Samantha Shannon

In 2059, Scion has taken over most of the world's cities, promising safety for all the citizens it deems worthy and wiping out clairvoyants wherever it can find them.

Paige Mahoney, though, is a clairvoyant--and a criminal just for existing. Paige is determined to fight Scion's power, and as part of the Seven Seals, Paige has found a use for her powers: she scouts for information by breaking into others' minds as they dream.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly-as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine-a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

The Bone Season

A major publishing event - this is new sensation, Samantha Shannon's first book in a seven-part series of dizzying imagination. Welcome to Scion: No Safer Place.

Sophie Hutchings

Lily

A first entry in a planned seven-part series is set in the mid-21st century where major world cities are controlled by a formidable security force and where clairvoyant underworld cell member Paige commits acts of psychic treason before being captured by an otherworldly race that would make her a part of their supernatural army. Reprint.

A Novel

💌

I really enjoyed this!! Omg the ending! Can't wait to pick up the next one

Michael Cowell

I really wanted to like this book but nothing about it ever seemed to click for me.

This is my second adult fantasy novel of this year and god is it a different gravy. It's absolutley fantastic. I absolutely ADORE Paige. As a clairvoyant dreamwalker, she's one badass female MC. And even thought it took her a little convincing from both herself and Warden (who by the way I am in utter LOVE with), she finally realises her true potential. I find that not one character in this book is written on a shallow surface level way. It's so amazing to see abook like that, where every character is valued and deepend to at least a small extent, because it makes the book so much better. I absolutely despise Narisha, and for me to be able to hate a character so deeply just shows how much this book can force emotions. I love the sci-fi feeling to this book, especially with the idea of it being set in the past. I will admit that some parts of this book were confusing, but by the end, everything was clarified and I love that I wasn't just left by myself to not understand. I also want to tell everyone how I would do absolutely anything for Warden so when I tell you certain things in this book made me bawllll. I think the plot of this book is so addictive, it makes me crave to want to know what happens, and I'm so surprised that all the content of this book fit into a mere 450 pages, it really shocks me because I'd expect it to need more pages. It's so hard to put into words how much this book made me happy, like I did not expect it to be such amazing quality, I feel like it has the potential to be my favourite book of the year because just wow. It's complicated but comprehensible, the magic system is astonishing, the word language is stunning, the characters are exciting and there's not one bad thing about this book. So definatly give it a try.

surtified™

For the past two hundred years the Scion government has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in London. Clairvoyance in all its forms has been decreed a criminal offence, and those who practise it viciously punished. Forced underground, a clairvoyant underworld has developed, combating persecution and evading capture. Paige Mahoney, a powerful dreamwalker operating in the Seven Dials district of London, lives a double life, using her unnaturalness illegally while hiding her gift from her father, who works high up in the Scion regime -

Nessa Luna

After owning this book for so long and hearing so many great things about this series, I finally picked up the Bone Season this month. I read the prequel novella before this, and it made me very excited to pick up the actual book. 

First off, I want to say that I had no idea what the plot of this book was going to be because I had never read a synopsis (there is none on the back of my copy of the book, and most people talking about the book were deliberately vague) and honestly I was very surprised by the direction this story took. I still very much enjoyed it and will certainly be picking up the rest of the series asap. 

I loved the characters very much, especially the ones we were already introduced to in The Pale Dreamer, however, there were so many more characters in this book than I had anticipated. I hope to see some of them return in the sequels because I need to know how their stories will continue. (view spoiler)[There was a little bit of romance in this book, but not one I had expected. The one I had been expecting was a bit of a... well not a plot-twist but it just surprised me a lot. So points for Samantha Shannon for that, I suppose. Still not sure what to think of the actual romance we had here, though. Maybe it'll grow on me. (hide spoiler)]

In the end, I really enjoyed the Bone Season, and I will certainly try to get my hands on a copy of the sequel as soon as I can!

Khoi K

alexandra

this book is very unexpectedly intense, complex, and daaaaark. (okay maybe not that dark, just a tad bit creepy)

the beginning starts slow. we're immediately thrown into this wild fantasy world (there are TWO MAPS and a glossary!!) (side note: it's good to refer back to the glossary when you're confused because i didn't know there was a glossary) with no warning. samantha shannon gives small explanations in between sentences (yay for no info dumps!), but we're mostly left to fend for ourselves. because of this, you have to be very careful and precise with your reading or you'll end up reaaaally confused. i took my time to get into the book and i still ended up confused at times – who is this character again? wait, what does this power do?

once i got into the story, I GOT INTO THE STORY. the whole process was fairly gradual. i was slowly becoming invested in the world and characters; albeit not THAT emotional invested. i began to see them and ~be~ in their world, and i think this connection will continue to grow as the series progresses. the pacing also got faster towards the end/climax. it's like a drop of the roller coaster ride where the cart speeds up at the bottom.

i looooove the world and concept. everything about everything is so intricately detailed and interesting! the potential of this series is vast and i have semi-high hopes for the next book. (although i really don't know what to expect; i'm STILL kinda confused.) everything else was alright. the writing, relationships, characters, etc were great and i liked it, but i didn't necessarily LOVE it.

overall, i think this series has the potential to be fantastic, and this book is almost there. this monster-sized book seemed to only be a small introduction to the depth of this world and i'm excited to see where it goes! it's a bit hard to get into at first, but it gets better as the story progresses. super duper interesting!

Even a dreamer can start a revolution. An international sensation, now available in a fresh new design.

Anja Hansen

I first heard about this series in 2017, but by then I had already retired from the dystopian and paranormal craze so I never read it.
Even now I only picked it up out of curiosity because I loved The Priory of the Orange Tree. But it seems I should learn to trust my instincts. I know for sure that younger me would have eaten this up, so it's quite a shame really that I didn't particularly care for it at this time. Although, I do think it was doomed from the start. There was nothing new or exciting to find in this story, everything felt like something I'd read before in other popular books. The romance aspect was evident from the start and I could predict it's route a mile away.

Kelsey Joëlle

liked it, the story was okay. not a big fan of dystopian cities and stuff. not really my cup of tea

Sepia

I really enjoyed this book. In 2057,it follows Paige, a dreamwalker, who works in the criminal underground. Being a dreamwalker is a crime and carries the death penalty. If I reveal anything else, I think it might be spoilers. 

I found the writing to be really good and easy to understand. I enjoyed the setting and the near futuristic world we were in.One thing I really appreciated was that although it is set in London, we get to know about other parts of the world.

Avec le préquel inédit "La rêveuse pâle"

Saison d'os

Anna

Ce livre est une petite pépite. Je me suis lancée après l’avoir beaucoup vu et surtout parce que l’auteur était Samantha Shannon, auteure du Prieuré de l’oranger, qui est clairement un de mes livres favoris tant l’univers et les personnages sont incroyables de A à Z !

The Bone season ne surpasse pas le Prieuré dans mon cœur, mais l’écriture de Shannon est tellement immersive, détaillée et fluide que les mots glissent tout seuls. On plonge dans ce livre avec une grande facilité malgré la complexité de l’univers et le nombre importants de personnages (qui en plus n’ont pas toujours des noms faciles). Les personnages sont mystérieux puis extrêmement développé, au bon moment et de la bonne façon. Le passé des 2 protagonistes est introduit d’une façon fluide et non forcée ce qui permet d’en savoir plus tant en restant à l’affût du récit ! Le fait que ce soit de la science fiction/dystopie plutôt que de la fantaisie apporte du renouveau bienvenue.

J’attends la suite pour voir si un 5 étoiles est possible, pour moi ce tome c’est un 4.5, mais je pense que si on continue avec les autres tomes le 5 étoiles arrivera vite !!
Fun fact : Mon livre est défoncé parce qu’une bouteille d’eau a été renversée dessus donc je pleure. La tranche est parfaite et boum les pages font 15m d’épaisseur tellement il est gondolé.

** spoiler alert **
           Okay so I loved this book so so much. I started it with very high expectations and they were certainly met.
I absolutely loved that Paige was Irish! However to start off with I was really apprehensive because Samantha is English and she was writing a lot about Irish struggle and colonisation but I think she wrote it really well. All of those elements were written respectively and you could see that proper research had been carried out.

I’m really sad that both Liss and Julian had to die because I loved both of them so so much. I was incredibly happy when Warden helped to save Liss. I hope that Julian has someone made it out though, after all we never “saw” his body 

It really really pained me that Warden stayed behind. I know it’s a series but at the same time I wanted him and Paige to just run away into the sun together and be happy after book 1. I can’t wait to see how their relationship progresses as the series goes on and how she reacts when they reunite because right now Paige doesn’t think she will ever see Warden again.

I loved the detail of Seb being the poltergeist in the lock to get out of Sheol I.

Seeing the very subtle lgbtq rep with Nick was really nice too.

Overall this was an awesome book and I can’t wait to read the next one!! Samanthas writing definitely did not disappoint

Curtis Stewart

Very good book. Not normally my type of story, but it still managed to grip me and keep me interested. Definitely worth it :)

Kirsten Simkiss

** spoiler alert **
           I feel as though this book had a lot of potential and just never quite managed to utilize it. The concept of the world is great. The dystopian society is sufficiently messed up. The secrets have secrets and even the answers you get to the many questions hint at more questions.

If you liked the mystery of The Maze Runner, you will probably like this. I felt regularly that it had the same vibe and some of the characteristics as The Maze Runner did. To be honest, I didn’t particularly like it in this book half as much.

A lot of this book is the consistent informational dumping and the consistent hammering home of how dystopian their dystopian society really is. It’s constant. If they just summarized even a quarter of the info dumps, the book would probably be fifty pages shorter and the plot wouldn’t suffer a bit.

I also didn’t particularly like the main protagonist. It’s great that she learned to use her gift and grew a backbone as the story progressed rather than passing from one master to the next, but I honestly didn’t ever feel like she was a person I could really meet on the streets of London. There was nothing happy in her life ever in the story. She was a walking cloud of negative energy and she just wasn’t that fun to read about.

The minor characters were somewhat difficult to remember, with the exception of Liss and Seb, the only two characters who even seemed to have an ounce of humanity. And, of course, for that reason they had to be killed. What better to do to our protagonist who has never felt happiness in her life than to kill the few people who were nice to her inside Sheol I?

The romance also came out of nowhere. The author hinted heavily at Paige’s feelings for Nick, which was fine. I saw her feelings there coming. But for Warden? Seriously? The guy was creepy as hell, even with him teaming up with her. Stockholm syndrome much? The guy had no personality at all. He basically existed as the blank slate that his dreams consisted of. He didn’t seem like he was capable of romance. I just didn’t buy their fling.

All in all, this is definitely meant for an adult audience, but I could see high schoolers enjoying this. Still, I’ve read better dystopian novels.

jess

so the bone season was decent enough. very interesting, but personally i thought that it was a bit confusing, even with all the charts and maps at the beginning. i think this can either fall under young adult as well (and it didn't have a romance take up all the plot, which was GREAT). 

the thing about this is that it didn't suck me in. i'll probably be reading the next book, though. the pacing was too slow for the type of book it was. the publisher seems very sure that this is a good series though. 

another thing that was odd to me was the anachronism. it was cool, but it didn't ... really make sense? victorian clothing and slang with computers and sci-fi sounding names. yeah.

Ben Bastow

Sonja H

Eine ziemlich gruselige und verstörende Geschichte, manchmal musste ich mich überwinden, um weiterzulesen.
Allerdings fand ich es schwierig, in dieser seltsamen Welt anzukommen, es gibt im ersten Band zu wenig Hintergrundinformationen zu den Wesen und ihrer Umwelt.
Ich bin mir noch nicht sicher, ob ich Band 2 lesen werde.

EVEN A DREAMER CAN START A REVOLUTIONNineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London. 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.The New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller also includes an exclusive excerpt of the sequel, The Mime Order.

Vilde

4.5

I loved it, but there is also something about it that is making me insanely confused.

Amie ONeill

I really loved this book. I think it may be one of the best starts to a series I have ever read.

Paige was a delightful main character. She was strong while also having her weaknesses. The rest of the characters were all amazing and added what they needed to to the story. I felt that none were unnecessary.

The story had me hooked from page 1 and if it wasn't for life I would've finished this in a day.

The writing was superb and I can't point out a single fault. Every word was written perfectly.

I LOVE THIS BOOK, and I will 100% be reading be reading the rest of the series.

Anwesha 

I actually read the book because of a read-along hosted by @acouplereads and @the_bandar_blog on instagram (I almost forgot about it,lucky someone put it up on their Instagram story :D ) and I'm glad i picked it up,like seriously,that was just the right book at that time.I was getting into a reading slump,and The Bone Season,with its enthralling heroine,fantasy,otherworldly beings,dystopian society,fast pace....not to mention The Warden,it was just the perfect book!
I agree that there's a lot of confusion in the initial chapters,not about the plot,but the terms that have been used ,but you have the all-saving glossary at the back,so no worries!

Paige Mahoney is a strong character,a character who learnt to be strong for the sake of survival.I love that thing in her.Also,her psychic power!That's so cool!Umm...I guess a bit scary too,like c'mon,when your psychic power can commit a bloodless murder,how could you not call it scary?But it's still pretty cool!And she actually organised a whole revolution by herself...okay,with a bit of help from Julian and Liss,but still ,she was a leader of sorts!Girl Power!

And the Rephaim,they seem like the creatures of Netherworld,equivalent to the Vampires of our world,well,at least the feeding habits,aura equivalent to blood and the whole eye colour changing thing!And Nashira leads the Rephaim......she's evil...like of course..she looks evil from the starting....and you have no idea how the fact that The Warden was the blood consort (fiance ) of Nashira hurt me....like..no possible romance between the female protagonist and the male-supposed-anti-protagonist?But never let that fact stop you from continuing 'cause Arcturus(yeah that's the Warden's name)has a lot of surprises in store for you!I might have liked him from the first time he was mentioned! Like who wouldn't like a male character who seems dark and mysterious and cold...but also has a warmer side and seems to have some kind of connection with the female protagonist?I would of course fall in love at first mention!

"If I never return-if you never see me again-it will mean that everything is all right.That I have ended her.But if I return,it will mean that I have failed.That there is still danger.And then I will find you."

Those are a few lines from some point of the book by some character...and what I think of that sentence is that,every damned thing should go wrong.The character should fail...and danger should prevail and the two characters should meet again,'cause if the character doesn't fail ,they will not meet again.....don't bother reminding me that it's too selfish of me :P .

4.75 stars

The sole reason for not giving it a 5star was the confusion in the initial chapters,but kudos to Samantha Shannon for her use of all the different terms and so many characters and the amazing writing!

after i first read this i was like … well this has nothing on priory .. but thinking about it now it was so enjoyable to read & i love all the characters & its v quickly become one of my favourite series ever :) 

Raquel Silva

Let me start by saying that this book is one of the best I've read this year. I loved it and could not put it down!

So this is about Paige Mahoney, a clairvoyant 19? year-old. She currently lives in London, a few decades into the future, and the world has changed. London is a Scion citadel where clairvoyants are hunted down and murdered. Their only hope is to become part of a syndicate, meaning they use their clairvoyance for crime. But isn't that better than dying? Obviously, things happen and Paige finds herself in a different place with a totally different life.

Before I give you my opinion I would like to let you know some trigger warnings for this book: kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, slavery, and torture.

So, I was incredibly lost at the beginning, everything was confusing and a bit info-dumpy but this book grabbed me straight away. I liked the slower pace of the book and how even when things were going down nothing felt rushed. This book includes a very, very slow burn romance, but it is by no means the focal point of the book and I really enjoyed it. The way these "powers" are explained and when these spiritual battles happen we get this super detailed almost vivid depiction of what's happening and how the character feels was amazing.

Julie D.

Marissa Killian

I wasn't sure that I wanted to read this and even as I started it I was hesitant but I am SO happy I did! 

I really really loved Paige. One thing that I've found in a lot of books recently is that the main character will hate/dislike someone SOOOOO much for most of the book and then all of a sudden with no real explanation at the end she's like OH I LOVE YOU, YOU ARE MY SOULMATE BLAH BLAHHHH... I feel like the transition of falling in love is lost and they go so fast from hate to love that I can't relate.

***** SPOILERS AHEAD *********
***** SPOILERS AHEAD *********

I had a feeling she was going to fall for Warden eventually and to be honest I had a tiny bit of a crush on him myself. I just really appreciate how even toward the end of the book where they kiss or she realizes she has feelings for him she's STILL questioning and STILL making sure she can trust him. I know she does trust him, but there is a longer period of transition between the hate --- right to love, like in most books. I'm not great at writing reviews so maybe I'm not saying this how I want to but I just felt like it was more relatable for me, more believable. I was crushed when she left him at the end. *heart broken* but I'm excited to read the next book and see how their relationship progresses when they meet again! 

So,
I loved the world, I love the story and I can't wait to see what happens with Paige & Warden. GREAT BOOK!

The Bone Season

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