Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Bone Season

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

9 reviews

zoiejanelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? No

5.0

Samantha Shannon is a god. i worship at the altar of her writing. i will read anything she puts out—i’m honestly angry at myself for not reading this sooner.

The Bone Season does not apply to any of my tastes as a reader. i do not like paranormal. i do not like magical boarding school/training. i do not particularly like

size difference, immortal being + human mortal romances.

i do not like overly British books. (lol) and yet, i fucking loved this book.

after 50 pages—the typical slow, world-building rising action that Shannon is known for—i was absolutely hooked. thank god for the glossary, because i had a lot of questions, but i probably still would have survived without it. the world is so intricate, complicated, and structured. there is room for expansion, twists & turns, but limited enough to feel secure as a new reader. i loved that in this book, the reader was thrown into the magic without feeling too vulnerable OR belittled by the text. Paige, though an expert in her own world, was new to Oxford and was the perfect stand-in for the audience as she learned more and more about the Rephs, the politics of Scion, and about her own power.

Paige is an extremely compelling protagonist. she’s almost morally gray in that she is driven by a need to survive and to protect her own circle, but is willing to do whatever it takes. i loved the balance of selfishness and selflessness she held within her. she is cunning, but not arrogant. she is determined, but not ambitious. she is willing to step outside her comfort zone/expertise to do what needed to be done. she felt very realistic to me—her immediate rage and reactionary actions, and her later slow and methodical examination of her feelings (and the facts). i love her and i cannot wait to see how this

escape from Oxford and severing of ties with Jaxon

impacts her life in London.

one of my favorite things about Samantha Shannon is her research. god, this woman is smart. the interwoven threads about Ireland (mirroring actual historical events, i assume) and Paige’s identity as an Irish person were sooooo delicious and fascinating. the pain of her family and how it resonated within her was magnificently depicted, and i know for certain that all of the inclusion of the Molly Riots was very intentional. i am excited to see how she can channel this revolutionary spirit in the next books.

also… damn, this book must have been born from a deep dive into paranormal and occult practices. i loved the familiar details of the tarot cards, scrying, ley lines, and the different orders of psychics and -mancers. the numa were particularly intriguing to me, and again, i was grateful for the glossary AND for the inclusion of the excerpt from Jaxon’s pamphlet. for once in my ENTIRE life i was interested in the communication between spirits and the spirit realm.

speaking of Jaxon! what a character. he reminds me of Niclays from Priory—a tough pill to swallow, but believable and compelling all the same. i am lowkey obsessed with this horrible man, and i can only imagine how he will be a wrench in Paige’s future plans. between Nick and Jaxon, i feel we have a Magneto and Professor X situation on our hands. time will tell. (sidenote: the whole seven orders thing is CRAZY AS HELL and the propaganda element was so believable to human nature. i want the full pamphlet NOW!)

Liss, Julian, Nadine, Zeke, Eliza, and Terebell are probably some of my favorite characters so far. i am totally entranced when i see them on the page. i love their gifts and how they all vary so widely despite feeling very similar in real-world terms. again, i look forward to seeing what lies ahead for each of them.

finally, i must touch on my favorite character: Arcturus Mesarthim. Warden. my beloved. as soon as Paige called him

terrible and beautiful

i knew i was personally done for. beyond the

Beauty and the Beast-type romantic sub-plot,

he is absolutely fascinating as a character. scarred and haunted, uniquely gifted, curious, gentle, quietly dangerous. he is exactly my type. we only got to see a glimpse of what he is capable of, and i wonder how Shannon will further establish and expand his oneiromancy in the future. i honestly can’t stop thinking about him and his collared tunics and his gloves and his golden eyes and his gramophone…. ugh

overall, 10/10 read. i will be immediately starting the rest of the series in anticipation of The Dark Mirror’s release in February 2025. now that I know Paige and Arcturus, i will not be letting them go!!!

Content Warnings

chasinggrace's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Wait because I’m so sad that I am giving this book a three star rating. I absolutely loved Priory, and I had such high hopes for the beginning of this series. However, it’s the writing that ruined the story for me. There was SO. MUCH. telling instead of showing. I also don’t think the first person POV worked to the story’s advantage here. Unfortunately, there were many obvious statements, convenient jumps back in time, and sloppy character-building. I think the magic system and world is so interesting, but the descriptors of what is what and who is who were not weaved into the story well. At many times, it felt like info dump after info dump.

Particularly, the jump from “I will lead this rebellion” to the Bicentennial or whatever was CRAZY. We spend 400 pages watching Paige suffer and fight against the system as a stubborn individual and are so ready to follow her through the intricate steps of sowing a rebellion amongst prisoners, just for the book to…skip 2 months of scheming? That would have been INTERESTING. Instead, I now have to read 20 pages of “a few weeks ago we did this, and Jules handled this, and I planted bombs here, and shoutout to the performers who helped me do this.” Like, I would have liked to SEE ALL OF THAT, not just be told about it. Or at least go over the plans through dialogue, not just Paige telling the reader everything that’s been done point-blank.

The writing took me out of the story more times than I can count, which made me so frustrated because the story is interesting.

Other than the frustrating prose - and the choppy world/character building that went along with it - I was enamored by the story. I found the interactions and banter between Paige and Warden to actually be done quite well. His personality and speaking style was distinct, and their interactions kept me interested without them being overly obvious or corny.

As stubborn as she can be, I did enjoy how Paige’s past in the syndicate helped her in the lost city. She’s not a bulletproof FMC but she’s also not hopeless. Can she be dumb and rash? Yes. And a little too “let’s save everyone even though that’s illogical.” But overall, I was rooting for her and wanted to read about her more.

My favorite aspects of this story were the dialogue between Paige and Warden, the setting within Magdalen, and the relationships Paige had between the Seven Dials and the other humans in the lost city. I also loved the ending, but didn’t want it to be the end! It ends in a way that really makes you want to read the next book, despite this one’s flaws.

Content Warnings

sauvageloup's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

a solidly good book, pretty gripping and will read the next one

pros:
- the worldbuilding is very imaginative, with the whole mix of clairvoyance, angels, emim, ghosts/poltergeists and rephaium. I liked all the different types of clairvoyance and reading about Paige using her gift. the Rephs were also imaginative, seeming to be a strange mix of vampire/angel/demon/clairvoyant.
- I thought the main relationships, friendship and romance, were nicely built up and not rushed, but sign posted well.

I did expect that Warden would be the love interest, but it developed nice and slowly and I could see why Paige began to trust him slowly.

- the writing was overall clear and gripping with moments of being poetic. i wanted to keep reading, once I was 50 or so pages in.
- I did like the side characters, Liss, julian, seb and Michael were all interesting.

cons:
- the biggest issue I think was the feeling that the plot wandered too much. it felt like we tumbled from one event to another without any particular structure, and so the tension felt off, as big events happened without any build up.
- lost track of who everyone was with such a big cast, and I was also still unsure about what exact powers paige and the rephs had.
- it felt like there were a lot of holes in explanations, with a lot of slang used without being explained. a certain amount makes sense, but I feel that it tipped over into too much. i had a lot of questions and even when there were answers, they seemed somewhat arbitrary. also why was Arcturus still being called Warden at the end?
- there was also a big worldbuilding dump at the start, which I was told about and wasnt too bad, but it definitely could've been handled smoother.

- I know that this was written in 2013, so it's not really surprising, but there were serious issues with the age gaps in Paige's relationships, with Nick driving away with her from school when shes like 15? and Arcturus being very very much older.

- also, if I'm being honest, I didnt find paige very interesting. yes shes spunky and she is shown as being kind to Seb, Liss and Julian, and yet she still felt extremely 2D, I didnt really feel for her as a full person and the emotional impact of some events was definitely lessened bc of it.
(- I'm definitely curious to see what Shannon changed in her new rewriting of the book)

overall, a gripping and pretty original thriller, but with some shaky plotting and too big cast. but I've got the mime order and will most likely be reading it!

Content Warnings