Cbr14bingo Heart — this book broke my heart and I’m angry
Writing a review for this fourth and final installment in Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor series is going to be tough for a few reasons. All the story lines that have been set up in the previous books have to be resolved here and I’m not going to lie, things get super complicated and kinda weird. The other problem is that, having just finished the series, I am feeling emotionally drained. The author has plenty of surprises in store and some are quite shocking. I honestly did not like the way this series ended at all.
The final book is set on the ark known as Babel, where Ophelia and Thorn are working covertly to try to prevent the second rupture of the world. Their enemies are many, but prime among them are “God” (aka Milliface) and an entity known only as the “Other,” which Ophelia inadvertently unleashed on the world in her childhood the first time she “mirror walked.” Thorn has made a sort of “deal with the devil,” in that he is working for Babel’s corrupt governing entity, the Genealogists. They are a powerful couple who also want to defeat God but their goal is to acquire the same powers as God in his place. Ophelia is more of a ground operative, working among the powerless of Babel who, as landslides become more frequent and devastating, become scapegoats and are subjected to deportation. Thanks to Thorn’s extensive research through official records and Ophelia’s surprising connection to the memories of “God,” (aka Eulalia Gonde), the pair realize that Gonde had been involved in covert medical research on the site now known as the Deviations Observatory. The Genealogists send Thorn there in an official capacity to snoop around while Ophelia, to avoid deportation, signs herself up as a voluntary research subject. She is of special interest to them because she is, as their specialists say, an “invert.” Ophelia’s friends from Babel tell her not to do this as few who check in ever check out again, but she knows it is the only way to get to the truth.
The treatment of patients at the observatory is highly disturbing and seems meant to break them and their powers down, but for what end? Thorn and Ophelia believe this practice is in some way connected to something that was once known as the Cornucopia Project, which Gonde had a connection to. It also seems connected to Gonde’s ability to create the gods and to the disturbing increase in “echoes” that everyone on Babel is experiencing. There are lots of mysteries tied together here: what did Gonde do and how? What is this Other and how do they find it? Who actually runs the observatory? And why are the pictures drawn by the little girl named Second so important to the researchers? The abuse Ophelia experiences seems poised to rob her of her powers and keep her weakened, and some of the experiments indicate that the researchers know more about Ophelia than they let on. Will Ophelia and Thorn be able to find the answers and stop God/the Other before the arks, all experiencing collapse, fall into the void?
Alongside this primary story is the secondary, less developed story of Archibald, Fox, Gale and Victoria. Archibald and Gale have managed to find the hidden ark called LandmArk and want to convince its spirit Janus to help them fight God. Janus is the only god not to have lost its memory; Janus knows who God is and why God is not to be trusted. What Archibald does not realize is that God has taken on the appearance of Fox and stowed away on the trip to LandmArk, hoping to acquire Janus’ power of travel and connectivity. There is another invisible stowaway with Archibald, too — the 3-year-old daughter of Farouk and Berenilde, Victoria. Rather, her “spirit” has left her physical body on the Pole and gone with them. Victoria is now unable to return to her body. The longer she spends away from it, the more she feels her spirit being dragged off into another dimension. I just want to add here that this whole story line with Victoria fascinated me but did not get the in depth explanation it deserved. We never find out why Victoria has this odd power or why Farouk can see her spirit. It felt like a convenient plot device to give another character something to do later.
As you can imagine, the action becomes intense and exciting as Ophelia and Thorn get closer to the truth. They have to take drastic action to stop God/The Other, prevent the collapse of the universe and maybe undo the damage done. As I have mentioned in my previous reviews, the relationship between Ophelia and Thorn is a highlight of the series. They do have a Lizzy/Darcy vibe that I love. Circumstances have forced them together, but they gradually sort of fall for each other and learn to look realistically at themselves. BUT, this relationship, in fact all the relationships amongst all of the characters that I grew to love — the resolutions are TERRIBLE! I mean, every single person that I cared about in this book gets short shrift in the end. And it serves NO PURPOSE. Look, I get bittersweet endings, I get that not every relationship gets (or needs) a “storybook ending.” But, when the shit hits the fan in novels like, say, Code Name Verity or All the Young Dudes, even though the reader is gutted, there is a sense to it; you understand why it had to end the way it did. There is NO SENSE to what happens to the various characters at the end of this book. It left me feeling sad and dissatisfied with the whole series. All that set up, all the potential for exciting new relationships, friendships and opportunities — for nothing. I don’t think I have ever been more disappointed with a book. I feel like I need to speak to a therapist.