The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

This was a fun, action-packed, light read. It was just what I was after, after the collection of heavier books I have been reading recently on top of a heavy work schedule.

The Bone Season is set in the future of an alternate London. Psychic powers are illegal, and just being able to connect to the aether is enough of a crime for one to be sentenced to death! Of course, the protagonist, Paige, is extremely gifted, and when she saves herself from an arrest on the subway, things go incredibly wrong.

Although it was everything I was after, I must confess that although, story-wise, it was interesting, there were parts that I had to question. I won't go into details for the sake of spoilers, but I will just say that there were some feminist questions I felt I needed to raise, and some rather clichéd scenes should be challenged.

I have mixed feelings over glossaries at the back of books. When it comes to foreign languages, I appreciate them as it is adding to my general knowledge. But when a writer creates new words, I would much prefer to have these words explained in the text. Having to swing between the glossary at the back and the story in the front, takes from the reading experience in my opinion, as it haul one out the story. My alternative, which is to try and work out the meaning of these words from the text, while sufficient in understanding the plot, is not great.

I was very tempted to shelf this with YA because it had the YA pace and a typical YA plot. There are some maturer scenes than one would normally find in YA, but then, most YAs aren't innocent.

I didn't hate it, I didn't love it. I might pick up the sequel if it falls under my nose, but I won't be going out of my way to find it.

This is the 53rd book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.

I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads.