Fascinating. A unique world and characters to match. ( )

I wasn't really into this till almost the very end, and then I was super into it!, but it didn't make up for the sort of predictable tedium that came before it. this is not at all a bad book - the world building was pretty interesting, tho a bit reminiscent of a Doctor Who episode - but I never found it compelling; the only reason I finished it was the desire to see how many of my guesses about plot devises were correct. spoiler alert: most of them. ( )

I really didn't like it until I did. The world is so richly imagined and that kept me going even though I felt the story was happening to the POV character rather than her shaping her own destiny and that made it frustrating to read. However, things turned around and I found the ending very satisfying. ( )

I had a lot of high hopes for this. I really did. I thought to myself, "Oh wow, a society of fliers. A whole world of fliers! This could be utterly awesome, giving me lots and lots of necessary extrapolations and unusual twists and turns, whether societal, setting, or even character-centered."

Instead, I'm introduced to a completely forgettable and utterly predictable plot, with: A Chosen One. An Outcast Sect. War like a Football Game.

Huh? Am I reading YA? Trials, graduation, snobby rich kids, dashed expectations. Okay. there was a little flying, but it was like listening to a game. Where were the serious consequences? Oh... serious consequences are all in the dashed expectations: The MC and ME.

Later on, the plot remains absolutely scrutable. She can choose to level up with tattoos that give her better blah blah at the risk of blah blah, she'll have to remain outside of the regular caste and Sing. Yeah. Like a bat. And like a siren. And oh yeah, don't feed the animals.

The worldbuilding is probably the best part of the novel, but it is mostly there in the background, and it went deep enough to flog my waning attention.

Seriously, I wanted more flight and a story that wasn't exactly like EVERY OTHER recently popular dystopian YA novel. I was never surprised. Not even once. There were lots of opportunities for the novel to break off in new directions.

Do we really want another story about a squad of outsider tribals trying to save the misunderstood animal species from the other tribals? Substitute pieces at your convenience.

Other than that, it wasn't like the novel was written poorly. It wasn't. All my interest just drained away because it didn't bother to stand out. It just followed formula and relied on setting to try and carry it.

I DID like the novel better when I thought about the kinds of adventures that I might have had. The possibilities are still there, sitting unrealized. I just don't think I'll go out of my way to find them out except in my own head.

I'm rather disappointed. ( )

I really enjoyed this foray into Fran Wilde's unique and fascinating Bone World series. In this world, humans' primary method of transportation is flight, using wings that seemed like more advanced and moveable hang gliders, and they live in towers grown of bone high above the clouds. The worldbuilding here was great, and though the plot was admittedly somewhat predictable, I didn't really mind as the writing propelled me along. I'm left with lots of questions about the world--what exists on the other side of the cloud layer? Is there some sort of animal connected to the live bone of the towers, and will it eventually die? Are there other cities out there like this one? I'm hoping the next books in the series will start to explore these questions more; I'll definitely be picking them up. (Also, can we make an open world Breath of the Wild style video game out of this?) ( )