A review by chasinggrace
The Bone Season: Author's Preferred Text by Samantha Shannon

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. 
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