BOOKS | Review: The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

Name: The Mask Falling (The Bone Season series #4)

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Date published: January 2021

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, science fiction, dystopian, paranormal, urban fantasy

Pages: 528

Rating: 4/5

 

Dreamwalker Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between those factions that seek Scion's downfall and those who would kill to protect the Rephaim's puppet empire.
The mysterious Domino Program has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With Arcturus Mesarthim - her former enemy - at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. Her risks promise high reward: the Parisian underworld could yield the means to escalate her rebellion to outright war.
As Scion widens its bounds and the free world trembles in its shadow, Paige must fight her own memories after her ordeal at the hands of Scion. Meanwhile, she strives to understand her bond with Arcturus, which grows stronger by the day. But there are those who know the revolution began with them - and could end with them...

- From Goodreads.

I really loved the descriptions of Paris in this book, it was a wonderful place to set the book and all the details were so well written and nicely placed in the story. I love it when a setting feels like a character in a book, London felt really alive in the previous books and Paris felt just as full of soul in this one too.

Sometimes it did feel like things were done to make the plot move forward, rather than because it made sense for the world or characters. For example, mostly I did agree with Paige's decisions, or at least understood them, but a couple of times it almost felt like she did things because the plot needed her to, and it did not match what she would do given her experience and what she had learnt in the previous books. But this only happened a small amount of times and it did not ruin my enjoyment of the story too much.

I liked that Paige felt the effects of the things that happened to her, both physically and mentally, how that was acknowledged and how she needed to take the time to recover and feel stronger again, and even when she felt better she was still affected by the memories of what had happened. I really felt all of her emotions around that and thought it was written very well.

The story continued to be unpredictable, as all the other books in the series have been so far. There were plot twists and surprises from beginning to end and it certainly kept me intrigued and trying to solve the mysteries all the way through. I liked that there were different layers to the story and different plot threads and storylines taking place at the same time, it was all woven together very intricately.

The ending of the book was especially well done, plot twist after plot twist, all completely surprising, with an epic finalé that suddenly appeared to leave you shocked and stunned. It was nothing I could have expected and it was thrilling to read.

Overall, even though there were a few small moments I had problems with, it was still an incredibly impressive book that answered so many questions that the previous books had asked while also setting up so many potential pathways for the rest of the series. I am so curious to see what will happen in the rest of the books and I am sure Samantha Shannon will continue to surprise me as she has already amazed me so much so far.

BOOKS | Review: The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

Name: The Song Rising (The Bone Season series #3)

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Date published: March 2017 (this edition March 2018)

Genre: Fiction, adult, science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, urban fantasy, paranormal

Pages: 363

Rating: 4/5

A rebel who becomes a queen
The hotly anticipated third book in the bestselling Bone Season series—a ground-breaking, dystopian fantasy of extraordinary imagination following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London's criminal population.
But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilising the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.
Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it...

- From Goodreads.

As this is the third book in the series, I liked that the elements of the worldbuilding were changed up and new parts were introduced, each instalment seems to bring something different and unique which keeps it interesting and exciting. The characters were put into new situations and there was always something unpredictable happening. The world was expanded and we learnt so much more about what existed outside of the lives and communities that Paige and the characters around her had already known.

On the subject of characters, they continued to be really well written and fascinating. Paige is still a great main character to follow, and I am always on her side, hoping she will make it through and succeed. She went through a lot of difficult things in this book, and it was incredible to read how she persevered and survived, even through the worst. I also really like a lot of the side characters, especially Nick and Eliza. I hope we will see more of them both in future books in the series and hopefully there will be more development in Paige and Eliza's friendship. Nick and Paige's bond is already so strong it made my heart ache, I even cried at one scene between them towards the end of the book.

There were quite a few emotional moments in the book, and although not all of them made me cry like that one, they all got to me and really made me feel on behalf of Paige and the other characters involved.

The writing in the book was well done and balanced the emotional, poignant moments with dramatic and shocking ones, some calm ones, and even a few nice humourous moments. So while I was invested and felt the emotions of the story, I was not too overwhelmed and enjoyed the reading experience.

The only things that stopped me from giving it a full five stars were a few minor things, some character interactions where I did not feel the emotions or just did not connect with the moment, and a couple of moments where the exposition did not feel like it fitted as smoothly into the story as it could have done. Otherwise, I really liked this instalment in the series and am excited, if quite nervous, to move onto the next one!

BOOKS | Review: The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon

Name: The Mime Order (The Bone Season series #2)

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Date published: January 2015 (this edition February 2017)

Genre: Fiction, adult, science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, paranormal, urban fantasy

Pages: 501

Rating: 4/5

This review contains mild spoilers.

It is a dark time for clairvoyants. Scion is in league with the Rephaim, an extraordinarily powerful, otherworldly race that intends to make humans its slaves.

In an unprecedented feat of bravery, Paige Mahoney has succeeded in leading a mass break-out from the brutal camp, Sheol I, where she and other clairvoyants were systematically imprisoned.

Paige is desperate to reach the safety of the London underworld, but the ruthless leader of the Rephaim, Nashira Sargas, is not likely to let her escape so easily…

- From Goodreads.

I thought The Mime Order continued the series in a really exciting way, adding some really intriguing elements to the plot and expanding the world in more fascinating detail.

There was a lot of mystery to the story in this book which I found to be completely unpredictable, I really had no idea what was going to happen next and thought all the plot threads were woven together well. The extra twist at the end of the book also set up an extra layer to what I thought would be the plot of the next book, and makes me all the more eager to pick up the next in the series.

We were introduced to more characters in this book, all of them with interesting parts to play in the story, who felt real and created engaging character dynamics and interactions. One thing I would have liked to see more of was the escapees from Sheol I having a bigger part to play and seeing more of them in the book, since they were so involved in the first one I did feel like I missed them in this one. A few of them did get to play an important part, but I would have liked to see Paige have a connection to more of them and keep in more contact with them, since no one else really knew what she went through when she was captured. Of course she did interact with the rebel Rephaim in this book and although they were somewhat on her side, they still did not really understand her as the other captive voyants would have.

On a similar note, the main weakness of this book and the reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars was because of Paige's romance with Warden. I still did not really feel their connection and thought I would have liked them more as reluctant allies or almost friends at this point instead of already developing a romance when I was still feeling the anger on behalf of Paige over how he treated her in the first book and still did not like some the ways he behaved in this one. I understood that he was Rephaim and would not act human but I could not excuse the things I did not like or understand Paige's feelings for him, but I might have liked it if it had happened later in the series.

However, since this was not the main plot of the book it did not ruin my enjoyment of the story and I still found plenty to enjoy about it. Paige continued to develop her skills with her clairvoyancy and we learnt more about the other types of clairvoyancy too in this book and I found that all fascinating and I think it still continues to be one of the most unique parts of this series.

Overall, this was a thrilling and riveting book that kept me wondering what would happen until the very end. It was all written in great detail with some really captivating character relationships and I am very excited to continue with the series and to see what happens next.

BOOKS | Review: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Name: The Bone Season (The Bone Season series #1)

Author: Samantha Shannon

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Date published: August 2013

Genre: Fiction, adult, science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, dystopia

Pages: 466

Rating: 4/5

 

 

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.

- From Goodreads.

I found The Bone Season to be a very inventive and exciting story that I did not want to put down. It had a few small problems but nothing that truly ruined my enjoyment and overall it was a great start to a series.

One of my favourite things about the book was the world it was set in. It is our world, but in a future with advanced technology, and with alternate history that diverged from our history 200 years back from where the book takes place. There is also clairvoyance added into this world, which makes it all a fascinating mix that I think was handled well. At first there was a strange mixture of a lot of explanation of the worldbuilding taking place at once, while at the same time not all of the names for everything where explained, but I managed to go along with it and still follow the story easily, and was soon enough very immersed in the story and its world.

My other favourite part of this book was Paige, the main character. I just completely loved her, I loved that she got angry, I loved that she was determined, and stood her ground, and I loved that despite everything and all the awful situations she had been in she still cared for other people and stood up for them too. Her particular type of clairvoyancy was very intriguing too and it was interesting to learn about it and see her develop her skills with it more over the course of the book.

I was not sure how I felt about the character of Warden. I definitely hated him at times as Paige justifiably did, and some of the things he did, if I was in Paige's position, I am not sure I would have been able to forgive him for. I did not like how her was forceful with her at times, and consequently as they became closer and formed a bond, I did not feel their connection as much as I would have liked. But I am still interested to see if or how his character develops or changes over the series and if that makes me like him and their relationship more.

All the other side characters were compelling and well-rounded and always added something to the scenes they were in. There were some of them I would definitely be excited to see more of in future books. 

Overall, it felt like a very unique book that always kept me curious to find out what would happen next and invested in the characters, particularly Paige. I will definitely be reading on with the rest of the series and I am excited to see what the next books bring.

BOOKS | Review: Edgewood by Kristen Ciccarelli

Name: Edgewood

Author: Kristen Ciccarelli

Publisher: Wednesday Books

Date published: March 2022

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance

Pages: 400

Rating: 2/5

No matter how far she runs, the forest of Edgewood always comes for Emeline Lark. The scent of damp earth curls into her nose when she sings and moss creeps across the stage. It’s as if the woods of her childhood, shrouded in folklore and tall tales, are trying to reclaim her. But Emeline has no patience for silly superstitions.

When her grandfather disappears, leaving only a mysterious orb in his wake, the stories Emeline has always scoffed at suddenly seem less foolish. She enters the forest she has spent years trying to escape, only to have Hawthorne Fell, a handsome and brooding tithe collector, try to dissuade her from searching.

Refusing to be deterred, Emeline finds herself drawn to the court of the fabled Wood King himself. She makes a deal - her voice for her grandfather’s freedom. Little does she know, she’s stumbled into the middle of a curse much bigger than herself, one that threatens the existence of this eerie world she’s trapped in, along with the devastating boy who feels so familiar.

With the help of Hawthorne - an enemy turned reluctant ally who she grows closer to each day - Emeline sets out to not only save her grandfather’s life, but to right past wrongs, and in the process, discover her true voice.

- From Goodreads.

During the first few chapters of Edgewood, I felt unsure about the story and how it would go, I did not quite understand Emeline at first because despite growing up in a mystical place and having mystical things happen around her all her life, she continued to deny anything magical could be happening, and I struggled to connect with the story at the beginning because of that. Although I began to enjoy the story a little more once it moved into the forest and the Wood King's court, it was still frustrating that Emeline did not seem to understand the seriousness of the situation and how it had changed everything. There were a few moments where she felt more naïve or behaved more foolishly than seemed realistic for a character with her knowledge and experience. While there were moments I did like her and empathised with her, unfortunately I found it quite difficult to root for Emeline as the story went on. I could not quite understand her priorities and why answers to problems did not occur to her, or why at times, even though she seemed to care for her friends and the forest they lived in, she never seemed to be that focused on helping and saving them.

As the story did go further on and was more about the time in the forest and the time with the Wood King's court, the were more elements about it that I enjoyed. The sense of adventure, the different fairy tale and myth inspirations, and creative setting really made me intrigued to know more about the magical world and the creatures living there. 

However, the plot felt a little repetitive at times, although there were mysteries I was interested in seeing the answers to, it did feel like we kept going through the same problems over and over again without getting any closer to the solutions, so it did feel frustrating to read, even though I was excited to get to the end to find out how everything resolved. I also did not like the answers we got for some of the mysteries, I felt they did not completely make sense with the information we had already been told and I felt some of the backstories they filled in did not make sense for the characters we knew either, creating storylines for those characters that I felt were inconsistent. Some of the answers to the mysteries I think I would have liked more if they had been revealed in a different way and we got the story told differently, but some of the answers to the mysteries I really did just not like at all, and some of them made it hard for me to continue to root for characters I had previously liked.

I am still unsure how I felt about the ending, because some parts of it were quite satisfying and wrapped up some of the storylines in a way that I liked and had been hoping for, but in other ways I was still left feeling not quite content and it did not really have everything I wanted after all that the characters had been through.

There was so much potential in this book. The magical world was so fascinating and I really wanted to get immersed into it, but we did not explore it as much as I would have liked. There were quite a few characters I did like and that I always enjoyed seeing more of, mainly some of the side characters, but I struggled to connect to the main character, although sometimes I did really feel her emotional struggles. While I liked the romance between the main character and her love interest, there was not quite enough time with them together for me to get truly invested, and a couple of moments that they did have together fell flat for me. The plot left me feeling disappointed as I thought it could have gone in some really exciting directions, but I ended up feeling a bit lost with where it did go. Overall it could have been a really great book for me and I could see why someone else might enjoy it, but ultimately I struggled with it too much to rate it highly and was left feeling conflicted.

BOOKS | Review: Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Name: Poison Study (Poison Study series #1, The Chronicles of Ixia series #1)

Author: Maria V. Snyder

Publisher: Mira Books

Date published: September 2007

Genre: Fiction, adult, fantasy, romance, adventure

Rating: 4/5

Choose:

A quick death

Or slow poison...

Yelena has a choice – be executed for murder, or become food taster to the Commander of Ixia. She leaps at the chance for survival, but her relief may be short-lived.

Life in the palace is full of hazards and secrets. Wily and smart, Yelena must learn to identify poisons before they kill her, recognise whom she can trust and how to spy on those she can’t. And who is the mysterious Southern sorceress who can reach into her head?

When Yelena realises she has extraordinary powers of her own, she faces a whole new problem, for using magic in Ixia is punishable by death...

- From Goodreads.

Poison Study was an incredibly exciting and intense adventure with plenty of different plot threads weaving together that kept me turning the pages, invested in finding out what would happen next.

I thought the world was built well, the country it was set in, its history and politics all felt real and interesting to unravel and come to understand over the course of the story. I enjoyed the descriptions of the settings and felt they added to the mood and atmosphere of the story well.

My favourite part of the story was definitely the characters. Yelena was a great main character to follow as I loved seeing her grow and learn throughout the novel, and I thought her conflict and pain over her past and her struggles to feel strong despite that were very endearing. I also really enjoyed her dynamic and interactions with Valek, who was a very intriguing character, and I always looked forward to seeing him in a scene and seeing what he would do.

The side characters in the story were also well written, all of them engaging, whether they were likeable or hateful, they definitely added to the story and gave it plenty of depth.

One of the things that did take me out of the flow of the story once or twice was the writing of the action scenes, which I did not always find easy to follow or to picture in my mind, but this did not lessen my enjoyment too much and I am hopeful it could improve in the other books in the series, which I absolutely plan on reading.

Another thing I should mention is that this book does deal with some more serious topics, such as abuse and sexual assault. In general I felt this was dealt with carefully, but there were a couple of small scenes I felt unsure about and that were certainly not easy to read, so if that is something that could upset you, I would be cautious when reading this book.

Overall it was a really great book that was very quick to read as I was enjoying my time with it and was very invested with finding out how it would end. I became quite attached to the characters I liked and will certainly be reading on in the series to find out what happens to them all. I recommend this if you like the politics and danger of books like The Cruel Prince and the world building of something like Shadow and Bone.

BOOKS | Review: Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Name: Gallant

Author: V.E. Schwab

Publisher: Titan Books

Date published: March 2022

Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, mystery, horror, gothic

Pages: 310

Rating: 5/5

Everything casts a shadow. Even the world we live in. And as with every shadow, there is a place where it must touch. A seam, where the shadow meets its source.

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for girls, and all she has of her past is her mother’s journal - which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home - to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn’t matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways.

Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant - but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unravelled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from.

Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

- From Goodreads.

This was a wonderfully atmospheric story that really immersed me in the world of the book and got me caught up in all the action and emotions. Everything was described perfectly, in detail that really added to the mystery and suspense. It made me feel fear for the characters and curious as to how the mysteries would be resolved and how everything would come to an end. This was enhanced by the beautiful illustrations that were interwoven throughout the book and were really crucial to the story.

I loved the main character, Olivia, my heart really felt for her and her desire to find her place in the world and have a family. I also do not remember reading many mute characters before and I really felt Olivia's pain and frustration as she wanted to make herself heard and make noise in the world, and when she so badly wanted to cry out and scream but could not, it was so heart-breaking. I loved that she fought for herself and had real determination and at heart really yearned for a sense of belonging.

I also really liked the other characters in the story and felt they each stood out as real, interesting people, even just the characters we knew through backstory. As this was not a long book, and it took place over quite a short amount of time, we did not spend a long time with these characters, but I still felt we got to know them quite well and even became quite attached to and really worried for some of them.

Overall, this was a very well told gothic style mystery with very strong characters at its heart that I found very easy to get lost in. I ended up very emotionally connected to the story and even cried at the end. I would absolutely recommend this if you have enjoyed V.E. Schwab's writing style in the past because I feel this definitely has her style, although the story certainly feels like something I have not read from her before.