The Dark Mirror - a Review
Both myself and Jayde are long-time fans of an author called Samantha Shannon - and were even lucky enough to meet her earlier this year. In 2012 Samantha Shannon, at the age of 19, scored a huge publication deal with Bloomsbury. She was signed on for a six-figure sum, following bidding at The London Book Fair
The book in question was The Bone Season. Many of you might recognise the title, it’s one of my absolute favourite books and I recommend it to pretty much everyone. Since the release of The Bone Season back 2013, Samantha Shannon has become a well-known author. However, to my humble disbelief, she is most well known for her book The Priory of The Orange Tree - the first in The Roots of Chaos series - and splits her time writing both series. Therefore, it’s been a long time coming for the release of The Dark Mirror, book five in The Bone Season series.
I do feel a sense of jealousy for those who are just discovering the series now, as you can read the first 4 back-to-back with no waiting, but every time a book is released, I finish reading it thinking it was definitely worth the wait.
So, what is The Bone Season about? If you ask me in the shop, you’re likely to get a different answer each time, because it covers so many elements that I struggle to pinpoint it. Hopefully it’ll be easier here, in writing.
The Bone Season, at it’s core, is a supernatural dystopian novel. Set in London in 2059, nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by locating human minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, the rarest type of clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master, her trainer, her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die. She must absorb all the knowledge she gains access to, she must hone her gift.*
The story is one of found friendships, hope, overcoming adversity, dismantling corrupt government systems and forbidden attraction. Its brilliant.
These themes continue on through the next books, which are: The Bone Season, The Mime Order, The Song Rising, The Mask Falling and then The Dark Mirror. and you get to travel to Paris, Rome, Venice, Cananda, as well as cities within England.
I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of The Dark Mirror recently and I will try and tell you how much I loved it in a spoiler free way.
The Dark Mirror starts off with Paige Mahoney outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade – but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory. As she makes her way back to the revolution, her journey takes her to Venice, where she learns a dangerous secret – one that could change the face of the war between humans and immortals. Before she can return to London, she must help the Domino Programme unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist. And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories – Arcturus Mesarthim – might also hold the key to saving Italy.
This is an action-packed book with lots of revelations for Paige and the fight to end Scion. Samantha Shannon is a master storyteller who ensures her characters are well thought out, consistent and relatable - even the otherworld Rephaites. I absolutely loved how much Paige has grown over the series - from burning down the city of Oxford in book 1, she manages to only slightly damage the Colosseum in The Dark Mirror. As an absent leader of the revolution, she struggles with letting others take charge but learns to trust her supporters and to do what is right for the operation.
One thing that Samantha Shannon continues to do well is to show her characters dealing with and overcoming trauma. In The Dark Mirror Paige continues to tackle her fears and deals with them in a much mature way. She still over does it, but as leader, agent and spy, there’s not often time to re-coup. At many points in the book, I felt genuinely sorry for Paige, this girl just can’t catch a break.
This book takes place out of Scion, which allows us to see what the world is like where people are free in 2060. Things are pretty normal for us as the reader, but completely jarring for Paige. It takes her a while to grasp that clairvoyants aren’t only free, but completely ignored or a welcome part of some societies. As more non-clairvoyants enter the playing field in the fight against Scion, we do see less of the characters using their abilities, but it’s still a big part of the plot. We also learn that Jaxon Hall was wrong - cue fake shocked gasp - about his classifications.
One question I had at the end of The Mask Falling was “Will Warden (aka Arcturus) be in it?” For those of you who have read the series, you’ll know how important Warden is to Paige. All I will say is - yes, he is in the book. We also see some of the other characters from before but get introduced to some new ones. Maria has become a firm favourite, and I hope we see more of Rohan Mistry because he’s pretty bad ass.
This is a definite five star read. I genuinely loved every second of it, and being back with Paige and with the other characters felt so familiar and comfortable, it reminded me of a Louisa May Alcott quote.
'Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.'
With so long in between books, and lots of characters and events that happen, I would recommend that before you embark on The Dark Mirror, you give yourself a little refresh. Luckily the book will have a glossary and character index in the back.
If you’ve read the original versions, and not the author’s preferred text, you might want to check out the reading guide before you dive headfirst into The Dark Mirror. You can read it here.
The Dark Mirror is released in hardback on 25th Feb 2025 and is the fifth book in The Bone Season.
I cheated and copied this from Wikipedia 😂
