The Mask Falling – a review

The fourth book in The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon. This was one of my most anticipated reads and it did not disappoint!

This is going to be a spoiler free review, which just makes things hard on myself because it means not only can I not talk about the specifics within this book itself, but also nothing from the series as a whole. So.

This. Was. Amazing.

Of course I’m going to think that, I love the series. But genuinely this is so well written. We see so much character development as well as seeing various relationships develop in line with the plot. We learn so much more about the wider world we’re now entering after spending three books in a “limited” setting (ha! that makes it sound like there wasn’t much to explore, there was! Just now we’re going worldwide!)

I loved the points of anguish, and how threads have been pulled together and wound to create the plotline. So much has been learnt about the wider workings of this world, the politics, the individual storylines, and the system of the oppressor. It caused me so much anguish but is so so perfect and I am so highly anticipating the fifth book and it’s going to be a long and tough wait!!!

For my CAWPILE ratings I gave:

Characters: 10

Atmosphere: 10

Writing: 10

Plot: 9

Intrigue: 9

Logic: 9

Enjoyment: 9

For a grand total of 9.43 which of course is a FIVE STAR READ!!!! Did we truly expect anything else from my opinions on the wonderful Samantha Shannon?

Highlight here for trigger warnings: war, torture, gore, war themes, colonial themes, blood and gore, multiple murders, torture, reference to murder of family members, abduction, hostage situation, explosions, fire, prolonged sickness, medical procedures

All in all, as expected, I am in love with this book, this series, and Shannon’s writing as a whole. I can’t wait to read any and everything she comes out with!

The Dawn Chorus – a review

Book 3.5 in The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon, I picked this up after reading The Song Rising and The Pale Dreamer as it was the last unread book left before I picked up The Mask Falling!

Coming in at 92 pages it was just a short read, but wow did I love it!

Of course with this being so far through a series I can’t say all that much. What I can say is that this covers the transitional gap between books 3 and 4, and it does so really well. You don’t need to read it before you continue on with the series, but for big fans it adds an extra dimension to the world and the characters that I really appreciated.

Whilst there is some discussion of larger overall events, this novella is really focused on the relationship between two main characters. Due to events they spend a lot of time together and seeing this develop through the novella was so much fun to read, and for once Samantha Shannon wasn’t torturing her characters! A mini between book break for us all!

For my CAWPILE rating I gave:

• characters: 10
• atmosphere: 9
• writing: 9
• plot: 9
• intrigue: 9
• logic: 10
• enjoyment: 9

Which totalled at 9.29, a solid 5* read that I really enjoyed!

Highlight here to see trigger warnings: abuse, PTSD, torture, trauma

I really recommend picking up this little novella if you like The Bone Season series. In English it’s only available in ebook format, so that’s how I read it. But I believe there’s a little paperback version that’s published in Polish! This is such a wonderful little slot of time with our faves and a nice rest between two heartbreaking books!

Do I still love Priory?

A year ago today I reviewed Priory of the Orange Tree! You can check out my original post here. I absolutely adored this book and ended up doing a standalone video review for it too!! Not something I do all that often! (you can watch that here)

So, do my thoughts hold up?

Well I have to admit, I’ve not re-read the book yet. At 800 pages it’s a bit big and I still have so many other big books on my tbr that I’ve not read yet! I think the glamour has worn off slightly, in that I’m separated from the story. So without my infatuation would I still rate this highly? Yes! I love the world that Samantha Shannon built. I still adore Ead and Sabran, and Tane is such an interesting character to read about along with all of the dragon lore.

This might be a tome but I still definitely recommend it to fantasy lovers!!

The Pale Dreamer – a review

Another short book from the beginning of the year! I was determined I was going to catch up on The Bone Season series and this was the next step after reading The Song Rising at the end of 2020. I ended up reading all 90 pages in one day and I absolutely adored getting to see more into the world that Samantha Shannon has built.

This prequel follows a 16 year old Paige (who is 19 at the start of the main series) who has recently started working for Jaxon Hall, one of the most notorious mime-lords. She wants to prove her worth to him as the newest member and the latest event in the underworld is the perfect chance for her to do so, but of course this won’t go as smoothly as she’d like.

This is a fantastic novella, it provides another dimension to the relationship between Paige and the others within the underworld, both working with Jaxon and against him. It makes Paige’s reasoning for her decisions in The Bone Season much more understandable and explains the connection and the debt she feels towards Jaxon. It also gives us some more insight into the relationship between Paige and Nick, and also Paige and Eliza. These details feed throughout the entire series, and I’ve noticed threads of them in even the most recent book so it’s wonderful to see them here!

All in all this is a lovely little novella that I really wouldn’t miss out on if you’re a fan of The Bone Season. It adds dimension to the world that isn’t necessarily needed but is wonderful to have and it really deepens your connection to Paige and the others. So of course I rated this 5*!

The Song Rising – a review

I finally caught up with the main series!! And then The Mask Falling came out lol, but I still really enjoyed The Song Rising to the point where it ended up on my favourite books of 2020! So far I’ve read one book from this series each year which has been a nice progression. If you want to check out my review of The Bone Season (book 1) or The Mime Order (book 2) then click on the respective links. This book took me a little while to get through, a good month and a half, and exactly like the first 2 in the series I gave this 5*s and I adored it so so much!!!

From this point on there will be spoilers for book #1 and #2. No spoilers for The Song Rising though. You have been warned!!!

The Song Rising by Samantha Shannon

---

---

We start this book after Paige has become the Mime Queen, after her betrayal and defeat of Jaxon she now rules over the underbelly of London. Controlling this rabble is difficult enough without the government coming after her. And does she really think Jaxon is going to take his humiliation gracefully?

With twists, turns and deception throughout, we get to explore more of ScionBritain than in previous books as well as delving more into their impact on the world as a whole. The Senshields that can detect those with clairvoyant powers have become stronger and more dangerous for the underworld, forcing them to go into hiding. Paige has to find a way to overcome this and set her populace free, as being hemmed in isn’t going to end well for any of them. In hunting for this solution Paige is exposed to more of what is happening outside of her immediate boarders. There’s so much more to Scion than she had ever imagined.

We also learn quite a bit more about Paige’s past specifically in this book, something which provides context for the world’s view of Scion and that I found incredibly interesting. I’m really excited to see how this world view develops in book 4.

This book didn’t end on such a dramatic note as the last one, but more so looking out towards the future and what lays there. I’m so excited to pick up the Mask Falling but also so nervous because once I do that’s it! I’ve got to wait years for another book! And I don’t want to have that wait sitting there staring at me! Have you read The Mask Falling? Should I just pick it up?

My favourite book of 2020?

This was a shitshow of a year, let’s be honest. But I read some absolutely amazing books! In total I had 21 five star reads (out of a total of 78 books) which isn’t too shabby! I spent some time trying to pick my favourite of the year but I really just couldn’t. These four all stood out above the rest but I couldn’t pick between them all. So instead, you get all of them, along with why I loved them and a link to my full review of them if you wanna delve more into my thoughts. Also, these are in no particular order. Well they are, but it’s just date order from which one I read first in the year to last. But I honestly cannot pick between them. So let’s get into the list!

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon book cover

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

This book took me so long to get through, and given that it comes in at over 800 pages I don’t think anyone blames me. But oh. My. God. Did I LOVE this book!!! I have a blog review of it here, but I also ended up making a standalone video for this book (which you can watch here). That’s how much I loved it!

We follow multiple pov from different countries across this world as they discover more about dragons and about the other nations in their world. My favourite pov has to be Ead who is located in a royal court as a spy for a religious group as also as a protectorate of the Queen, but I loved reading from everyone’s perspective.

With dragons, Sapphic love, fighting and feminism (and Shannon’s gorgeous writing), well what more could you be looking for?!

The Deep by Rivers Solomon book cover

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

This book is one I kept seeing recommended through the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 and it sounded so utterly fascinating that eventually I just had to pick it up .

We follow Yetu, who holds all of the long term memories for her race of mermaids who live in Atlantic Ocean, descendants of enslaved Africans who had been tossed overboard on their passage to the United States. These traumatic memories would be too much for the populace to bare, so instead they allocate a historian to remember. This is Yetu. But these memories are traumatic for her too, and in trying to escape the pain they cause her, she flees to the surface.

This is an incredible book that I flew through and never wanted to put down. Check out my full review here.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi book cover

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi and translated by Geoffrey Trousselot

The second book in the renowned series, we all knew I would be picking this one up in 2020 after having loved the first book in 2019 (my review of book 1). And unsurprisingly I adored this book.

The main setting of this book is a coffee shop where there’s rumours you can travel back in time. But you have to drink the coffee before it gets cold, or you’ll never come back. Following on from the first book, we follow some new characters, but also some familiar faces from the coffee shop as we learn more about the café and it’s history. (full review)

Trousselot does a beautiful job as this book is absolutely gorgeous in its prose and I’m so excited for them to translate book 3!

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff book cover

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

The wonderful Kari from Kari-ng for Books sent me this as a gift and I am so so grateful, she’s gifted me the entire series and I’m so excited to get to the rest of the trilogy!

Following Mia as she enters the Red Church, an unusual school for an unusual student. Already skilled in various disciplines from her time with a tutor, she is now up against the best. Only some of them will survive, and she’s determined one of them will be her. She must avenge her family.

This is an incredibly dark book filled with so much intrigue and magic that you’re gripped the whole way through. Every page is saturated with knowledge and I adored the footnotes from our narrator! Full review here.

And these were my four favourites of 2020, I really couldn’t pick between them in the slightest but I adored them all. One thing I did notice was that they are all fantasy books, I’m really delving back into my fantasy roots at the moment after having a few years of reading more widely round the genres and to be honest? I’m loving it! I’m hoping there are some absolutely amazing 5* fantasy reads waiting for me in 2021!

Dragons, fighting and feminism, what else could you ask for?!

Samantha Shannon’s latest book, The Priory of the Orange Tree, comes in at a whopping 804 pages and that’s not including the section at the end which gives you a timeline, a glossary and an explanation of characters. This is a BIG book. And it’s amazing. I gave it 5 stars and it is 100% a new favourite of mine!

Sadly this took me far longer than I wanted to get through it, for a variety of reasons that boiled down to being nervous about its size. If you’re the same I can tell you right now that if you sit and read 100 pages of this book each day, not only will you finish it in just over a week but you’ll be completely and utterly absorbed into the story.

Let’s start not with the story itself but with what Samantha Shannon included within her book. First things first, this is a f/f novel, this romance is written with such care and emotion that I was routing for it from the moment its possibility was conceived. In the interests of staying spoiler free I won’t mention who the ladies are, but I immediately routed for them as individuals and this really translated beautifully into routing for their romantic relationship. It flows naturally and you can tell that the two of them were always supposed to be together.

Keeping with the diverse theme, there is also a genuinely healthy mix of races in this book. Of course this is a fantasy world, but this is something that is sadly not as prevelant as it should be amongst fantasy. So many authors, often unconciously due to their own internal biases will include 90% (or more) white characters within their fantasy books. Not here! With the POV switching to people from various places around this world, as well as having multiple races living in one realm, we read from the POV of white, Black and Asian people with what I took to be complete equality (but I recommend taking this with a grain of salt as I am white myself and therefore live with inherent biases that I am still working to overcome).

Lastly in the amazing diversity that has been written in this book is the feminism. Now many books will have strong female characters, that thankfully is nothing new. But not only do we have strong women from every race (which is sadly still something of note) but these women have power. They are respected. In this fantasy realm, they are treated as equals. I thought I had read books like that before. No. I had multiple jolts as I read through this book where a leader of a Guard (or another similar position) turns out to be female and I had assumed they were male. One of the elder characters mentions his old tutor at one point. I didn’t realise I was automatically assuming they were male until he said “she”. This is all through the book and has really made me think about how women are portrayed in fiction. Even when they’re the “strong female character” they are often the exception, in many books men are still the teachers, the leaders, the ones with power. This book has really opened my eyes to what I was accepting from other books as equality, and how it really really wasn’t.

Now. Onto the actual book! This is a beautiful slow burner of a fantasy that follows various regions of this world as an ancient enemy awakens and threatens them all. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep. Samantha Shannon has described this as a feminist retelling of Saint George and the Dragon, and although I hadn’t seen that until after I had read the book, it does mean that I can say I 100% agree!

All of these regions and realms have beautiful world building around them, really fleshing them out and I was left feeling like I had an intimate knowledge of them all, whilst wanting to know more! When these different groups interacted with each other I really got to feel like I understood the political tension and the reason for each groups actions. Whilst I had my favourite narrators and locations I found myself never really agreeing with one side over another, their reasoning and way of life was explained so beautifully that I had complete empathy with all the variations.

By the time I was reaching the end of this book, I was wishing there were more pages! And I really did not expect that from an 800+ page tome that I had originally struggled to get through! I’ve found myself really sad that this is a standalone work and I do hope for at least some titbits from Samantha Shannon in the future about this beautiful world she has created. This is a new favourite book, one I recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy. It will be sticking with me in my thoughts for a long time yet.

My best books of 2019!

 

I read a lot less 5* reads in 2019 compared to 2018, but I still had a decent selection to pick from for this list and I love all of these books!

I’m going to start off with my absolute favourite of the year, which seems backwards, but I can’t rank all of my other favourites so I may as well get the #1 spot up first!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot, is an absolutely gorgeous book.

There’s a small coffee shop in a basement which has a secret, people know about it but they can’t believe that it’s true. The staff in the shop will only tell the customers who they believe need the experience. And it’s not as positive as many believe before they sit down. But their lives are forever changed, big impacts are made. This book is beautifully written and I only picked it up randomly for NetGalley, I’m so so glad that I did. I recommend this above everything else on this list, which is a big statement seeing as these are all 5* reads for me. However, I feel like this book will appeal to many different audiences and so I really do encourage you to at least look at the GoodReads page and read the synopsis (link here) and consider picking it up. If you’re interested, then you can find my full review here.

Now onto the rest of my favourite books! There are 10 books for the rest of this list and they are in the order which I read them throughout 2019 (to avoid putting them in any other sort of order, because I really can’t decide).

The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season #2) 

I read this on the train going back down to Portsmouth for my heart operation after my Christmas break, it’s around 8 hours of travelling so I had a lot of time to sit with the book and I really enjoyed it. Although the ending annoyed me so much and I had to stay composed because I was on a train!! Another amazing book from Samantha Shannon. Read my full review of the book here.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale #1)

I’m massively late to this party, of course, but I finally picked up this book in a secondhand shop and read it early on in 2019. It was amazing. I loved the commentary on female autonomy and sadly it did really hit a chord with me, despite being written “so many” years ago. If you’re interested my full review is here.

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen (Orphan Monster Spy #1)

I got this the day before I started by BookTube channel, and it took me until now to read it. There’s a bit of a theme here but if I’m getting through my backlog I won’t complain! This YA WWII based book follows a young Jewish girl who can pass as an Aryan and becomes a spy in a Nazi girls school. Check out my full review here.

Book of Lies by Teri Terry

I really love everything I’ve read so far from Teri Terry, she is truly one of my favourite authors. This book follows a girl who isn’t loved by her family, they don’t care about her at all. But then she finds out a bit secret, something that she wasn’t supposed to know. Magical and mystical, this is such an interesting book. My review is here.

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman (The Devouring Gray #1)

This is the first book that I ever requested from a publisher and it’s the first one that was sent to me! So of course this book will always have a special place for me, but on top of that it’s a fantastic YA book with sprinkles of magic and just enough weirdness to keep you completely hooked. I can’t wait to read book #2! Check out my full review here.

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (Arc of the Scythe #2)

Have you read this series yet? Why not? If you like dystopian or just a great YA directed book then this is 100% a series you should pick up! There is no more natural death in the world, it’s been cured. So scythes must kull the population in order to prevent it getting out of control. But of course there are a lot of issues with this plan, it was never going to work. Check out my full review of Scythe here(which is book #1) and my review for Thunderhead here.

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Illuminae Files #1)

Another book I’ve finally read! This multi-media sci-fi YA is gripping and so interesting and I finally understand why people raved about it so much for years! I definitely need to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy and I can’t wait to carry on with this story and see where it goes. See my full review here.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I actually DNF’d this at my first attempted reading this year, but at a push from so many people online I picked it up to give it another go. I’m so rediculously glad that I did as this book is magical and wonderous and such a great read! If you’ve seen the film you’ll still love the book as there were only a few changes and I’m very glad I listened to everyone who told me to pick this back up! My full review is here.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I read this all in one day, sat by a paddling pool my aunt had set up on the hottest day of the year in the UK at 40 Celsius, that’s 104 Fahrenheit for those of you in the US. I was dying! Yet despite that, I was glued to my seat, gripped within this story. A fictional tale inspired by the suffering of so many from slavery in the US. My full review of this novel can be found here.

The Aliens are Coming by Ben Miller

This was the first book I read after finishing my MSc dissertation. I’m so glad I picked up a science-y non-fiction as this was perfect for me in the mindset that I was in and it was also really fun (Ben Miller is a UK comedian if you didn’t know) as well as teaching me more about the search for other life forms. Check out my review here.

And that’s it! Those are all of my favourite books of 2019! I did read a few more books which I gave 5*s throughout the year (Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein and Night by Elie Wiesel). I would have ranked them lower than these books, however, and given that there are already 11 books on this list I decided to cut them out. What was your favourite (or your favourites) of 2019? Have you read any of the books that are on my list? Let me know!!

 

Poooosible November TBR

I’m a bit tentative in publishing this, as I don’t want to set a solid TBR in my second month back and one in which I’m starting a new full-time job. But there are a few books that I’d love to get to this month, so let’s get on with it! There is a readathon I’m wanting to take part in this month (comment and guess which one!) so those won’t be shown in this tbr as they’ll get one of their own later on. So that also reduces this tbr. I only actually have 2 books left.

First up is The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. This is a big boi fantasy read which honestly is kind of intimidating, but I am definitely going to at least make more of a dent in this book in November! I’m not exactly very far through it right now, but from what I can tell we follow various people around this world who all have varying views on dragons, religion and rulers. I already have my favourite person to read from, and I fly through their sections! But I’m also interested in everyone within the story so overall I’m looking forward to reading some more throughout November.

And secondly, another book which I’ve already started but am nowhere near close to finishing is The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys. A historical fiction set in post-civil war Spain, this is not a time in history which I’m familiar with so I’m finding it really interesting to delve into that aspect of the book and to learn more about this time. There are already, despite me being barely into it, plot lines which are full of secrets and have me intrigued as to how they came to be and what impact they’re going to have on the story overall. This is another really big book, although it’s a smidge smaller than Priory.

Despite the fact that I’m loving them both, I’m not getting through them… as you’ll know if you saw my last post. I think it is, very stupidly, being worried about the pressure. I tend to baulk and not do things when there’s a lot of pressure on me to complete the task until the very last minute of the deadline. And of course there is no real deadline on reading these books. Not my best quality but one I’m working on and either way I’m still looking forward to reading these two books eventually!

The books are too good!!

This can’t just be me with this problem? I’ve got two loooong books that I’m just barely into but really enjoying. HOWEVER, I’m going through them so slowly!!! I’m reluctant to pick them up even though when I do I really enjoy the little that I read.

Is it because I’m in a reading slump or is it cause I’m enjoying the books too much and I don’t want to speed through them? I really don’t know.

The two books are The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys. Both are absolutely amazing, Priory is a fantasy book with dragons and assassins and magic and I love it so much!!! FoS is set after the Spanish civil war in the 1930s and I’m not far enough into it to know much more! Both have multiple viewpoints from various interacting characters and I’m just adoring them both so much. Yet.

I’m still not picking them up. Ugh what is wrong with me? Who knows. This has just been kind of a rant post because I mostly post book reviews and I haven’t been able to get through these books so I’ve got nothing to review!!! #firstworldproblems