The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon is the second book in the seven part ‘The Bone Season‘ series. I’d been waiting for this book for a while. It was scheduled for a release in October 2014 but was delayed until January 2015. I was so glad when I finally got my hands on it!
I say, lets get started with the blurb:
Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal prison camp of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the survivors are missing and she is the most wanted person in London…
As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on the dreamwalker, the mime-lords and mime-queens of the city’s gangs are invited to a rare meeting of the Unnatural Assembly. Jaxon Hall and his Seven Seals prepare to take centre stage, but there are bitter fault lines running through the clairvoyant community and dark secrets around every corner. Then the Rephaim begin crawling out from the shadows. But where is Warden? Paige must keep moving, from Seven Dials to Grub Street to the secret catacombs of Camden, until the fate of the underworld can be decided.
Can I just start of by saying, I’m a huge fan of the first book, The Bone Season. It introduced this awesome world of clairvoyance that absolutely captured every part of my imagination. The Mime Order just made it a whole lot better. It (clairvoyant world) is so detailed and insanely immersive. It is reminiscent, to me, of old/historical London.
This book started exactly where the first one left of. Where The Bone Season was an introduction, The Mime Order is the build-up. If I criticised the first book for bombarding us with information, I take it all back. I’m kinda glad it did and even more surprised that I managed to retain it all and all fell into place with this one. The plot, as I discovered, is deliciously multilayered with a solid purpose behind every description and detail.
The characters in this book are quite complex, mysterious, dark and extremely well written which made this book quite a good read. Paige has shown the most growth as a lot has happened to her since the first book. I really like her and totally admire her strength. Warden is one character I absolutely love. He is a questionable figure with intentions that are not quite clear and his temperament is quite singular. Jaxon is someone I love to hate. You can’t quite place his concern for Paige as being genuine or not.
If I had to pick one negative with this book I would point out the way it has been paced. Where the first book was super cruise-y; I found this book didn’t really allow me to blitz through it. It could have done with about hundred pages or so less. The last hundred however were where this book really kicked it up a notch and I loved every second of it.
All in all, I would say this is a strong sequel and would highly recommend this series. I believe Samantha Shannon is out to take us on a long, winding ride that is going to be totally worth it!
Can’t wait for the next one! 🙂
Happy reading peeps!
xx
Chasing Fiction 