Pages: 528
Genre(s): Young Adult, Fantasy
Published: January 27, 2015 | Bloomsbury USA
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Publisher
Rating:
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.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This opinion is my own & will not be affected by this.
If you guys remember, for my review of The Raven Boys, 3 other members of The Bookish Groupies and I decided to do an " interview " type of co-review to share our thoughts instead of sticking to a traditional guest post. We had such a good time doing the post & answering the questions, that I've decided to do it again! This time around, they'll be asking me a few questions, and I'll answer them, being completely honest, and open to better give my readers a glimpse of my experience with The Mime Order. But that's not the only reason why I've chosen to go this route. Just a few short weeks ago I read and reviewed The Bone Season, and if you follow my blog or any of my social media accounts, then you'd know it took me 5 WHOLE DAYS to compose my review. I don't want another repeat of that lol, especially since so much happened in TBS, just as it did in TMO, and I wanted my thoughts to be clear and concise, but also fun! Sooo, here we go again readers. Enjoy !
Arcturus better not take a back seat in the next book, I missed his angry side!
After finishing The Bone Season, did you have any expectations for The Mime Order?
Of course! I was actually a little nervous to read The Mime Order because in the past I've been such a terrible & unfaithful girlfriend to trilogies and series! (I have serious commitment issues) I knew that after I finished The Bone Season, I was marathoning it's sequel, and that one little question burned in the back of my head the entire time, " will it do it's debut any justice? " TBS set the bar sooo high, especially with it's writing, world-building, characters, (Arcturus mainly) and awesome fighting scenes, and I expected all these aspects to be even better the second time around in this novel. It definitely exceeded my expectations, but I also wanted more as well. That made ZERO sense omg.
After being a couple of chapters in, what were your thoughts?
Well my first thought was " OH SHIT ! " because chapter one kicked off with a BANG! Then I want to say after that my thoughts were clouded with nothing but anxiety and anticipation. You guys know I like to keep it " one hunnid " with you guys, so I will admit that Part I and a little of Part II dragggeeeedddddd. TBS had so much information dumped into the novel, (which I loved btw) which kind of affected TMO . . . big time. Samantha had sooooo muchhh explaining to do, back stories to cover, new discovers and secrets to unveil, and all of this made the story move extremely slow at times. It didn't entirely bother me, but I definitely see many people having problems with it, especially since this book is 500+ pages long.
What was your most & least favorite thing about this book?
Easy peasy. I'll switch it up and discuss my least favorite first, especially since I already mentioned it in the previous question. Anywho, my least fav thing about The Mime Order was that it dragged, and alot longer than it needed to. I do understand that there had to be parts of the story where previous scenes, or information and such had to be explained, but I also felt that there were scenes in the story that were a bit necessary. We followed Paige around London alot, as she spent her days as the mollisher of Jaxon Hall, Mime-Lord of cohort I-4. It was cool to see exactly what she did for money, and although it was interesting, I felt that Samantha included alot of things that occurred, especially during Part I, as fillers for the rest of the story. I wasn't complaining, being that the world-building was pretty good, giving me an idea of what an "underground " of London would look like, but yeah. Most of it wasn't really needed.
On the other hand, it'll be impossible to pick ONE favorite thing about this book.
First of all . . . Arcturus.
Bae took so long coming into the story! I believe his appearance doesn't arrive until Part II, which was so excruciating for me, but once he did . . . LORD! But since I have to pick one thing I loved the most, I would have to say the fight scene towards the end of Part III. God, Samantha Shannon knows how to write some Epic battle scenes! I remember screaming, " You better WERK Paige! ". Guys it is THAT intense!
Sorry if I'm spilling too much tea ladies, I'm just excited lol.
Since I know you love video games, are there any that have some sort of comparison to this book?
Mmmm,
You know what yes! Kinda sorta lol.
Okay so, I don't know if any of you are gamers, or if you enjoy playing a few from time to time, but if there was a game that had a slight comparison to The Mime Order, it would be the Assassin's Creed series. Assassin's creed is one of my all time favorite games. There are different ones, all based in a historical setting, and you of course play an assassin. What compares this game to The Mime Order would be the stealth, and the way your assassin character takes out his opponents. In TMO, Paige is not only a voyant (which are humans with supernatural abilities that are hunted & killed by her government) but ontop of that, she's the most wanted fugitive in all of London. Since she still has a job to do as a mollisher, as well as figure out how to stop the Rephaim and her government, she must go out into the city, which is very dangerous. In Assassin's Creed, since you have to be stealthy, your character is well disguised, and would use surrounding buildings to make his moves undetected. Like AC, Paige has to do the exact same thing, basically jumping from building to building and navigating through back streets to avoid being seen.
If you could trade places with any of the characters, who would it be?
Paige of course! Like come on, I would have made such a bad ass dreamwalker! I loved all the characters, including the supporting cast, and it would have been such a great experience to mingle and interact with them. Especially Arcturus! They're dialogue and scenes together gave me such anxiety because I just wanted to them to . . . you know DO IT already! Release that tension for heavens sake, who cares what people think! But walking the dangerous streets of London, battling spirits, and poltergeists, just being apart of this interesting world, seems like it would be so cool! So yes I hands down would choose to trade places with Paige.
Is The Mime Order comparable to any recently released Fantasy/Sci-Fi novels?
Both The Bone Season and The Mime Order are pretty original novels, atleast in my opinion. I just read our girl Angelique's review for The Bone Season, where she states it was very similar to Shadow & Bone, which is a book that I've actually been wanting to read for quite some time now. It's definitely a difficult question to answer, especially since I just started reading Fantasy/Sci-Fi pretty heavily, but I honestly haven't came across a book, or heard of a book that could be compared to The Mime Order. It's definitely in it's own lane . . . as of now lol.
If you guys know any books that are similar, definitely point me in that direction! Thanks in advance lol.
To wrap this up, what are your overall thoughts?
I truly enjoyed this book. There were some noticeable differences this time around, with the characters and world-building, (two of my fav characters didn't make an appearance AT ALL, and I missed the amazing scenery of Sheol I) but that definitely didn't put a damper on my experience. The writing was superb as I expected it would be, and let's not forget to mention the plot twists! Everything that was introduced to us in TBS was explained in such depth in this novel, (main reason why the story drags a bit) that after every chapter ended, I found myself gasping at a new revelation or discovery of a new secret. The world Samantha created is a confusing one for most, but I love the complexity of it all. She created a story that gives us book lovers a little of everything, fantasy, science fiction, a little dystopian elements, a sprinkle of romance . . . something that everyone can enjoy.
The characters have depth, with back stories that are relevant to the story, and our heroine Paige, remained as strong and witty as she was in the debut. Her fighting scenes had me jumping for joy, (EPIC man EPIC) and the cliffhanger that completely changed the course of this story, had my mouth hanging wide open! I most definitely will be picking up book 3.
Arcturus better not take a back seat in the next book, I missed his angry side!
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