Reviews

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

cheerfulvampire's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

wayward_genie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional

4.0

laz92's review

4.0

A good, well-written story with interesting characters. There were a LOT of terms and nicknames and sometimes I lost track of where we were or how long it had been, but overall I enjoyed this!

meltingpages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'll be honest. I tried reading this book a few years ago, and ended up stopping after Paige made it to Sheol I because it went in a WILDLY different direction than I was anticipating. Then after hearing that the series is going to be revised, it piqued my interest again so I was very excited to be approved via Netgalley for the new version! 

It definitely wasn't at all what I was expecting, and it leaned a lot more into the sci-fi/dystopian aspects than the fantasy aspects in my opinion (I thought it was going to be heavier on the fantasy elements). It did take me a little bit of time to get into the story and warm up to the characters, but I ended up really loving Paige and Warden! 

I'm definitely curious as to how the rest of this series will go, and knowing that she plans on revising at least the next book, I'm absolutely going to read that when it comes out!

The only reason I didn't give this a full 5 stars is mainly because it took me so long to get into the story and understand all the terminology, and I'm still not clear on what exactly the Rephaites are (angels? aliens? ghosts since they have ectoplasm?)

I can't speak to how the revisions improved the original story, but I can say that the writing was great, and definitely fits with what I've come to expect from Samantha Shannon.

viljaneito's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 tähteä

En oikein tiedä mitä sanoa.Välillä pidin tästä todella paljon, välillä takkusi. Yhtäaikaa kliseinen ja uniikki. Olisin halunnut pitää vielä enemmän, mutta aion kyllä jatkaa sarjan parissa!

claireesa's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

2002sam2002's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

readreadreadbby's review

4.0

I loved this book so much. No lie.

ainsleymunro's review

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

jennyreadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

I feel like I should have enjoyed this more than I did 

In the year 2059 clairvoyance has been made illegal and those who practise must hide or face execution. Paige is a powerful dreamwalker who survives as a member of a crime syndicate, but the kind of power can’t stay hidden for ever

i’ve got really mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, there are some really cool ideas in here, a lot of dystopia going on mixed with some urban fantasy, some paranormal stuff, a lot of fun really cool ideas. Having said that, even though this is a quite a long book at almost 500 pages something about this felt quite thin, there was a lot of detail and very descriptive passages about certain things and yet somehow the world building felt weak and I don’t know how that’s possible. 

There’s a massive cast of characters, and yet I feel like I actually only could identify three or four of them by the end. In the final moments, she would throw out a name of a character clearly with the expectation that you knew who that was and I was sitting there going I don’t remember that person, because the character descriptions have been so thin other than the very key players.

It was the same for the world building two certain elements were so heavily detailed, but it was almost a bit of a trudge to get through but then other things was very thin and glanced over so I didn’t fully register in my head.

Overall, I think it’s a really cool concept. I can understand how this got peoples attention particularly as a debut novel. However I did think the writing was clunky, especially in comparison to her other stuff that I’ve read. There’s been some talk about her rewriting this book for the 10th anniversary and I think I would probably read that rewrite because like I said, I do think the ideas and the bones of the story here a good it was the world building the characterization and just the way it was delivered. That wasn’t quite what I was looking for.