Review: The Map Of Bones

The Map of Bones
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher

The Omega resistance has been brutally attacked, its members dead or in hiding. The Alpha Council’s plan for permanently containing the Omegas has begun. 

But all is not entirely lost: the Council’s seer, The Confessor, is dead, killed by her twin’s sacrifice. 

Cass is left haunted by visions of the past, while her brother Zach’s cruelty and obsession pushes her to the edge, and threatens to destroy everything she hopes for. 

As the country moves closer to all-out civil war, Cass will learn that to change the future she will need to uncover the past. But nothing can prepare her for what she discovers: a deeply buried secret that raises the stakes higher than ever before.

The Fire Sermon was one of my best books of 2015 and The Map of Bones was one of my most anticipated for this year! I've been eagerly awaiting getting to read what happens next to Cass and I wasn't at all disappointed! I think it even exceeded my expectations! I managed to read this in a couple of sittings only having to stop because sleep was needed!

The prologue immediately threw me back in to the world of the book and refreshed my memory without obviously doing so, if that makes sense. I mean usually you can get a distinct "previously" vibe but this does it all subtly. We're a good few weeks later, after the end of The Fire Sermon and Cass is still dealing with everything that happened, and she and Piper and Zoe are travelling. The Council is still going strong with its manipulations and fear mongering, it's plans are ridiculously intricate! The Resistance is being dismantled by the Council bit by bit and the General has taken over from the Judge. Things aren't really looking good! 

I find the world of the book so fascinating, it's got a fantasy kind of vibe to it, it all feels very old timey and medieval kind of, but there's old building structures, silos, and other machines still dotted about the landscape not to mention the taboo Electric being used by the council. Machines and Electricity are taboo in this world, and are feared and I love this blend of old and new. The world of the book has always made me curious and in this book one of my wishes came true...we learnt a lot more about the Before! I've been so curious about it and how the world of the book came about, I get why everyone is scared of the machines and stuff because it destroyed the world, but I've been so curious about how people survived and what it was like after the blast! In this book we get to learn how the world developed after the blast in to what it is now and it's not pretty. There are some really chilling extracts from memorandums and other documents, that are as fascinating as they are kind of creepy. 

I was hooked on those bits and we get to see a hell of a lot about the Before, and actually get to go to a cool new location that is delightfully creepy, and full of interesting information that can benefit the Omegas. I'm still wanting to know even more, not going to lie! Even though it sends a shiver up my spine thinking about being in that situation! I'd get really claustrophobic I think! There's tonnes more of the taboo stuff in this book, and it was interesting to see the characters various different reactions to it. 

I completely love the authors writing, the descriptions are on another level, they're rich and evocative and it just makes reading the book an experience! "Drowned city of my memories" might just be my favourite! Or at least one of them, I feel like that one's very lyrical! The descriptions for each new setting are vivid and paint a picture, the Deadlands are very bleak, the ARK is very creepy and has a haunted house kind of feel to it, it's ghostly. I particularly liked the eerie sunken city at the coast! I'm always blown away by how well the author describes the settings, and how she manages to evoke a feeling along with the description, or a vibe. It really helps to bring the world to life. 

There's a lot going on in this book, and there's lots of threads in the plot making it nicely complex without over complicating things. I liked how the book followed on from the previous book, it kept up everything I'd loved about the first book and added to it. The world of the book is slowly being built up and having more and more added, our knowledge about the world and the history of it is being added to with each book and I'm excited for the next book because there are some game changing revelations in this book about certain things, and the expansion of the world is going to be epic! It's being set up but it's going to be so epic! I love how the plot builds momentum as you read and has a quiet lull in the beginning before things really kick off and it's all these revelations and all this action. I also like how it keeps me intrigued and on my toes! I also like how the battle scenes aren't glorified, they're very gory and realistic as are the characters feelings about them! 

Our favourite characters from before are back as are the characters we love to hate. I loved how well the characters where brought to life in the first book and that continues in this book. They're complex and each have their own motivations for what they're doing. Cass is still dealing with the aftermath of Kip and everything from the last book and it's shaken her a bit, she isn't her usual self. She feels like people are just wanting to use her at one point, and she kind of wanders through the book at the beginning like a ghost, to quote the book! I liked watching her come to terms with everything it was very realistic, as was her learning to fight and having to deal with fighting and killing. Her last words to her twin also got my interest because I think we're about to see Cass change a little bit more! 

Zoe and Piper I actually really liked, they work so well together, especially when they're fighting it's amazing to read about. Zoe's so sarky and prickly and perceptive and she actually helps Cass a lot I think. Piper is intelligent and very tactical and it was great to get to know them some more and I'm excited to see what they do in the next book, Zoe's already been a massive help! We've obviously met "The Reformer" and he's just as infuriating in this book as he is in the others, but more interestingly we get to meet The Ringmaster. We get really up close and personal with him and while I don't trust him as far as I could throw him.....he surprised me a lot in this book and at least he's honest. It's going to be interesting to see how he's going to handle things when the shock revelation at the end is relayed to him. There's some old faces from the first book as well, and there's a couple of new faces, one of which is very interesting and I'm excited to learn more about them. 

The Map of Bones has a steady pace, that builds momentum as it goes. The writing is compelling, the descriptions evocative giving you not only a picture of the settings, but a feel for them, helping the world to come to life for you. The characters continue to grow and change and deal with everything as best as they can, and I continue to feel the injustice the Omega's feel every day. The world is fascinating and is expanded upon in this book, and this series is going in a very interesting direction! There's some truly mind blowing revelations in this book and I'm excited to see how they play out in the next book!