I found the overall plot of this to be incredibly slow. After the excitement of the first two books in the series, the setting and world building sitting side by side with an engaging plot, this one just lacked that get up and go. Ophelia spends a lot of time doing nothing but engaging with bullies and other petty school dramas. And the story itself feels very different from the previous on the series, convoluted and lacklustre.

Reviews for this are overwhelmingly positive, so I'm clearly just an outlier here but I found this series to have really lost its way.

It has been two years and seven months since Thorn disappeared from his jail cell after confronting God. Ophelia banished back to Anima with her family has been floating through life until a postcard from the past and handy visit from Archibald set her on a new path to find her errant husband and God.
I love this series a lot. Thorn is one of my favourite heroes and we never get enough of him and even though Dabos tries to make him as unattractive and unappealing as possible he is still adorable. This book is all about Ophelia working out who she is on her own when she has no support, not even her trusty scarf. She cuts off her hair and grows a spine. The world opens up as we visit another Ark. We meet more family spirits and find out more of who created them and where they came from. Some questions get answered only for more to be asked. There’s a whole teasing side plot with Victoria and Archibald that is leading on to the next book. It’s all good stuff!

Loved this. So atmospheric and beautiful written. Lyrical even. This was so unique. I highly recommend these books.

I love so many aspects of this series that it's quite frustrating that they can be hit or miss for me. I enjoyed the first well enough and then loved the second one. This one left me ambivalent again. After all the progress made in the character arcs and relationships of The Missing of Calirdelune, the Memory of Babel felt like a step backwards. Ophelia is cast out on her own after the gripping denouement of book two and spends much of her time floundering to distinguish friends from foes on a new arc and it feels rather a slog as it revisits a lot of the themes of a Winter's Promise, but with fewer interesting side characters to lift the story. After book 2 enticingly developed the storyline of the House Spirits and God, all the hard work is squandered by the slow pace and repetitive story. Hopefully the final installment will see a return to the potential of book 2.

Having consistently enjoyed the books in this series so far, I was eager to see what was coming next for Ophelia and Thorn, particularly given the cliffhanger ending of book 2. I am happy to say that this third installment was just as enjoyable and has taken the story in interesting directions that I wasn't expecting. I loved the training school setting for this book and thought that the world of Babel was incredibly well drawn and vivid. In general, I thought that the translation was good, but there were a few instances where I did think more appropriate and non-ableist terms could (and should) have been applied. Overall, I found this to be an exciting and intriguing installment that has set things up for the concluding book in wonderful ways.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Europa Editions, and Christelle Dabos for my arc of The Memory of Babel in exchange for an honest review.

Warning: spoilers for the first two books are included below in both the synopsis and the review itself!

Following the harrowing ending to The Missing of Clairedelune Thorn is missing and Ophelia has been forced by the Doyennes to return to her home ark. Miserable without the husband she has slowly developed feelings for she has mostly stayed locked in her room. Until a surprise visit from an old friend from the Pole Ark sends her hurtling to Babel to find her husband and continue the search for the one they call 'god'.

If I've not mentioned it once or twice already, I absolutely adore this series. It just gets better and better. You know how some series or trilogies loose it in the middle book(s) and they end up just being fillers? Not this one. The Memory of Babel was excellent. I love Christelle's writing style, the humour, the less than perfect characters, the lack of tropes. I just adore it. Each book is like it's own adventure contained in part of the series and I loved that this one drifted slightly to include what was going on with other characters who had become important to the story but were not present with the main characters. I love how Thorn & Ophelia's relationship was developed and the exploration of the new Ark Babel. But my most favourite part of all was the way that Ophelia's character was developed, the sass she has started to demonstrate, the independence and her continued endurance against everything the world throws at her. The way she remains timid and yet incredibly strong and resourceful all at once. I love her. I absolutely cannot wait for the translation of the 4th and final book to arrive!

It's always a pleasure to read the book in this series and this one was no exception.
Highly enjoyable and engrossing, great world building and character development.
It's highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I absolutely am obsessed by this series and my only complaint is that translation takes so long (but don’t rush them I wouldn’t want them ruined either) these books just seem to get better and better each volume that comes out. These books are so different from another fantasy I’ve read before and I love them , they are just so magical, someone else on netgalley said whimsical and that’s the perfect word for them, they are just whimsical fantasy and it’s fantastic. Debo’s just seems to bring me pure delight with each release. I definitely think this was the best book in the series to date but alas 5 stars is that most I can give. Just a delight to read and if you haven’t read The Mirror Visitor Series before I define recommend these, but you must start with book 1, but definitely do !

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was an excellent installment in a series that only seems to be getting better! The world building has always been the strongest element in this series but now Dabos has built upon that even further by introducing us to another Ark in her world. It's unique, whimsical, and unlike any other fantasy I have ever read. It was fun to see Ophelia be completely set a drift in a new world by herself, I think it really helped her grow as a character and become more certain in her actions, abilites, and feelings. There is a couple of parts of the novel that felt like filler, and that I was just racing through to get to the good plot heavy moments, but this is only a minor thing however and didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book at all.
The translation is excellently done, and though you can tell this wasn't written in English originally, it adds to that otherworldly and whimsical nature of the book. I'm can't wait for the concluding novel to be translated!

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a complimentary eARC for review purposes*

This time around we follow Ophelia to Babel where, as always, she finds more than she bargained for, quickly finding herself in the middle of a conspiracy. Answering lots of questions posed in the last book and asking even more this is a good next instalment.

The Mirror Visitor is undoubtedly my favourite series and I am glad to report that while the first half of this book dragged a little the second half more than made up for it.

This is the third book in the Mirror Visitor series. While I did enjoy this book overall, it did take me a little while to get into it. The pacing felt a little uneven at times and it dragged a bit for me. I started getting more engaged in the second half of the book though. Overall it was good but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first and second book.

I'm uncertain whether to give this 4.5 or 5.5 stars! Like the first two of the series, it continues to delight with its off-beat ideas and characters. It is rare to find a truely original fantasy, but this certainly is one, and I recommend it thoroughly. Having said that, it is not always easy to read; the language is idiosyncratic, and while my colloquial French is mostly good enough to follow the audiobook, I can't really judge the quality the English translation. But it did not seem to work quite as well as the previous volumes, and the slipping into French and the old-fashionned English slang did not quite ring true for me this time. But if like me you love the series, you will not be dissapointed. It still weaves its magic.

4.5 stars. This is Book 3 and picks up the story a couple years on from the last book. There is an absolute rush of joy in meeting familiar characters again! No longer at the Pole, Ophelia travels to Babel; a murder mystery appears as Ophelia struggles to find her way to Thorn and the truth about God. Dabos is brilliant at crafting both her plots and characters with flaws and motivations. This was the best book in Mirror Visitor yet!