Scan barcode
eleanora's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Police brutality, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Murder
nexelle's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Slavery, Trafficking, and Vomit
distilledreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The Bone Season is dark, with a significant amount of violence, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. While this book and subsequent series may not be for everyone because of that, I really enjoyed it. Like, stayed up until the wee hours of the morning because I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading it kind of enjoyment. I needed to know what was going to happen next.
To begin with, there is a lot of world-building and orders of magic that need to be explained. Rather than attempt to remember everything as I was reading it for the first time, I let myself be carried along for the ride and eventually the slang stuck. That leniency for the first 100 and so pages really helped my enjoyment of the novel and its world. I think if you try too hard to make sense of the different orders and types of clairvoyancy that are being thrown at you in this futuristic-yet-Victorian, alternate-universe London, it would become overwhelming very easily.
Shannon does a fairly good job at world-building in a way that feels natural by having characters from different backgrounds being confused by what’s going on and requiring an explanation from another character, but it is still a fair bit of info-dumping. For that reason, and our male protagonist, this was a four-star read for me instead of higher.
As for said male protagonist, Warden, or Arcturus, I really want to hate him. In fact, I do hate the origin story of him and Paige Mahoney, our main character, but even as I was hating him, I found myself giddy at the tension between the pair.
When Paige is captured and imprisoned in the alternate-universe Oxford, she is “acquired” by the Warden who becomes her keeper, which straddles the line of a very dangerous, toxic trope. The Warden doesn’t help matters by being on the bad side of morally grey. On top of that trope, the Warden is also an other-worldly creature known as a Rephaite, so there is forbidden love and enemies-to-lovers tangled up in here. Especially during the first half of the book, his actions are damnable…but dammit I still liked his character. My hope is that the power imbalance between the pair levels out in the next book(s), which is to say that I’ll still definitely be continuing on with the series.
To begin with, there is a lot of world-building and orders of magic that need to be explained. Rather than attempt to remember everything as I was reading it for the first time, I let myself be carried along for the ride and eventually the slang stuck. That leniency for the first 100 and so pages really helped my enjoyment of the novel and its world. I think if you try too hard to make sense of the different orders and types of clairvoyancy that are being thrown at you in this futuristic-yet-Victorian, alternate-universe London, it would become overwhelming very easily.
Shannon does a fairly good job at world-building in a way that feels natural by having characters from different backgrounds being confused by what’s going on and requiring an explanation from another character, but it is still a fair bit of info-dumping. For that reason, and our male protagonist, this was a four-star read for me instead of higher.
As for said male protagonist, Warden, or Arcturus, I really want to hate him. In fact, I do hate the origin story of him and Paige Mahoney, our main character, but even as I was hating him, I found myself giddy at the tension between the pair.
When Paige is captured and imprisoned in the alternate-universe Oxford, she is “acquired” by the Warden who becomes her keeper, which straddles the line of a very dangerous, toxic trope. The Warden doesn’t help matters by being on the bad side of morally grey. On top of that trope, the Warden is also an other-worldly creature known as a Rephaite, so there is forbidden love and enemies-to-lovers tangled up in here. Especially during the first half of the book, his actions are damnable…but dammit I still liked his character. My hope is that the power imbalance between the pair levels out in the next book(s), which is to say that I’ll still definitely be continuing on with the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Xenophobia
vendottie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Slavery
Moderate: Kidnapping, Police brutality, and Trafficking
banrions's review against another edition
i started this after reading the priory of the orange tree by this author and really enjoying it, however, this was not my cup of tea and i gave up once i saw that writing on the wall.
it's one of those books that really needs you to do a lot of listening to the worldbuilding, and not always in a fun way, so it took me ages to get through the first couple of chapters, because it just wasn't grabbing me. but then it started to!
annnnnnd then i saw the writing on the wall of how the central romance and dynamic was about to go down, like, right away as soon as the main girl is basically... kinda? sold into a sort of slavery/subervience role to this powerful dude. and i was like... yeah... nah, i'm good. i don't need to read another hetero romance that tries to make a fucked up dyanmic interesting or romantic. that's... been done to death and i'm simply too over hetero romances to give a shit. (i fully admit that if this had been two women, i might have stuck around, because inevitibly, that one fact inherently changes the power dynamics in a way that you can make something interesting/or different about it if you wanted to. but... this probably isn't gonna be that). at this point in my life, if you want me to read somethingt that's not queer anymore, then it's gotta be worth my while. and this is just not my bag. maybe it is for you! i'm not judging at all, i love me a fucked up dynamic in fiction if it's got something interesting to say/explore, but this one isn't for me.
i enjoyed her priory book though! so i'm not saying this author sucks or anything of the like, i'll be keeping an eye out if she ever gives that a sequel or writes something other than this series, but this one ain't for me.
it's one of those books that really needs you to do a lot of listening to the worldbuilding, and not always in a fun way, so it took me ages to get through the first couple of chapters, because it just wasn't grabbing me. but then it started to!
annnnnnd then i saw the writing on the wall of how the central romance and dynamic was about to go down, like, right away as soon as the main girl is basically... kinda? sold into a sort of slavery/subervience role to this powerful dude. and i was like... yeah... nah, i'm good. i don't need to read another hetero romance that tries to make a fucked up dyanmic interesting or romantic. that's... been done to death and i'm simply too over hetero romances to give a shit. (i fully admit that if this had been two women, i might have stuck around, because inevitibly, that one fact inherently changes the power dynamics in a way that you can make something interesting/or different about it if you wanted to. but... this probably isn't gonna be that). at this point in my life, if you want me to read somethingt that's not queer anymore, then it's gotta be worth my while. and this is just not my bag. maybe it is for you! i'm not judging at all, i love me a fucked up dynamic in fiction if it's got something interesting to say/explore, but this one isn't for me.
i enjoyed her priory book though! so i'm not saying this author sucks or anything of the like, i'll be keeping an eye out if she ever gives that a sequel or writes something other than this series, but this one ain't for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Kidnapping, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking
lovelanie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit
myhomextheroad's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Trafficking, Violence, Xenophobia, Sexual assault, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death
Minor: Xenophobia, Drug use, and Drug abuse
More...