3 out of 5 stars | Goodreads
I won a gorgeous hardback copy of this book from Debby – thank you so much!
Having read The Bone Season at the beginning of 2014, and found it not quite as amazing as many of my fellow Goodreaders and bloggers, I was still impressed by the whole concept and story and gave it a solid four star rating. Yet when it came to reading this, I found I had forgotten the majority of the events of the first book – but luckily the Recaptains were there to help me out, and my memory was jogged as I read on. I remembered that the premise was intriguing, even if some of the characters were a bit lacking, and I loved the idea of this monstrous camp juxtaposed against the ruins of beautiful Oxford.
That, however, is where I believe The Mime Order fell short for me. Without that setting, without the whole camp, the feeling of Paige being in constant peril, without the Rephaim always around, it just wasn’t the same. London just wasn’t as exciting or interesting as Oxford, and the entire book felt so slow. There were whole sections where nothing really happened, and I was waiting for some action. In addition, it really didn’t feel like Paige had prepared for the Scrimmage enough, and why was she not more scared about what could happen? Because of her lack of fear, there was no tension or sense of peril over what would happen and it somehow felt like a big anti-climax without all the build up.
I also much preferred the wider cast of characters from the first book. I don’t feel that Paige is particularly exciting or inspiring as a main character, in fact Jaxon feels more well-built than her, with some real personality. And for some reason I’ve always had real trouble picturing how the Rephaim appear!
But yes, overall I DID like this book. It’s a ‘didn’t quite meet my expectations but I still liked it’ kind of three-star book. I’m just really hoping that the rest of the series, especially considering that Shannon has signed on for a seven book deal, are as good as the first, rather than this one – which to me, definitely suffers from ‘second book syndrome’.
Rinn Reads 