It’s been three years since Thorn disappeared and Ophelia was forced back to Anima. She hasn’t been taking it well, as one can imagine. I barely survived one year not knowing what was going to happen – I can’t imagine being in Ophelia’s shoes! I read 25% of the book on the first day, dying for the moment when Ophelia is finally reunited with Thorn and able to return those three words to him: “I love you.”

Romance
Unfortunately, the moment I was dying for doesn’t happen until 50% through the book. I read the remaining 75% of the book on day two. It was the first book I’ve stayed up so late to finish reading in so long! My jaw and neck hurt by the end because I kept clenching them in anticipation.

Book 2 was all about Thorn falling in love with Ophelia. The roles are reversed in The Memory of Babel. Ophelia has to navigate her possibly-unrequited feelings for Thorn in addition to surviving her new life on Babel (difficult) and figuring out how to stop God (even more difficult).

Ophelia’s and Thorn’s relationship convinced me to read the books in the first place. I love a good hate-to-love trope. I especially love this relationship because the two are so natural together. Their chemistry is amazing. Although it is frustrating to kind of see their relationship backslide in book 3 (I mean, Thorn professes his love for her at the end of book 2!) it is also done really well because Ophelia is forced to face her feelings and grow comfortable admitting them.

Character Growth
Speaking of Ophelia confronting her feelings, she grows so much as a character in The Memory of Babel. We’ve seen her constantly grow since her introduction in A Winter’s Promise. Ophelia has grown up before our eyes, from a timid young girl, to someone learning to step out on her own, to finally someone who can stand on her own but who knows when to rely on someone for help.

And let’s talk about Thorn! Thorn will always be the super-awkward, uncomfortable-with-humans guy that we know and love, but he has learned that he can’t live life completely isolated. I’m not going to lie, he can sometimes come off as a jerk in The Memory of Babel (I mean, he comes off as a jerk in the other books, too, but for different reasons), but when you get down to his core character, he’s not a jerk. He finally opened up to someone, only to have his feelings apparently unrequited for three years. He won’t push Ophelia (smart, since she slapped him the first and last time he kissed her).

Plot
Even though I am completely committed to the books because of Ophelia and Thorn, The Memory of Babel‘s plot really pulled me in. The story builds on what we learned from book 2. God and the Other continue to be problematic, and Ophelia and Thorn must avoid God’s spies. Ophelia and Thorn are searching for the truth so they can take them both down. But in order to find that truth, they must search through hundreds and thousands of records kept in Babel. Ophelia must compete in order to access the most promising of these records, and no one is willing to make it easy for her. People are mysteriously dying. There’s a revolutionary continuously stirring up trouble in Babel. Ophelia doesn’t know who she can trust in this strange world. These are all things we’ve seen in the first 2 books. However, Dabos still manages to make it fresh and exciting.

Unfortunately, you can’t keep everything from God. God catches wind that Ophelia has left in search of Thorn, and he returns to Berenilde’s home. But in addition to finding Ophelia and Thorn, God is also still on his quest to locate LandmArk. Archibald, Gail, and Fox have taken it upon themselves to locate the mysterious ark for themselves. Readers get to see this subplot play out from Victoria’s point of view. Victoria’s chapters weren’t my favorite part of the story, but I still found them interesting. I especially liked them because I got to see what was happening with Archibald and the others even though they weren’t on Babel with Ophelia and Thorn.

Writing Style
One of the most defining characteristics of the series is the writing style. The writing style initially threw me in book one. However, book one is so long that I was used to the style by the time I finished. It probably has something to do with the translation. Some turns of phrases don’t make sense. Some words are a bit archaic. I’m not entirely sure when I became a fan of a style that initially grated on my nerves. In fact, I worried the writing style would make it difficult to enjoy the arc. You see, I have a difficult time connecting with ebooks, so I worried the electronic format plus the writing style would make it difficult to immerse myself.

I was very wrong.

Netgalley initially provided a two chapter excerpt for The Memory of Babel. I hadn’t known this when I first went to read the copy. I began reading with the full expectation of finishing. Surprise! I had to stop after only two chapters, but it was enough to pull me in. It was so jarring when I had to stop! I couldn’t enjoy any other books! Everything else just fell flat for me. I finally received the full book and I read it in two days and had no problems with either the format or the writing style.

ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE MEMORY OF BABEL
The Memory of Babel releases in the US on September 8, 2020. You definitely do not want to miss this book. This one is by far my favorite of all three books! You can pre-order (or order, if it’s already out by the time you’ve read this) from Amazon by clicking here. Click here to pre-order it from Barnes and Noble.

Now, who wants to place bets that I’ll learn French just so I can read book 4 sooner?

This is a great third book to the series. The pacing is a bit slower than the first two books, which is an interesting change. Ophelia spends most of her time in one place, a new ark (one of many islands in the sky that came into being when the world shattered ages ago), solving a mystery. I enjoyed it so much, the world becomes more and more intricate and new characters and issues keep cropping up.

I love Ophelia as a character, someone who is on the quieter side, but brave and curious. I can't wait to see how this series finishes! This is definitely one of my favourite series that I've read in a while.

Ophelia travels to a new ark in search of answers about God and Thorn, finding instead new mysteries about the rupture and how it came to be.

This book was just as well written and engrossing as the others. The story continued in a balanced way while introducing a new setting, as Ophelia is now on a new ark with entirely different ideas and traditions. Lots of new characters and situations with Ophelia still being ridiculously resilient!

I was so excited to read the third installment, finally! I read the first two last year and absolutely did not want to wait. And now I'll have to for the fourth book even though it's already out in many other languages!

Highly recommend this series to Fantasy readers.

A delightful first look at the full length novel - I'm already intrigued by how the passage of time has so run Ophelia by. I'm eagerly waiting for the rest of the novel to be published!

The third book in the Mirror Visitor series is wonderful. Ophelia is off to find Thorn and ends up in the city of Babel where she finds herself taking on a new role of student and researcher. We see Ophelia struggle with her new life and the secrets that she has discovered. Plus there is still danger from unknown persons. In this book we get to see Ophelia and Thorns relationship develop and it was painful and wonderful to read. I can’t wait to read the next book.

Really enjoyed this installment. Dabos has really created something different in a sea of YA fantasy that can feel formulaic and tropey at times. This series isn't. I love the world and its characters. The beginning was a little hard to get into but 20% in it was smooth sailing. Can't wait for more.

a dark academia fiction work that heavily articulates ideas of collective memory, reincarnation, seeking of truth, steps one may take to control people and keep society in formal separation and yet try to create an illusion of cooperation. Story of hiding and seeking truth. Can't wait for next work to uncover the story.

I started this book at 11pm, read until 4am, slept for 4 hours, worked for 3 hours and then finished this book. So prepare for a very emotional and sleep deprived review.

I read every word as if they were the most precious things my eyes would ever see, reading scenes over and over again because my past experiences with this series has taught me that there’s so much hidden depth to everything a character says.

In this book we’re transported to another Ark with two family spirits where Ophelia begins to hunt for Thorn and to uncover information on the one called God. Ophelia makes many friends and enemies along the way, stopping at nothing to find what she’s looking for. Again, Ophelia shows resilience like I’ve never seen in a book character, putting herself through physically and mentally challenging tasks and always growing as a person. The book shows her mentally correcting her own wrong assumptions and it adds layers to her character that are rarely seen.

I was a bit worried 30-40% in as none of the pieces were coming together and we were meeting more new characters without giving due diligence to the old characters, but that was quickly rectified. The characters of The Pole were integrated in a clever and way, showing us who everyone is through another perspective apart from Ophelia’s. I do believe the characters of Blaise and Ambrose could’ve been merged into one, but that’s a tiny detail.

This series is my favourite of all time and this was a book worth staying up all night for. I can’t wait to read it again when it comes out in September and I begin a new countdown to the next book!

I was thrilled to receive an early copy of The Memory of Babel. This quarter is one of my absolute favorites, and it was a pleasure to be back in Dabos's world with Ophelia. So many questions left unanswered at the end of The Missing of Clairedelune as we explore the new ark of Babel with Ophelia. Filled with the wit and heart I've come to love from the Mirror Visitor, this book was an excellent addition to the first two. I can't wait to finally have the completed story!

**Note: I am publishing this to Netgalley ahead of time, but this review will be posted on my blog on release day, September 8, and the link provided will not work until then.

***

The Memory of Babel is the third installment of The Mirror Visitor quartet, and after a few months’ delay due to world events, is hitting U.S. shelves today, September 8th. If you haven’t yet read A Winter’s Promise and The Missing of Clairdelune, stop reading and go to your library to borrow them or contact your local independent bookstore to order them right away—and go ahead and grab The Memory of Babel while you’re at it!

Seriously, if you haven’t picked up this series, you’re seriously missing out on some wonderfully inventive and refreshing fantasy. Christelle Dabos has created a totally unique world, blending imagery from both fantasy and sci-fi to create one of the few successful literary steampunk universes that I’ve encountered, and her world building doesn’t take away from memorable characters and action-packed plot. So far, I’ve found the first book, A Winter’s Promise, to be the weakest of the series, so if you tried that one and liked it alright but didn’t love it, I implore you to try the sequels, which are positively delightful (for reference, I rated the first book around a 3.5, and the second and third are both five-stars).

The rest of this review contains spoilers for the first two books, so if you haven’t read them yet, go do that and I’ll see you in my next post!

Right from the start of this book we see Dabos’s high-powered imaginative world building at work. We rejoin Ophelia two years and seven months after the events of The Missing of Clairdelune, selling pancakes at Anima’s Tickers Festival. Although she has been searching for clues about where Thorn might be—and where she can find out more about God—she has been stuck on Anima at her parents’ home ever since she was made to leave the Pole. She longs to get away, but knows that she is ever under the watchful eye of the Doyennes.

All that changes when Archibald, Fox, and Gail show up unexpectedly and Ophelia is whisked away from Anima. She chooses to follow one of the leads she came across, and ends up on the Ark of Babel, where the Family Spirits Pollux and Helen reside, without her friends and in search of her husband. There we find an entirely new setting, filled with automatons and cold citizens who follow a strict dress code. I have said before that Dabos has a particular gift for world building, and I am so glad that she chose to expand the world of the Arks rather than perpetually confining us to the Pole—not that I don’t also love the Pole!

Although I did adore this book, I think the characters were less memorable this time around, although I do think it was partially due to Ophelia’s isolation. She spends much of the novel feeling very alone in a strange land, and so she doesn’t get to know her peers as well. However, I also felt that the other characters were a bit lackluster, compared to those of The Missing of Clairdelune, particularly the family spirits and two of the antagonists—characters that wouldn’t be fleshed out by Ophelia knowing them particularly well, but characters who have, in the past, been very colorfully described.

Perhaps some of this is also due to the fact that I devoured this book. On the one hand, this is a mark of how much I loved it, because it’s been a long time since I felt like I just couldn’t put down a book. On the other hand, reading The Missing of Clairdelune so slowly really allowed me to savor it, and savoring it—and listening to the audiobook—is really what made me appreciate Dabos’s details and complexities.

That being said, I do think that this installment is more straightforward plot-wise. Especially with the first book, the plot has meandered up to this point, finally hitting some of the series-wide plot points at the very end of the last book. Although The Memory of Babel is somewhat similar, it serves the series plot as a whole and drives us toward the fourth novel, although I have no idea how Dabos is going to wrap this up!

Finally, and I’m only going to touch on this briefly, is the romance. I am not a person who enjoys romance in my books. I find it poorly done most of the time, and in this case, I definitely was NOT a fan of Ophelia and Thorn in A Winter’s Promise. That started to change throughout The Missing of Clairdelune and by the end of that book, I loved them. And in this book I must say: Dabos writes an excellent slow burn, but Ophelia and Thorn are really growing and starting to get to know each other, and I am HERE for it.

In case it didn’t get through to you, I absolutely loved this book and I can’t wait for the final book to come out. No, really, I might not be able to wait. I’m sorely tempted to get the French edition and just read it, but I hate switching languages in the middle of a series (people’s names are different and it’s a pain the butt). Only time will tell whether I give in to that temptation or if I wait patiently for The Storm of Echos….

I love this series and I cannot wait to read the conclusion. The third book suffers slightly from a prolonged set-up (I was less interested in Ophelia's attempt to become a Virtuoso than I was in some of her adventures in the previous two books) but really got moving once Ophelia was reunited with Thorn. I also enjoyed the addition of a new POV character and continue to be intrigued by the central mystery of "God." Ophelia is such a unique protagonist and it is always a pleasure to spend a few hours inside her head. I also really love many of the side characters (and hope for more of Ophelia's aunt in the conclusion!)

There were. a couple of odd choices with the translation this time around, and it tended to show up in descriptions of characters from different Arks (there was one character who was described multiple times as looking like an "oriental doll," which feels weird both in modern English and in a world where there wouldn't seem to be.clear "east" or "west.")

So I'm not going to lie, I struggled to get through the first part of this book. There is a lot of introduction in the first half: a new Ark, new characters, new circumstances for Ophelia, and new enemies, both major and minor. And because of all this establishing and scene setting it feels like it takes a long time to get going. But when it does all that set-up and all that establishing is so, so worth it, because when this installment of the Mirror Visitor Quartet gets good it gets crazy good. Dabos really went all out on the third act of this book (there's one scene in particular that's so wonderfully trippy and cinematic I couldn't help but hope to see it filmed one day), and did so in pretty much every conceivable way. Thus far with this series, I've tended to care more about the world-building and characters than any of the mysteries presented, but with the particular mystery in this installment I've got to say that Dabos did a masterful job. It is so satisfying, and such an enjoyable ride.

There's a lot more to be said about this one - like how amazing some of the new characters are, and how the writing seemed even more fantastically descriptive than before - but there's really no sense in spoiling the ride. If you struggle for a bit with this one like I did, hang on, please. It's so worth it.

This has truly been one of the best fantasy series I've ever read. I can't wait to come back for book 4 and see how Dabos ends it all.

The Memory of Babel, book three in the Mirror Visitor series, follows Ophelia’s journey to find her husband Thorn and learn more about the mysterious “God” who has taken an intense interest in Ophelia. This installment placed Ophelia and her scarf under profound pressure as they adventure to a new ark. Cut off from her family and unable to find Thorn, Ophelia must decide who she truly is and what she will do with the knowledge she has gained.

I really enjoyed The Memory of Babel! It had a different flavor than the previous books, particularly as Ophelia is separated from her friends and family for the first time. With the same mystical atmosphere and intricate details that are characteristic of The Mirror Visitor series, this book was spellbinding. The Memory of Babel features new characters, further developments in the Pole, and more explanation of the history behind the Rupture. Ending on a classic cliffhanger, The Memory of Babel provides illuminating answers while provoking further questions. If you’re a fan of the Mirror Visitor series then you absolutely won’t want to miss this. The Memory of Babel releases on September 8, 2020. Thank you to Christelle Dabos, Europa Editions, and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars
I am absolutely in love with The Mirror Visitor series! I read the book as soon as it comes out in English and then I spend the next year lamenting that I have to wait a full year until the next book comes out in English! I recommend this book series to everyone.
With that being said, I was a little disappointed in the third book. I absolutely adored the second one, but this one left me desiring....something else, something more.
Even though I'm a little disappointed about the book, I am SO EXCITED to read the fourth one when it comes out! It is going to be INCREDIBLE!!! I'm still going to recommend the series to everyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I adore the series ever since I got the Winters Promise in my book of the month. This isn't as strong as the other two but it's a really good bridge to the fourth book which I believe culminates the series (And if I actually could read French I could finish it already but I have to wait for the translations). The book is about 2 years after the previous one and there is a lot that probably happened in that time but essentially Ophelia was just leaving her house to go get croissants every now and again. The world building is as ever extraordinary, And it was interesting to see Ophelia on her own without any of the cast of supporting characters around her which I usually do enjoy. They are in the story they just happen to exist in a separate storyline told through the eyes of young Victoria who I imagine will be a very large part of book four and who I do want to understand much more about than I currently do. The story weaves in and out of the past and the present and the future. There is a lot of imagination in the book and also required to fully enjoy it. I'm really excited I got to read this as part of the Net Galley program And know that anybody anticipating this book will be satisfied as the setup for the conclusion.

As this is part of a series i found it much harder to 100% connect to the Characters and the story. So im going to start from the beginning to make the most out of the book. The story and writing was very atmospheric and gripping

I've been looking forward to reading this book since I finished The Missing of Clairdelune. I was very excited to start it! I loved every single moment of this book. It was perfect and everything I was hoping it would be. The ending of The Missing of Clairedelune was an intense cliffhanger and I've been very impatiently waiting for this book. I was struck once again by the pure imagination in this story. Christelle Dabos is a brilliant storyteller and everything about the world she created is interesting. The characters are wonderful and varied and I found each one of them brought something important to the story. Ophelia is, of course, my favorite. A flawed character and not the typical type of heroine, but she fits this story perfectly. If you enjoyed the first two books, you will definitely love this installment as well. I can't wait for the fourth book! But I know I have to wait longer than usual, since it will have to be translated. The moment I can read it, I will. I already have this one on pre-order for when it is released in September and then I want to re-read all three back to back. I love this series and it will always be a favorite.

I have really enjoyed this series so far and love the concept of having the power to travel through mirrors. The world building in these books is spectacular and continues as expected in the taste of a single chapter in this excerpt. It was just enough to whet my appetite back into this world and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book and meeting up with all of my favorite characters. I have a soft spot for Ophelia's animated scarf!

Like so many others, I have fallen in love with this series and was so excited to start reading the third book, but then realized it was just a sample! Don't get me wrong, the sample is great and quickly puts readers back into the world of the Arks that we have come to love so well. I hope I will still get a chance to read the whole thing soon because I don't want to wait until September!

Twas' but the first chapter, but I am eager to discover the mysteries of Babel with Ophelie in search of the Truth - and Thorn of course! High hopes to see the complete story unfold...