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A review by aceinit
The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon
2.0
What an enormously frustrating read. Since it has been a few years since the last book, I marathoned the previous installments before diving into this one, and a very distinctive pattern emerged that made this book more tedious than enjoyable.
First off, nothing substantially new happens here. TMF takes the best bits of books 2 and 3, smooshes them together, and makes it happen in France:
⎈ Paige goes to a Sheol colony? Been there, done that.
⎈ Paige decides to infiltrate Scion? Sure, why not.
⎈ Paige finds out the Grey Market has broad-reaching hands among the Voyant leaders, and she is somehow the only one who can expose the corruption? Covered that already.
⎈ Paige makes an impulsive decision to put herself into extreme danger, only to have it all go wrong? I feel like I've read this before.
⎈ Paige is betrayed by people she trusts implicitly, despite not knowing them for very long? Yup.
⎈ Jaxon manipulates the hell out of Paige , and she lets him? Of course.
⎈ Paige grossly misreads a situation, causing a whole mess of problems. Check.
⎈ Warden somehow continues to think Paige is a Strong, Smart and Singularly Capable person despite all of this? Naturally.
Must frustratingly, Paige continues a very notable trend of making bad decisions due to her tendency to absolutely 100% trust everything everyone tells her (even people she knows are the bad guys), and take it at face value. She then goes immediately into reactionary mode and doesn't consult anyone about her next actions or give herself time to analyze the information, because she absolutely must act on it right away Or Else. This leads to her creating a clusterfuck of a situation that could have been avoided with some thought or outside consultations, and subsequently getting herself and her allies badly hurt in the process. She then has to spend the rest of the book unfucking her bad decisions.
She never pauses to question things until it is too late, and then realizes she has been an fool who misunderstood everything. Over and over again.
One such misunderstanding sets the stage for the next installment. Previously, on social media, Shannon had said that Paige's reaction her recent trauma makes her drastically misunderstand a situation in this book and, given how things end, it's pretty obvious what that situation is. And, yet again, if she had took thirty seconds to actually think, she would have realized what was up. All of the evidence was right in front of her.
After reading all four volumes back-to-back and noticing this very distinctive pattern, and her utter inability to learn from it, I have come to the conclusion that, for me at least, Paige is exhausting. Warden/Arcturus is an absolute Saint for putting up with her incessantly bad decisions. I, however, am not, and am honestly not sure if I will be continuing with what was once a unique and promising series.
First off, nothing substantially new happens here. TMF takes the best bits of books 2 and 3, smooshes them together, and makes it happen in France:
Spoiler
⎈ Paige goes to a Sheol colony? Been there, done that.
⎈ Paige decides to infiltrate Scion? Sure, why not.
⎈ Paige finds out the Grey Market has broad-reaching hands among the Voyant leaders, and she is somehow the only one who can expose the corruption? Covered that already.
⎈ Paige makes an impulsive decision to put herself into extreme danger, only to have it all go wrong? I feel like I've read this before.
⎈ Paige is betrayed by people she trusts implicitly, despite not knowing them for very long? Yup.
⎈ Jaxon manipulates the hell out of Paige , and she lets him? Of course.
⎈ Paige grossly misreads a situation, causing a whole mess of problems. Check.
⎈ Warden somehow continues to think Paige is a Strong, Smart and Singularly Capable person despite all of this? Naturally.
Must frustratingly, Paige continues a very notable trend of making bad decisions due to her tendency to absolutely 100% trust everything everyone tells her (even people she knows are the bad guys), and take it at face value. She then goes immediately into reactionary mode and doesn't consult anyone about her next actions or give herself time to analyze the information, because she absolutely must act on it right away Or Else. This leads to her creating a clusterfuck of a situation that could have been avoided with some thought or outside consultations, and subsequently getting herself and her allies badly hurt in the process. She then has to spend the rest of the book unfucking her bad decisions.
She never pauses to question things until it is too late, and then realizes she has been an fool who misunderstood everything. Over and over again.
One such misunderstanding sets the stage for the next installment. Previously, on social media, Shannon had said that Paige's reaction her recent trauma makes her drastically misunderstand a situation in this book and, given how things end, it's pretty obvious what that situation is. And, yet again, if she had took thirty seconds to actually think, she would have realized what was up. All of the evidence was right in front of her.
After reading all four volumes back-to-back and noticing this very distinctive pattern, and her utter inability to learn from it, I have come to the conclusion that, for me at least, Paige is exhausting. Warden/Arcturus is an absolute Saint for putting up with her incessantly bad decisions. I, however, am not, and am honestly not sure if I will be continuing with what was once a unique and promising series.