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A review by cavalary
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
When the other characters tend to have such a hard time, and when it may even be said to be a good thing that it’s hard to keep track of the minor ones, considering what happens to plenty of them, the amount of hero’s luck that Paige has seems inexcusable. And when plenty of flashbacks do exist later, when they also break up the action and rhythm, it would have made more sense to use one to explain how it all began as well, letting her be imprisoned for some time instead of being captured just before an event that happens once per decade. And then you have the antagonists that seem to be such fools, allowing so much to happen right under their noses, and those final chapters, shrouded in the haze of Paige’s dimmed awareness, where so much is left unexplained, all the right things just happening to, well, happen. And all of the preparations for such an undertaking, which could and probably should have filled a book on their own, were largely skipped over, being summarized in a few pages.
That said, I’m tempted to consider Arcturus as the most important, and best, character. The fact that Paige takes so long to realize what he is and what he’s planning makes her a fool as well, but their interactions do have good moments, possibly the better ones for most of the book, and there is something to be said about how the bond between them develops. That and their powers would have been a great opportunity to display a deep understanding of people, and that’s not the case, but I’ll nevertheless say that, despite all of the above criticisms, this is not a bad book. It has some thrilling action scenes, most notably in the last two chapters, some characters are worth supporting and caring for, some even develop in a noticeable way, there are some good moments of interaction, and it depicts an unusual dystopian version of this world in a manner that didn’t drive me away… Which, in itself, is quite an accomplishment.
That said, I’m tempted to consider Arcturus as the most important, and best, character. The fact that Paige takes so long to realize what he is and what he’s planning makes her a fool as well, but their interactions do have good moments, possibly the better ones for most of the book, and there is something to be said about how the bond between them develops. That and their powers would have been a great opportunity to display a deep understanding of people, and that’s not the case, but I’ll nevertheless say that, despite all of the above criticisms, this is not a bad book. It has some thrilling action scenes, most notably in the last two chapters, some characters are worth supporting and caring for, some even develop in a noticeable way, there are some good moments of interaction, and it depicts an unusual dystopian version of this world in a manner that didn’t drive me away… Which, in itself, is quite an accomplishment.