17199504Title: The Bone Season

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: August 2013

Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Fantasy

Series or Stand Alone: Series, Book One

 

 

Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

Review:

The year is 2059 and Paige is a rare kind of clairvoyant. She is a dreamwalker. Someone who can propel her spirit out of her body and seek and destroy others by just invading their minds. She’s a danger, a weapon. And she’s wanted.

Sigh.

I got this book from the very kind people over at Bloomsbury who sent it to me in anticipation for the second book in the series, The Mime Order. I was intrigued as the synopsis is very alluring, promising adventure, magic, danger and another world. The hype is everywhere. She’s being called the next J.K. Rowling. People love this book.  So it was with pretty  high expectations I began reading…

And was truly and utterly disappointed.

The reader is first thrown into this dystopian like London that barely resembles modern day. Cool. It’s dangerous and dark and seedy. But it’s also not well developed. Sure, you can re-read TWO huge glossaries that are found at the beginning and at the end of the book to give you a better idea on what/who everything is. But it doesn’t help with the actual setting. Don’t worry, cause you won’t be there long.

Soon, the reader is thrust into another world that lives on the fringes of London. This world is harsh, slave oriented and this is where Paige is taken up by Warden, the second highest person in the society, to train her gift. Again, not much is explained about this second setting either, although we do get to live in it for most of the book so I feel a little bit warmer towards it. Honestly though, I had no real feelings about this place. I didn’t get a good sense of the tone or feeling. There were some descriptions but not enough to create a mood.

It’s disappointing most of all because the synopsis was so good and with such rave reviews I was hoping for more than what it is. I almost didn’t get through the first 100 pages as everything is confusing. Sure, you include two glossaries, but so much is mentioned about all of these different orders of clairvoyance, and their sub orders, and their rarities…Most of which isn’t needed in the first pages of the book. I didn’t have a clear grasp on who or what Paige was before tons of random other information was being thrown at me. Worst of all, it was all superficial and glossed over. There was too much information at one time, and none of it was in depth enough to really get a sense of this world in which I was committing 450 pages to.

Which is a shame because I wasn’t a fan of the writing either. There was little character development save for Warden, who is the only interesting person in this world. The writing was choppy and weak feeling more like a draft than a complete work of fiction. With no language to set the tone or setting, the words became more of an action sequence or play directions. I know the author was young when she wrote it but bad writing is still that.

I’m sorry to say I didn’t love The Bone Season. I think the potential was so strong, the reviews so high. Yet when I read it, I just wanted to get through it and congratulate myself for sticking it out.

 

Rating 2 Ugh