The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1) by Samantha Shannon

I got this because I read and instantly loved The Priory of the Orange Tree and wanted to spend more time in the words of Samantha Shannon. Unlike Priory I needed more than a page or 2 to fall in love with Paige and the world she lives in but fall in love I did. I am so glad I stuck with this one and am looking forward to diving into book 2 ASAP.


In this version of the world it is in 2056 and takes place in England, in London and Oxford.

In London there is an unground network of criminals and a government run by something called Scion. The "criminals" are people with clairvoyant abilities and to avoid punishment the underground has sprung up. For Paige there is the added danger of being Irish and having a father who works for Scion. But she seems to be managing. Until she gets caught up in the Bone Season and spends time in a "rehabilitation" center. There she meets Warden. And he is so fascinating. There is a hierarchy of clairvoyants on the streets and also in the center, called Sheol I, and there is something not quite "normal" or right about those running the place. Who are they are where are they from? Can Warden be trusted? What is his story? The Paige/Warden story kind of has a Beauty & The Beast feel to it...

The building of the world and the powers takes some time to becoming "can't put this down" and the language takes some getting used to, there are slang terms and words Samantha uses for her world that are old or her own creations but there is a handy glossary in the back. The way their abilities work, the naturalness of the powers or abilities they have as part of them as much as hair color or eye color and the way they are called and treated as bad and unnatural has parallels to the way those who don't fit some ideal "norm" someone somewhere at sometime decided was the standard we have in our world now and for many years before now....

If like me you aren't immediately hooked then you should also be like me and stick with it because it is a bit of a slow burn but all of a sudden you will find yourself fully immersed and not wanting to leave Paige and her story.

(Finished Sept. 16, 2019)