**Do not read this review of the synopsis for this book unless you have read the first three books in The Bone Season series**
Dreamwalker Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and consigned to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between those factions that seek Scion’s downfall and those who would kill to protect the Rephaim’s puppet empire.
The mysterious Domino Program has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With Arcturus Mesarthim-her former enemy-at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. Her risks promise high reward: the Parisian underworld could yield the means to escalate her rebellion to outright war.
As Scion widens its bounds and the free world trembles in its shadow, Paige must fight her own memories after her ordeal at the hands of Scion. Meanwhile, she strives to understand her bond with Arcturus, which grows stronger by the day. But there are those who know the revolution began with them-and could end with them…
-Goodreads
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Let me preface this by saying that The Bone Season series is an all time favorite of mine. I’m talking top five of all time. The overall world building, the heart pounding action, the romance…it all works for me. That being said, I do let people know when they start the series that the first book was written a while ago and was Samantha Shannon’s first book. There are a few info-dumps and the pacing of book one does suffer a bit as a result. However, one of my absolute favorite things about this series is watching her develop and grow as a writer. Each book gets better and better, and the plot gets more and more convoluted and twisted. There are so many unknowns and so many individual elements for her to keep track of that I am absolutely blown away every time I delve back into this world.
The Mask Falling is without a doubt, unequivocally, the best book in the series. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down, honestly. Paige’s struggles and development as a character, her relationship with Warden, and the war she continues to wage on Scion kept me hooked from the first page to the last. In this book, Paige and Warden travel to my absolute favorite city in the world, Paris. Somehow, Samantha Shannon captured the magic of Paris all while changing bits of it to fit this new version of Earth that she has created. I would also like to applaud the way she captured grief, trauma and recovery.
There were near constant twists, turns and surprises as well as scenes that made me ugly cry, scream at my book (my poor neighbors), and swoon. I made many predictions throughout the book, and was right about one thing. One. I love being taken completely by surprise by books, but it rarely happens. I am beyond thrilled with the pacing and overall intrigue of The Mask Falling. I look forward to learning more about new characters as well as revisiting old ones that I missed in this book. (I would like to formally petition for the return of Nick, immediately)
At this point I feel like my review is an incoherent ramble as I attempt to form some kind of literate review of what will surely be one of my favorites, if not my favorite read of 2021. If you have made it this far into the series, I have to assume that you love it as well and am happy to say that you will absolutely devour and adore this newest installment. If you are reading this review despite the fact that you’ve never read any books in the series, I hope that my gushing has convinced you to start a series that continues to astound me more and more with each new release.
As The Book Ends 