The Bone Season follows the story of Paige Mahoney, a 19-year-old clairvoyant in the Scion citadel of London. Clairvoyance of any kind is forbidden, but Paige is an especially rare (and especially illegal) type; a dreamwalker. She can separate her soul from her body. She works for an underground mafia/gang called “The Syndicate” made up of other clairvoyants and run by Mime-lords and ladies- basically, crime kings. It’s not made clear what the syndicate actually does (or how it makes money, although the mime-lords seem to be rolling in it), but we’re told that it’s, like, really really illegal, and stuff.
Before you read anymore, I’d just like to say that I actually did enjoy The Bone Season, and am going to be buying the next book as well as the hardcover edition of this one. Most of the angst in this review will come from the fact that I felt like it could have been a shitton better than it actually was- and I’m kinda disappointed.
The Bone Season is, first and foremost, fun. It’s engaging and exciting and, even when I wasn’t reading, I was thinking about it constantly. It was also VERY confusing. As I bought the ebook edition, I couldn’t read the diagrams that Shannon had drawn, and had no idea what the hell any of the types of clairvoyance meant. Although she tells you in great detail about Paige’s personal life, it would have been nice to understand the basics of the world first. Shannon told us everything you could ever possibly want to know about the history of Scion and still managed to make the book confusing. And, dear lord, the infodumps. C’mon, Sam; you could do so much better.
However, I don’t think it’s entirely the fault of the prose that The Bone Season was hard to understand. The plot was like reading a nearly 500 page first chapter. In order to have a successful series, every book has to stand on it’s own two legs as a story. This one was laying on it’s back in bed, maybe hungover or something.
Paige Mahoney was the only part of the book that I honest-to-god hated. The first half was almost entirely devoted to telling us how SPECIAL, PRETTY, and IMPORTANT Paige was. One-sided, annoying, stupid, and petty, Paige Mahoney should have been killed off. Nothing in the plot happened because of her- it happened to her, handed over on a golden platter. If you took her out of the story nothing would change. Hopefully, we’re gonna see some development from this point on (and maybe an apology from her to some other characters).
In perfect contrast, all the other characters were fantastic. I could talk about Jaxon and Liss for days. Read the book for them, if nothing else. The relationship between Warden and Nashira was a genuinely interesting dynamic that made me want to know more, and Nick was an example of minority representation done right. The side characters get an A++.
Many of the negative reviews you see of The Bone Season complain about the hype. I hardly see how that’s it’s own fault, and not the publisher’s. True; it’s nothing like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games, and it shouldn’t have been compared to either of them, but that doesn’t mean you have to hate it cause some other people loved it. Plus, think about how stressful this must be to Shannon. Being called “The next J. K. Rowling” is a huge responsibility, and not one she picked herself. Give her a break.
Now, since this review is for a feminist book review blog, a word on the feminist merits of The Bone Season:
Paige Mahoney, as I have already mentioned, was a feminist nightmare. Most of the events she was involved in were entirely controlled by men, and many of the choices she made were based only upon how those men would react. She seemed incapable of her own thoughts. Side female characters such as Liss were strong and interesting, but she was taken out of the story before she even had a chance to really interact with it. As for intersectionality, Nick was a well-written gay character, and I was relieved when his sexuality wasn't the entire focus of his character. When we learned Nick was gay, there wasn't a long "He's gay, and we accept him. We accept gay people. Gay people? Accepted." rant put in by the author. Not only does that kind of 'acceptance' pull the focus away from the person and onto the politics, it's usually only there to prove how 'progressive' and author is, and give them a pat on the back for daring to write anything other than a cishet.
The plot regarding slavery could have well been made into a metaphor for oppression, but Shannon seemed to want to focus more on Paige's interesting romantic life. From that I got the impression she wasn't really willing to step her foot out and write anything too progressive. A safely white, male, and cisgender gay character was the extent of it. I doubt there will be any more queer characters in the later books. Still; you get what you can, and I am grateful for the representation.
For those reasons, I give The Bone Season a 2/5 stars for feminism.
The Bone Season is the start of what will hopefully be an excellent series, and, with any luck, my rating will only go up with the successive books.
-Leon
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