As a Bone Season advocate, I was gifted – nay, I was blessed – with an ARC of The Song Rising. And guys, I just need to talk about all of the FEELS. It is too early to post a coherent review, so, give me another month to let all of that action soak in. But I thought it would be a fun idea to give you a summary of my feels, because Samantha Shannon is an evil genius. Evil. Genius.
Paige = bad ass per usual.
Warden = BAE per usual.
Their relationship = torturous… per usual.
Seriously though, Samantha Shannon owns me with these two.
Jaxon= the slimiest snake in the universe… OKAY CLEARLY WITH THE MAIN CHARACTERS NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED.
(I say that, but there is an amazing amount of character development in this book which I will get around to when I have rational thoughts that don’t consist of just internal screaming.)
The world building is ON POINT! We get to see more of the country of Scion, which I found utterly FASCINATING. I love that Samantha Shannon is expanding the story past the heart of London, and we even get the briefest glimpse of the free world.
(And, I am INTRIGUED I tell you, INTRIGUED!)
The character development was wonderful as always, but like I said earlier, I will return to this aspect of the book in my real review closer to the publication date.
What about the pacing of the book, you ask? Well, holy shit, hold on to your pantalones.
Deaths? Yep. Prepare yourself. My heart splintered a little bit.
(Like, it didn’t necessarily break, but I was still extremely sad and I had to eat a cookie.)
The writing was, in one word, amazing. This is actually my favorite aspect of The Song Rising, I couldn’t stop thinking that Say Shan has only gotten better and better as the series progresses.
So. Much. Political. Intrigue…
Which is brilliant, wonderful and also confusing. Which brings me to my next point….
The Song Rising is NOT YA. Sorry.
I can appreciate Bloomsbury trying to tap into the YA market with this series. I think it worked for the first two books. But I also think they are going to lose some younger readers with this installment of the series, which I will address more in-depth in my full review in a few weeks… (Think politics, intrigue, torture…)
Because I did mark The Song Rising as complete on my Goodreads, I figured I had to write at least a mini review which you see below:
But the point in sharing that: I wanted to write down some of the questions that went unanswered in this Bone Season installment. Be warned: curse words and spoilers abound from here on.
Sorry. (But not really)
SO:
- Why is Nashira such a bitch?
- And speaking of that crazy Rephaite, just WHO THE HELL are all of Nashira’s fallen angels?!
- Which countries of the Free World are super sick of Scion’s shit?
- Will Paige and Warden ever just DO IT?!??!?!?!
- What is the state of that crazy lady Vance?
- Who the fuck is the Rag & Bone Man?
- How much more of the world are we going to see?
- Will we ever meet another Dreamwalker? (Or any other Jumper in that case….)
- What is Jaxon’s ultimate plan?
Okay, its high time I wrap this up, but I will leave you with some AMAZING news!
If you haven’t already preordered The Song Rising, you should get on that. From now through March 6th, anyone in the US who preorders The Song Rising and sends Bloomsbury proof will receive a button and tattoo set. And us Bone Season fandomers know, we KNOW we need more swag in our life, so hop to it!
Full details can be found here!
I love this! And your unanswered questions made me chuckle 🙂 I feel like YA readers may still really love this, The Winners Curse trilogy was super popular but I can see your point, 100%.
Also, Ognena in this book! Can we talk about her please?
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seriously though… who is the rag and bone man?!?! also i think this “is it YA or is it not” discussion should be extended because its super interesting and i love hearing other opinions on it!
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I wish I knew! But I suppose we’ll find out soon enough! I like that discussion too because I’ve seen it sold in the adult section of bookstores before
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I’m jumping in on this thread. I think technically these books are not YA – you find them in the fiction/literature section at bookstores, not the YA section. Also Paige’s age puts her in the “new adult” category. Also, my own way of knowing if I’m reading YA or not is to assess the text on the page – (WARNING: I have no idea if this is legit or not, but it’s the trend I’ve picked up, lol) YA typically has larger font, fewer words per page. That is definitely NOT the case for TBS series 😀
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I absolutely loved this feelings rant! (I agree with it 100%). I laughed out loud when I got to the fourth important question because it’s SO true.
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