Joint Discussion: The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon

This month Carole and I will be reading "The Bone Season" by Samantha Shannon.

Author: Samantha Shannon

Title: The Bone Season

Genre: Dystopia, alternative history, fiction

Pages: ebook

First Published: August 2013

Where I Got It: Borrowed from library

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. 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.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

B: Let’s get started then :)

C: Let’s first talk about the beginning. Thoughts?


B: No thoughts. It was a beginning. I knew on page 1 that this will not go well for me, and it did not.


C: Agreed. I knew that it was going to be a “meh” for me. I was stuck on page 5 until last night when I pushed forward. It DID get better, but yeah...meh.

B: I would actually say that the beginning was the best part, after half or so I just wanted to carve out my eyes. I was so bored.

C: I did enjoy part of the middle. But then the feelings of “love” started to show and it just made it more meh for me. I think the romance kinda ruined it for me as well. It was already meh and I was JUST starting to kinda sorta enjoy myself, but that cut the fragile ties and made it a meh again.

B: Even if I say the first part was the best, it was still infodumping for the sake of infodumping. Then she got to Oxford, and she turned really stupid didn’t she? I was all, seriously? What is this? This does not make sense! Oh and the love, eh, I never paid attention to it. It was too this will happen, ohhh, and I was all I do not care. This is not a mystery

C: She did get reaaaaaaaally dumb. I was hoping I’d like her, but nope. I agree there was a lot of infodumping, but it oddly didn’t bug me too much. I found it slightly interesting. NO. This was NOT a mystery, I pretty much knew what was going to happen next the whole time. I guessed the ending and I was 80% right. haha

B: She should have spread out the info a bit, because yes some things had potential. But then there was the flashbacks too that suddenly started and those bothered me. I never liked...I have forgotten her name. I just know she was stupid, and oh so perfect. And then I read there are 6 more books…6!!!!!!!!

C: Ugh 6? I was done after this one! (Paige *winks*) But yes I felt the flashbacks were out of place….maybe they would have been good to replace some of that infodumping at the beginning. So...what do you think of the whole premise of people having powers? It was cool I think.

B: That did, hmmm, well it had potential, it was kind of cool. But there were so many different powers! It felt a bit too much, could not one person have 1, instead of there being like 50 different powers that suddenly showed up. I do not know, the whole world building in this one is starting to get on my nerves.

C: I thought it was cool, but there were too many powers and it confused me on what was what. I feel like she tried to shove sooooo much into this box. Maybe not introduce certain powers until the next book.

B: That would have worked much better. Too much of everything now. Which made it too boring. And made me not care. Oh and I forgot to mention earlier that the name Paige tells me nothing. Ha, I have totally forgotten her.

C: Why was her name Paige? It feels too common. Everyone else has badass names while she is stuck with Paige. A silly complaint to have with a book, but the name seemed out of place for this world. I do like the name Jax though! I wish we could have seen more of her world as an outlaw before she was captured.

B: She could have had some badass Irish name, since she was from Ireland, but no. And yes more outlaw stuff could have been cool. She was better then. In Oxford she got careless and stupid. If she was my slave she would have been dead. But she was a Mary Sue wannabe so of course she gets the only sexy good guy around.

C: HAHAHAHA. You are bad. ;) But honestly...I would not have suffered her idiocy either, so she would not have lasted long as my slave either. He was sexy and a good guy, which I don’t think she deserved….

B: Anything more we can complain about? Like the bad guy, a very cliché bad guy.

C: Ugh. Why bring it up? I can barely remember the baddie, because it was so cliché. I was waiting for the evil “MWUAHAHAHA” cackle and then telling all her plans for world domination to Paige. WAIT...I think she did have a huge-ish monologue about world domination. Can’t remember though. You couldn’t remember Paige’s name, I can’t remember the baddie’s name.

B: I can’t remember anyone’s name anymore. Oh well, who cares. There was something I wanted to mention….and now I can’t remember that either. Tell me something while I think.

C: Mmmmmmmm. Ummmm….for all the infodumping, I wish she would have talked more about Paige’s power. I barely understood what the point was for it for her little gang. Was she just monitoring people’s spirits or whatever?

B: Do not start me on her powers, not a clue! Could have been done better. And now I remember! This was an adult book, but for me it felt soooo YA. Sorry YA, but some of your books are sooooo YA.

C: Yes, it did sound more like YA then an adult book. :/ Not even Rowling’s books sounded YA (well - the first one did, but the rest of books felt older). Maybe it was because the author was trying to make this narration sound like a 19 year old writing it or whatever.

B: Something like that. Big sigh from my part, I chose a bad book :/

C: Hey my last choice was a big bummer too. :( Hopefully next month’s selection will be better!

B: Aye, and what will you choose? ;)

C: Spoilers! I shall not say here. But I did find something random at the store and I got you a copy too! (It was super cheap like a buck) And I am intrigued! I’ll send it out ASAP, so it gets to you!

B: Yay, fun :)

C: Good job today! The end?

The end