History Literature / TheBoneSeason

* {{Touche}}: Paige points out to Warden that if he dislikes modern music so much, he should thank the Scion censor, which wouldn't exist if not for the Rephaim. In response to which he raises his glass and says "Touché," graciously acknowledging a point scored.

''The Bone Season'' is the 2013 debut novel of author Samantha Shannon, the first in a seven-book series. Set in a {{Dystopian}}, AlternateHistory England, the story follows a young clairvoyant woman named Paige Mahoney. Since 1859, when the phenomenon of [[ISeeDeadPeople clairvoyance]] first became public knowledge, England has operated under an [[ANaziByAnyOtherName oppressive and strongly anti-voyant government]] called Scion. Paige belongs to a class of criminal voyants who use their contact with spirits and the spirit world (known as the æther) to make a living while avoiding the authorities. She is a rare kind of voyant known as a dreamwalker, capable of [[AstralProjection separating her spirit from her physical body]] and entering the æther in spirit form.

You can also check out [[Literature/TheBoneSeasonTenthAnniversarySpecialEdition the 10th anniversary edition of ''The Bone Season]],'' published in 2023.

For the 10th anniversary edition of ''The Bone Season,'' published in 2023, [[Literature/TheBoneSeasonTenthAnniversarySpecialEdition go here]].

* InUniverseCatharsis: Warden asks Paige to show him her last, most painful memory, so that she can confront it and be free of it. Whether or not it worked is left ambiguous, but she's no longer pining after Nick by the time ''The Mime Order'' rolls around.

* LeParkour: Paige's flight from the Overseer takes her over balconies, up drainpipes and across rooftops, demonstrating her impressive stamina and upper-arm strength. She nearly gets away by making a desperate fifteen-storey leap between buildings, which just goes to show that she [[EstablishingCharacterMoment would rather die than be arrested]].

* VampiricDraining: Human blood has a natural immunity against the half-urge, a kind of infection fatal to Rephaim. Warden explains this to Paige when he's injured for the second time and on the brink of succumbing to fever. He then asks to drink her blood, promising her a favour in return. Reluctantly, she consents, but not before half-jokingly [[LampshadeHanging asking him if he's a vampire]]. This example is unusual for being treated as a purely medical procedure, albeit one Paige feels sickened by afterward.

* RousingSpeech: Paige deliberately gives one to her fellow escapees on Port Meadow, encouraging them to fight off the approaching SVD while she deals with the poltergeist guarding the entrance to the train.
--> "Give me two minutes, and I will give you freedom."

* {{BFS}}: The instrument of Paige's botched onstage execution at the Bicentenary. The greatsword called the Inquisitor's Justice is usually only brought out for the vilest of traitors, such as voyants found working within the Westminster Archon.
* BitchSlap: Nashira does this to Warden when she visits the Founders Tower, apparently for no better reason than because he doesn't answer a question quickly enough for her liking. Paige, hidden behind a nearby curtain to watch, is appalled.

* BitchSlap: Nashira does this to Warden when she visits the Founders Tower before the Bicentenary, apparently for no better reason than because he doesn't answer a question quickly enough for her liking. Paige, hidden behind a nearby curtain to watch, is appalled.

[[caption-width-right:350: Behold the anchor, the amaranth and the pattern of Seven Dials.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: The anchor, [[FlowerMotifs the amaranth]] and the Seven Dials sundial pattern.]]

[[caption-width-right:350: ''No safer place.'' More like no safe place. Not for us.]]

Please note that this page is based on the original 2013 edition of ''The Bone Season,'' not the 10th anniversary edition published in 2023.

* PrecisionFStrike: Warden leaves Paige alone in a dark forest with an Emite, and it ends up one of the most terrifying experiences of her life. When she wakes up in Magdalen, she's not happy with him.
--> '''Warden''': How are you feeling?
--> '''Paige''': Fuck you.

* NoodleIncident: Twice Paige references an episode from her days with the Seven Seals, something to do with Didion Waite and the poltergeist of Ann Naylor, without explaining what actually happened. It's given more context in ''The Pale Dreamer,'' her backstory novella.

* CosmicHorrorReveal: When the story begins, you think it's going to be about a clairvoyant woman keeping her head down in dystopian London. Paige herself isn't concerned with anything but staying out of Scion's way and keeping her kingpin boss happy. These day-to-day concerns seem insignificant once she finds out that Scion is a façade controlled by an otherworldly race from beyond the veil between life and death.
** Oddly enough, it's this reveal that convinces her Scion can be taken down, as she tells Jaxon in ''The Mime Order.'' It may be her innate RebelliousSpirit talking, or it may have something to do with the knowledge that Nashira will stop at nothing to murder her and acquire her gift. Either way, Paige's days of keeping her head down are over.

* OpeningMonologue: The book opens with Paige explaining her life in the syndicate and her relationship with her father. The deluge of worldbuilding information continues as she leaves Seven Dials and makes for the train.
* PenalColony: The plot revolves around Sheol I, a penal colony established by the Rephaim with the purpose of training, indoctrinating and subjugating human clairvoyants. Those who fail their tests are forced to live in squalor in the Rookery, starved and beaten by anyone with higher status, while those who succeed in their tests are made to fight the corpselike monsters who freely roam the land around Oxford. It's altogether a pretty hellish place.

* StockholmSyndrome: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]]. Paige distrusts and despises Warden for being her personal jailor, reacting with hostility to his every [[PetTheDog overture of kindness]], and only comes to sympathize with him when she learns that he is a. one of the scarred ones, b. as much Nashira's prisoner as she is, and c. going to help her organize a prison break. They become friends and co-conspirators soon afterward. By the Bicentenary, she has [[spoiler: developed romantic feelings for him]] and is reluctant to part ways with him.
** Paige never forgets, however, that they used to be captor and captive; in ''The Mime Order,'' she tells Nick that she has absolutely no compassion for Warden keeping her prisoner when he could have set her free.