The Bone Season

Rating: 4.5

After coming to this revised series from the Root of Chaos books, I knew that the world building was going to be immense. I think I still severely underestimated it, though, because we were introduced into a reformed/dystopian London and Oxford where those who were different from the norm were to be despised and apprehended. The characters are individually well written, but some characters have a more interesting background than others.

For example, our main character Paige has clearly been through a lot of hardship and turmoil in her life - surviving the Imbolc Massacre, bullying from her peers and authoritative figures growing up attending the Ancroft School, etc. - but it is kind of minimised by the fact that she is the main character and she almost needs to experience these in order to get to the point she is now (mollisher for the White Binder).

I definitely agree with many that there was an overabundance of specific terminology thrown at readers almost from the beginning. While I had read On the Merits of Unnaturalness beforehand, so it wasn't as harsh of an adjustment for myself, it was still a bit difficult to understand certain bits of the book. There was also a lot of new information coming in with the Rephs, Buzzers, etc. which caused some distractions. However, towards the latter half of the book it was difficult to put the book down and as soon as the book ended there was a need to pick up the next.

Looking forward to reading the rest of the revised series.