Author: Samantha Shannon
Series: The Bone Season
Series #: 4
Genre: science fiction, dystopian
Age Group: adult
ARC?: no

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…

Review

It is so hard to write a book review for book 4 in a series. So much has happened and so much does happen in this book. This won’t be a long review for many reasons the first of which is I am still struggling to put into words THAT ENDING. I feel the buildup in relationships in this book was one of my favorite things. I mean…yes.

I love all aspects of this series especially Paige and Warden’s relationship. It is one of my favorite things, and I love watching as it develops over the course of time. We get some more exciting things happening in this book with Paige and her work to “win the war” and to stop what is happening. But we also get to see a side of Paige we haven’t seen before. She is weak and tired. She’s been severely injured and both her physical and mental health are a struggle for her. I loved to see Paige vulnerable. It is so different than how we’ve seen her in other books, where she is strong. She’s still determined in this book, but she’s also weak.

The plot continues to unfold in this book, and we get to see some old characters as well as some new ones. Overall the pacing of this book had me reading it straight through. I absolutely could not put this book down for anything, it was just so good. It’s probably my favorite in the series so far. It was just that stunning. I don’t have enough words to describe just how much I enjoyed it.

The ending of the book…it really made me furious and mad and all sorts of other feelings. I just couldn’t believe what I was reading! It’s not possible! How could that happen? Was it there all along and I just missed it? Or is it not the way that it looks? I sincerely hope its just a ploy. Otherwise I will be MAAAAAAD. Anyways, aside from the whiplash that ending gave me, I did love this book.

The ending is why this book got 4 stars. I’m still reeling and still mad. But very much looking forward to the next book in this series. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!

Shannon is just such a fantastic writer and writes in such a way that makes reading so fun and enjoyable. I can’t express how much I love reading her works.

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Author: Emily Victoria
Series: n/a
Series #: n/a
Genre: science fiction, lgbtq+
Age Group: young adult
ARC?: no

Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

Review

Oh dear.

No one more than me is disappointed by this rating. This was one of my highly anticipated reads this month. I was desperate for a book that featured an ace character, and this one was ace and aro. As someone who is ace, I am always excited for books that have that type of rep. But overall, unfortunately, this book did not work for me on many levels. This review will be a bit briefer than I would like because in the end I did not have a whole lot to say about this book.

I will add, as many of you know, I am not a huge sci-fi fan. It takes a lot for me to like sci-fi, and this book was touted not so much sci-fi but adventure. I still got a lot of sci-fi aspects; but I didn’t feel it fit the adventure aspect too much.

Plot


The plot was mediocre. From the very beginning I struggled to get into the plot. In fact this book would have probably worked better as a series or benefitted from more world building. It felt lackluster on all fronts. And parts of it dragged out. I get it was supposed to be relevant to the plot, but I felt like nothing happened at all in this book. I know I skimmed parts and still knew what was going on in the book. I want a good and well formed plot and I just felt that this book did not give me that. Karis and Alix were supposed to be bringing down the head guy, evil incarnate, and it just did not work. I’m not sure why. Pirates do not make an adventure on their own.

Pacing

Part of the issue was definitely the pacing. The pacing was just…what? Honestly I get getting bored while reading. The pace was slow. But slow with nothing happened. Honestly, if I hadn’t wanted to like this book so much this would have likely been a DNF for me. In fact it practically is since I skipped around hoping to see the pace pick up: it does not. This is really unfortunate overall.

Characters

I didn’t connect with the characters. They felt flat to me. I didn’t really find them compelling. And I wanted to relate to Karis. But I just couldn’t. Neither her nor Alix whose POVs we had did I relate to. I will commend the author for, as I said, including ace and aro rep. I think that was the most interesting aspect of the book. I can barely remember any of the characters, they all just kind of…meshed.

There was no romance to be had which was a nice change, and I wish the book worked because we need more teen/YA books with no romance for those who aren’t into romance or don’t always want to read it. So I think that was well done. Not once do we really see romance. We see lots of friendships which is good. Unfortunately as I said previously I felt everything was underbaked.

Writing

I will say the writing was good. Victoria is a good writer, and I didn’t think the writing felt childish, but it felt easy to read, although the slow paced did mess with my head in regards to that. While the writing was good, I felt the dialogue lacked and that just ties in with the overarching issues I had with this book.

Last Thoughts

Suffice to say, I really wanted to like this book and it just did not work for me in any way, shape or form. Which happens. Not every book is going to be perfect. That’s why I gave this book two stars, for the writing and the rep that it included.

I hope that others enjoy this book far more than I did!

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