I are substantial. I would agree with this assessment. If the reader is able to be patient as this information is revealed, and hold onto these different threads as the story unfolds, it will come together. It does, however, remove it as a candidate for relaxing and breezy fantastical fiction lists. Another warning is that this book, and increasingly so in the series, is quite violent, and I have advised of a number of content warnings. Overall, as a dystopian fantasy novel set in real world locations and from an author becoming increasingly comfortable expressing her queer identity in her writing, The Bone Season is a highly original and excellently written contribution to the genre. It will have you cheering, holding your breath, crying, and screaming through a roller coaster ride of a mystery where nothing will turn out quite as you expect.

Recommended for: Dystopian lovers, those who want an inventive alternative to tired fantasy tropes, readers on board for an unpredictable adventure, and older teens and adults who value a queer-friendly story set-up.

The Bone Season is dark, with a significant amount of violence, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. While this book and subsequent series may not be for everyone because of that, I really enjoyed it. Like, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading it kind of enjoyment. I needed to know what was going to happen next.

To begin with, there is a lot of world-building and orders of magic that need to be explained. Rather than attempt to remember everything as I was reading it for the first time, I let myself be carried along for the ride and eventually the slang stuck. That leniency for the first 100 and so pages really helped my enjoyment of the novel and its world. I think if you try too hard to make sense of the different orders and types of clairvoyancy that are being thrown at you in this futuristic-yet-Victorian, alternate-universe London, it would become overwhelming very easily.

Shannon does a fairly good job at world-building in a way that feels natural by having characters from different backgrounds being confused by what’s going on and requiring an explanation from another character, but it is still a fair bit of info-dumping. For that reason, and our male protagonist, this was a four-star read for me instead of higher.

As for said male protagonist, Warden, or Arcturus, I really want to hate him. In fact, I do hate the origin story of him and Paige Mahoney, our main character, but even as I was hating him, I found myself giddy at the tension between the pair. 

When Paige is captured and imprisoned in the alternate-universe Oxford, she is “acquired” by the Warden who becomes her keeper, which straddles the line of a very dangerous, toxic trope. The Warden doesn’t help matters by being on the bad side of morally grey. On top of that trope, the Warden is also an other-worldly creature known as a Rephaite, so there is forbidden love and enemies-to-lovers tangled up in here. Especially during the first half of the book, his actions are damnable…but dammit I still liked his character. My hope is that the power imbalance between the pair levels out in the next book(s), which is to say that I’ll still definitely be continuing on with the series.