Review: The Mime Order (The Bone Season #2) by Samantha Shannon

The Mime Order (The Bone Season, #2) by Samantha Shannon
Publication date: Jan. 27, 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Category: Adult - Dystopia/Paranormal
Source: Received ARC from publisher (Thanks!)
Summary: Paige Mahoney has escaped the brutal penal colony of Sheol I, but her problems have only just begun: many of the fugitives are still missing and she is the most wanted person in London. As Scion turns its all-seeing eye on Paige, 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 center 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. Will Paige know who to trust? The hunt for the dreamwalker is on. (Adapted goodreads.com)

The good

The Mime Order picks up immediately where The Bone Season left off and to say that the train did not sail off into the sunset would be an understatement. From the moment Paige Mahoney, the Seven Seals who helped rescue her and her fellow captives at Sheol I head back to London, a whole new set of obstacles stand in their way. Should Paige go back to Jaxon Hall and the Seven Seals? Where will the former Sheol I captives, now considered fugitives, go? What should they do about Scion’s involvement with the Rephaim? And will the Rephaim find their way to London? All this and more are answered (you better believe my main question was: When is Warden coming back?) and gave us an even deeper look into Paige, who is becoming one of my favorite heroines.

In The Bone Season, we were given only a small glimpse into Paige’s life as a Seven Seal before she was thrown into Sheol I. In The Mime Order, we get a good, hard look into what her involvement with Jaxon Hall meant. With nowhere else to go, Paige is forced to resume her position as mollisher (think second-in-command) for Jaxon. And it’s clear that Paige is not only a badass but also resourceful, tough, smart and compassionate. Even among mime-lords and mime-queens who want nothing more than to increase their own power, Paige is determined to stop Scion and wants to protect her fellow clairvoyants from being turned into slaves for the Rephaim. She goes to extraordinary lengths to do so and seeks the truth at every turn. It was interesting to see the full scope of the mime world and its city gangs and the roles each person plays. Paige may just be one person in this extensive ring but there was never a doubt in my mind that she would make her voice heard (and man, does she!).

Lastly, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Warden continues to play a major role in Paige’s life. I won’t tell you the how-when-why of it all but I will say this - their complicated, forbidden relationship is one of my favorite parts of the series and we certainly get more of that here.

(Minor) Reservations

As with the first book, the series continues to suffer a bit from information overload. In addition to everything we learned in The Bone Season (which I admit, I don’t know if I fully kept track of), there’s a whole new set of rules and players in The Mime Order and I felt like trying to get everything across to the reader dragged the first half of the book. I understand that it’s necessary but I do wonder if there’s a way to more evenly pace things so the information can be digested easily. That said, the book is divided into three parts and for me, the first part was the slowest, the second part begins to pick up especially mid-way and the third part was explosive.

Do I recommend?

I do! This is some of the most extensive and creative world-building I’ve ever read and with characters like Paige and Warden, I guarantee this is a series you’ll want to check out.

Here's a clip of the audiobook!

courtesy of Audible