Reviews

The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon

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catpingu's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I mean...the story moves. Does it add anything new? Not really, it's just...French. And gathering allies. In a way, we're right back at the beginning TBH. Oh yeah, some more acquaintances-to-possibly-lovers slow burn. Just send me the next book already.

The mysterious Domino network orders their newest recruit, the infamous Paige Mahoney, to rest and recuperate in one of their Paris safe houses before assigning her with new jobs as an intelligence officer. Mostly amaurotic, Paige knows that this network could be another possibly ally in the fight against the Rephaim. However, she still needs to think about finding more powerful voyants to gain support with and fully conduct a coup; onwards, she goes digging through the ancient catacombs to find the Parisian syndicate. But once she does, she finds herself in a very familiar situation.

Paige's companion, her support during her recuperation, is Arcturus. They've helped each other through painful and bloody injuries and talked through their darkest memories. However, there's still some dark secrets Arcturus is hiding and Paige can't afford to let herself be consumed by the Rephaim, or her revolution.

If there are several good things that go on in this book, is the gradual resolution of some loose ends from the previous books. For example, in book 1, who is Rackham and why is Paige supposed to look for him?

He's the Rag and Bone Man! The Man in the Iron Mask! And startingly, the seemingly-innocent printer friend Alfred. Who'da thunk he was actually a very clever human trafficker?

Who does that oracle David really work for?

Actually, still unclear. But at his reappearance we're assuming he's working for the French, under his real name Cade Fitzours. Also, potentially NOT and oracle and potentially ANOTHER DREAMWALKER?! Send the next book!!

What happened to Michael?

A month after he gets separated from Paige when they return to London, he's captured and sent to Sheol II. Paige arrives just a few hours too late and misses him. Current whereabouts unknown, I supposed.

I like the new characters, I suppose. They're just a little more fun to follow than their English counterparts. More mysterious and moody, too, because Paige is just another person to them and a foreigner as well; no grudging respect or leftover fear from her mollisher days, they only know her as the Underqueen resurrected.

It's almost a bit too obvious that this series is being made longer on purpose with three reasons:

1. The introduction of the Domino network.

We only see like 4 characters from the entire network and while this is like a safety precaution to keep things siloed off in case of compromised agents and leaking information, killing some of the characters and keeping others is a blindingly obvious ploy

to keep interest in Domino as far as the next book. Speaking of which, still unclear how the Mannequin or whatever relates to Domino, I suspect it's like the French sub-section of Domino?

2. Paige and Arcturus

let Jaxon live after they've cornered him in Versailles.

They literally had one verbally assigned job to do, to

kill the Grand Overseer, and they couldn't complete it because of morals?! Are you really telling me they didn't think to bring an actual cold-hearted killer with them into the room to kill this guy because they didn't think they'd decide to give him mercy either because a) he's a father figure to Paige or b) literal MORALS?!

Big, big flag that there'll be another book.

3. Paige

doesn't manage to rescue a possessed

Arcuturus. This really speaks for itself.

Hmmm, what else am I annoyed at? Hmmm, still made at David/Cade. Oh yeah! The cards, THE CARDS. Liss' reading still pervades through this book. Mainly, it's the Devil and the Lovers that keeps coming up over, and over, and over again. I thought we'd established their meanings earlier, that the Devil is Jaxon, or Nashira, or whatever, but really we keep rehashing this. And also, the Lovers is fairly obvious who it's representing, but Paige is still kind of fighting it and trying to resolve her connection to Arcturus and her obligations to the syndicate and voyants. So yeah, bored of trying to figure out who the Devil is; every time Paige gets betrayed or feels grief she goes like "...so this must be the Devil from the reading..." And really, let's get this girl to another cartomancer in Paris (where apparently it's very highly regarded) and get a fresh pair of eyes on her future.

emily_reads_'s review against another edition

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5.0

WHAT IN THE MOTHER OF ALL FUCKS

morton_aj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

sipteareadbooks's review against another edition

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4.5

A superbly detailed clamber through and under the streets of Paris, full of intrigue, twists and mysteries. This is a book that leaves you desperate for answers in the best way.