Book Review: The Bone Season

Title: The Bone Season
Author: Samantha Shannon
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: The Bone Season (Book 1)

Quick disclaimer, I finished this book ages ago (and by ages I mean 11 days ago but my memory is not that good) so my review might be a little sparse/sketchy because I made the mistake of reading the second and part of the third book before I wrote this review and I don't want to spoil anything so... yeah.

First of all, the blurb for the book really got me excited because it said it was about crime, and there were people with gifts and it just sounded like my kind of book! You know, the kind with lots of action and crime and all that jazz and little to no romance. Boy was I wrong... this was really not my kind of book. It wasn't awful or anything, hence the 3 stars instead of 2 or 1, but I was kinda disappointed. In hindsight I really should have realized that Warden taking up like half the blurb signaled some elements that I wouldn't like but I was just too excited...

I almost feel like I enjoyed the book more before Paige got captured by Scion, because after that it was all Warden all the time and I just wanted to punch a brick wall and I would have, but then I would have probably broken something because I'm talented like that and one bone was enough, thank you very much. It was all "Warden-does-this" and "Warden-does-that" and "what is Warden up to" and by the end I really just wanted to chuck the book but couldn't because it's considered rude to ruin borrowed books even if you are super frustrated. Long story short, waaaay to much Warden.

LIKES:
+ The premise itself was up my alley. Gifted protagonist (who happens to be part of a crime syndicate type thing) in dystopian-type society gets captured by otherworldly group that is secretly super powerful and tries to escape. That's totally my type of book, especially if there are some action/fighting scenes involved.
+ I didn't hate Paige (until the whole Warden thing) and she was actually kinda cool. She wasn't whiny like some certain other female protagonist that I won't mention (but secretly hold a grudge against), she was tough, and honestly I admired the way she dealt with a lot of things like I'd just be a melted puddle of stress on the ground.
+ The Rephaim were really brutal and nasty and all that jazz but their powers were actually really cool. Like normal powers on steroids?

DISLIKES:
- The slang/language/whatever-the-heck that was. It was practically written in another language, and half the time I was lost because I didn't know what the heck they were talking about. You practically need a dictionary just to translate.
- The whole order thing because I'm pretty sure there was a chart but that was confusing as heck.
- Warden. See previous rants above.
- The whole captor-captive relationship thing Warden and Paige had going on. No thanks, and also I wouldn't be nearly as nice to him as Paige was because I don't care how "nice" he is... he still made Paige go through a ton of crappy stuff.
- My phone had a tendency to win out over this book, which is a pretty big indicator of how interested I was at some parts.
- This is one book out of seven. Seven! And I feel like if some fluff had been cut out you probably wouldn't need seven.

All in all this really wasn't a bad book--except for the Warden scenes, which really killed my happiness and ruined my view of the book. I'm still reading the rest of the series (for now) but I don't think I'm going to read all seven...

See this review on Goodreads.