Name: The Mime Order (The Bone Season series #2)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Date published: January 2015 (this edition February 2017)
Genre: Fiction, adult, science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, paranormal, urban fantasy
Pages: 501
Rating: 4/5
This review contains mild spoilers.
It is a dark time for clairvoyants. Scion is in league with the Rephaim, an extraordinarily powerful, otherworldly race that intends to make humans its slaves.
In an unprecedented feat of bravery, Paige Mahoney has succeeded in leading a mass break-out from the brutal camp, Sheol I, where she and other clairvoyants were systematically imprisoned.
Paige is desperate to reach the safety of the London underworld, but the ruthless leader of the Rephaim, Nashira Sargas, is not likely to let her escape so easily…
- From Goodreads.
I thought The Mime Order continued the series in a really exciting way, adding some really intriguing elements to the plot and expanding the world in more fascinating detail.
There was a lot of mystery to the story in this book which I found to be completely unpredictable, I really had no idea what was going to happen next and thought all the plot threads were woven together well. The extra twist at the end of the book also set up an extra layer to what I thought would be the plot of the next book, and makes me all the more eager to pick up the next in the series.
We were introduced to more characters in this book, all of them with interesting parts to play in the story, who felt real and created engaging character dynamics and interactions. One thing I would have liked to see more of was the escapees from Sheol I having a bigger part to play and seeing more of them in the book, since they were so involved in the first one I did feel like I missed them in this one. A few of them did get to play an important part, but I would have liked to see Paige have a connection to more of them and keep in more contact with them, since no one else really knew what she went through when she was captured. Of course she did interact with the rebel Rephaim in this book and although they were somewhat on her side, they still did not really understand her as the other captive voyants would have.
On a similar note, the main weakness of this book and the reason I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars was because of Paige's romance with Warden. I still did not really feel their connection and thought I would have liked them more as reluctant allies or almost friends at this point instead of already developing a romance when I was still feeling the anger on behalf of Paige over how he treated her in the first book and still did not like some the ways he behaved in this one. I understood that he was Rephaim and would not act human but I could not excuse the things I did not like or understand Paige's feelings for him, but I might have liked it if it had happened later in the series.
However, since this was not the main plot of the book it did not ruin my enjoyment of the story and I still found plenty to enjoy about it. Paige continued to develop her skills with her clairvoyancy and we learnt more about the other types of clairvoyancy too in this book and I found that all fascinating and I think it still continues to be one of the most unique parts of this series.
Overall, this was a thrilling and riveting book that kept me wondering what would happen until the very end. It was all written in great detail with some really captivating character relationships and I am very excited to continue with the series and to see what happens next.
