Yes, I know that I’m like a billion years too late in reading this. My TBR IS MILES AND MILES long, and if I’m being completely honest, I only read this when I did because Samantha Shannon was at YALC so I probably wouldn’t have read it for another billion years. BUT IT’S OK! I’ve read it now! And I can honestly say that I’m really sad that I didn’t read beforehand, because I really really enjoyed it.

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.

You know what one of the things is that lets me know how crazy a book is going to be? If there’s a reference/character list at the beginning or end of a book… and when I saw the language reference list at the end of the book, I knew that I would have to keep flicking back and forth to make sure I knew exactly what was going on in the novel. And usually, I find this a pain in the arse because it means that the world building is going to be insanely confusing. However, in this case, I didn’t find it THAT confusing. I absolutely loved the world that Shannon had created and I love the characters as well, but they weren’t without their issues.

 

“Bone used to mean good, or prosperous. From the French, bonne…that’s why they named it: the Good Season, the season of prospect. They see it as collecting their reward…Of course, the humans see it differently. To them Bone means that: bones, starvation. Death.”

– Samantha Shannon, The Bone Season

 

Now, I really liked Paige as a character. She was very flawed which was realistic, and I could totally relate to her, but one of the things that I was VERY curious about was the dreamscape. WTF is a dreamscape. I don’t understand what it is, or how Paige can enter one or anything… At all… If someone can help me out with this, please let me know in the comments on what the hell it is. Thanks! BUT, even though I didn’t fully understand it, I just went along with it, hoping that I would understand it more as I read on. Nope. So hopefully, it’s explained more in the second book. But I am just going to say this now: even though I didn’t understand the whole dreamscape thing, this didn’t impact on how much I enjoyed the story. I still really really enjoyed it, it was just that very small element that I had to push to one side whilst I was reading it.

When it came to the whole criminal underworld aspect of the novel, I was absolutely loving it. I also love how Paige felt that Jax and everyone else there was family, even though that they weren’t the most supportive and nice people ever. They were the people that took her in and taught her how to use her ability. To be honest though, I AM glad that Paige realised that hanging out with them and working for them was toxic, but then her situation with Warden and the Rephaim wasn’t THAT much better.

 

“Knowledge is dangerous. Once you know something, you can’t get rid of it. You have to carry it. Always.”

― Samantha Shannon, The Bone Season

 

Now, let’s talk about the relationship between Paige and Warden… At first, I didn’t like it at all. Warden came across as abusive and controlling and I couldn’t see why people were getting all excited about the ship, but as the book carried on, I slowly fell in love with the bond that they shared. I know how cliché it is, but Paige bought out the softer side of Warden and Warden also helped Paige. Cute.

The Bone Season series definitely has the potential to become one of my favourite series of all time if the different magical abilities are built upon over the course of the books (where there are going to be 7 of??!!!) I can’t believe how many there are going to be. You don’t really hear of a series that is 7 books long anymore. They’re either duologues or trilogies. I mean, I know that there is the Shadowhunters world, but technically that’s just loads of spin off books, not one continuous series. I think I’m going to be about 30/35 when the series finishes, which makes me very very uncomfortable because I’m only 23 at the moment. Maybe I’m over-exaggerating?

 

 

Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Bloglovin