Title: The Mask Falling (The Bone Season #4)
Author: Samantha Shannon 
Genre: fantasy, dystopian
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication Date: 2024
Format: Paperback, 10^th Anniversary Edition (Authors Preferred Text)
Length:  505 pages

Read if you like: supernatural dystopia, clairvoyance-driven magic, criminal underworlds, morally ambiguous characters, alternate histories, urban fantasy, diverse cast

Rating: 

The Bone Season series has become one of my favourite fantasies of all time, and The Mask Falling was no exception. Shannon has created such a stunningly intricate and terrifying dystopian world full of magic, mystery, and violence, and I am completely entranced by her ability to weave such an engrossing narrative. 

I think a lot of the time it’s challenging for a narrative to remain so rock solid as a series goes on, particularly one that’s as long as The Bone Season is projected to be, but somehow every additional book in this series just gets better and better. I loved everything about this book and am so thrilled there will be more stories after this to devour. 

Full disclosure, as this is the fourth book in the series, there may be some spoilers for the previous books in the review below. 

The Book Synopsis: The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

Paige Mahoney has eluded death again. Snatched from the jaws of captivity and sent to a safe house in the Scion Citadel of Paris, she finds herself caught between factions that seek Scion’s downfall and those who would kill to protect the puppet empire. 

The mysterious Domino Program has plans for Paige, but she has ambitions of her own in this new citadel. With Arcturus at her side, she embarks on an adventure that will lead her from the catacombs of Paris to the glittering hallways of Versailles. 

As Scion widens its bounds and the free world trembles in its shadow, Paige 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.

The Review

WOW, what an explosive addition to this series. I feel like I’m going to be reeling from this one for a while.

I’ll start with the expansion of the world of Scion in this book because Shannon is truly a master world-builder, and it’s really on show with every subsequent book she writes in this universe. I have loved that every book in this series has brought such a wholly different location to the table, it’s such an enjoyable approach that allows you to appreciate the things you love about the universe while simultaneously expanding it into even more intricate areas. The Parisian setting in this one was so fascinating, and I loved seeing the underworld and Scion explored through this new yet familiar lens. Having a firm grasp of the world and its magic at this point allowed me to jump in head-first and truly appreciate this new magical society in its complexities and differences from the London-based one Paige came from. Between this criminal syndicate, the one in Birmingham, and Paige’s London home base, I feel like we’ve now got a gorgeously complex view of the true reach of Scion and the impact it has on voyant communities and their criminal underworlds across cultures and even countries. It’s masterful world-building and plotting at its finest. 

In terms of characters, what an incredible leap from book one to now. Paige has now fully embodied the revolution, completely adapting and leaning into the parts of herself that she needs to succeed. Yet, she also manages to (mostly) keep her humanity tethered to her personhood. Shannon does such a wonderful job of illustrating both how challenging this would be given the environment she’s in, and also how necessary it is to be someone else as the situation requires it. The circumstances make her ability to remain strictly noble and good almost impossible but she holds out longer than you think she’ll be able to. 

I also loved the expansion of the cast. The Domino program, shrouded in all of its mystery, left me with perhaps more questions by the end than I started with, and also a sense of how much broader this universe could get. This is the first time you’re introduced to groups outside of criminal syndicates that disagree with Scion and it feels like it takes the world from a London-based closed society to something much further reaching. The addition of both Scion and syndicate Parisians furthers this feeling and helps you understand both how deeply the prejudice against voyants runs, and how universally the voyant community has been oppressed.

The plot in this book was gorgeously intricate and while I knew there were breadcrumbs of foreshadowing falling for later reveals, most of them took me completely by surprise. I oscillated between being stressed, excited, and furious constantly. So much occurs throughout this book that it’s a lot to wrap your head around and left me thinking about it long after I finished reading. It’s action-packed, full of existing and new villains, and also has the most incredibly executed slow-burn romance I think I’ve ever experienced. This book truly had everything I look for in a great novel, and then it levelled it up and exceeded all my expectations. 

This series is so excellent and this book might be my favourite yet. Infinite stars, and I’ll read anything Shannon writes at this point. I am so excited that there are more books to come in this series, I’ll be reading them all eagerly as they release.