The Mime Order: 2 (The Bone Season) - Tapa dura

A riveting page-turner (Mail on Sunday)

The Mime Order picks up a scant half-hour from the end of The Bone Season, thrusting readers back into the world of Paige and a more detailed journey through future London. The novels are hugely imaginative, and the mash-up of sub-genres - part Hunger Games dystopia, part urban fantasy (Independent on Sunday)

The Mime Order . is, if anything, more accomplished and imaginative than The Bone Season. I am clearly not the target audience, but, crikey, I'll be second in the queue for Book III . I'm left wondering where Paige and Shannon will go next. She's dropped hints about Sheol II being in France, and Americans not subscribing yet to the Scion doctrines - is Paige heading to Paris or Washington? Wherever she does go, I will follow (Scotland on Sunday)

At its best The Bone Season was a triumphant blend of Orwellian dystopia and China Miéville nonconformity ... There is enough here to be stuck to the page like a book binder's glue. Shannon's ability to take classic tropes, such as forbidden love and dystopian societies, and give them a well-knuckled twist is to be admired - books one and two have demonstrated that she looks set to become a trailblazer for young talent (Independent)

Shannon's haunting dystopian universe is rich in detail, consistent, suffused with familiar afternotes. Just when the bloodshed seems over the top, she turns to shimmering descriptions of Paige's dangerously illicit tie to Warden. When Paige seems toughest, Shannon reminds us of her empathy for the downtrodden. "Hope is the lifeblood of revolution," Shannon writes. "Without it, we are nothing but ash, waiting for the wind to take us" Like Paige Mahoney, Shannon now has proven staying power. Her fans will be calling for more (NPR Books)

A gripping sequel (US Weekly)

London already has a long history of memorable ne'er-do-wells - Jack the Ripper, anyone? - but author Samantha Shannon adds dark, shady corners and an amazingly rich and unruly underworld to the city in The Mime Order . If anyone was wondering how Shannon would stretch this story into seven books, the gut punch of the last line in The Mime Order will instead have them on tenterhooks for the next five (USA Today)

Language as rich as a figgy pudding, the best terminology in the genre and gripping, edge-of-the-seat plotting to boot (Daily Mail)

Paige escapes a brutal prison camp to face darkness and danger as the fate of the underworld unfolds (Stylist)