Blog Tour: The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon (+Giveaway!)

The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon
Series: The Bone Season #2
Published by Bloomsbury on January 27, 2015
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 528

Amazon • Book Depository •

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.

I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of The Mime Order Blog Tour! I ADORED The Bone Season–to the point where I’m giving away a paperback copy and treating y’all to an interview with the brilliant author herself. As for The Mime Order? It was…it was wow. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Review

One of the the most prominent things in The Bone Season was the worldbuilding–it was complex and gorgeous and filled with grief and horror, but we spent the majority of the time with the Rephaim in Sheol I, plunged into a world of supernatural abilities and cruel immortals who used voyants like toys. And while the situation in Scion London is no less deadly, there’s an utterly different feel to the sequel in terms of cruel, power-hungry rulers.

Set in Scion London rather than Oxford gives up an up-close-and-personal view of the syndicate, and that was probably one of my favorite things of the entire novel. If there’s one thing I love, it’s a book centered around a certain hierarchy, which is definitely present in the Underlord, the mime-lords and queens, and their mollishers. Power is a dangerous thing in the hands of those who want it, and that’s never been a more appropriate phrase than for this book. Plans are set in motion, people are killed left and right, and the bloodiest fight you’ll ever read is stuck in the words that Shannon summons. The thing is, with all these criminals and the syndicate and crime sprees, the story felt more like an paranormal mystery than anything remotely urban fantasy. That’s not bad by any means, but replacing evil angels with corrupt clairvoyants irrevocably changes the tone of the story from hopeless survival to cutthroat hunting.
(Also, another thing I love: Titles/Alias. Like The Pale Dreamer, The Winter Queen, The Glass Duchess, The Matyred Muse, The Buried King, and The Wicked Lady, just to start. How freaking cool are those?)

CAN I TALK ABOUT ROMANCE YET. Because oh my dear sweet lord, I love Warden. No one pulls off broody quite like a rephaim, and none so much as Warden. While the romance is slight (after all, Paige has some butt-kicking to do), the chemistry between our two characters are always there in lingering looks and small snatches of conversation. There’s is a forbidden love, and while I’ve claimed that I’m over that trend, there’s little drama between the two of them. Just support and kissing and love and kissing. I wish there was more kissing.

Paige is badass when she’s not kissing, though. (Warden may claim that she’s badass even while kissing.) Our tragic heroine has taken it upon herself to warn the world of another Sheol I and of the Rephaim, but she pays little heed to the repercussions of ripping off the Rephaims’ mask. I love Paige, I really do, but I felt like for the majority of the book, she was running high on emotions and was way too optimistic about what would happen.  I’ll be honest though, I forgot her naivete just like that the moment she started using her powers again and fighting like the kickbutt mollisher and dreamwalker she is.

As for the plot, it does come off as a slow start, but trust me. There’s a lot once you get past the initial bump. (HOLY SHIT THE TWISTS AND THE TURNS. UNEXPECTED SO MUCH UNEXPECTED.)

Just as Bone Season’s best feature was it’s strong character and the details of the immortal world, The Mime Order highlights the glory and the gritty of London’s underground. It’s a book wrought with murders, conspiracies, and betrayals that are almost impossible to predict, turning an almost 500 page book into a fast read. And though the stakes were less extreme, there’s a certain danger that follows every turn of the Paige (I’m sorry).

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The Extras

ME WITH AN ORANGE AURA. Because sybils are cool. Also yes. That is a picture of me from halloween as a cat. I was so original (and quite last minute).

About Samantha Shannon

Samantha Shannon (born 8 November 1991) is a British writer. Born in Hammersmith and brought up in West London, she recently graduated from St Anne’s College, Oxford, where she studied English Language and Literature.

Find her: Website/blog | | | |

 

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