The Mirror Visitor The Missing of Clairdelune Book Review

Book Details

Reading Level: 10th-12th grade

Plotline: Spoiler-Free

as The Missing of Clairdelune starts, It’s widely known who Ophelia is and that she is an object reader. This puts her in immediate danger from the mirages. To combat this danger Berenilde and Thorn ask for an audience with Farouk, the family spirit of the Pole, to ask him for his protection. Farouk is unwilling to give his protection for free and decides to make her vice storyteller. 

Ophelia isn’t a storyteller but she is forced to tell stories to Farouk and his court every night. Farouk seems to like some of her stories while others make him uncomfortable. Regardless he has her tell stories every night because she reminds him of someone. 

Prominent people start disappearing Clairdelune, the neutral embassy that is supposed to be safe from the back ally murders that happen frequently at the Pole. As people go missing, Archibald investigates. As more and more people Ophelia has problems of her own to worry about. 

Ophelia tells a story that makes Farouk so uncomfortable that he releases her from her position as vice storyteller promising to find another job for her. Before she gets a new job, she is sent to a town outside of Citaceleste to greet her family who is arriving from Anima for her wedding with Thorn. 

Not only does Ophelia have to navigate these challenges, but she also has the added challenge of Thorn’s very real feelings for her that she hasn’t yet figured out how to handle. 

My Thoughts on The Mirror Visitor The Missing of Clairdelune

This missing of Clairedelune is a well-written book. Christelle Dabos is a talented Author who has put great care into her books. The Missing of Clairedelune has many great qualities such as the Characters, the storyline, and the romance that I found very fun to read. 

The characters are fun and I feel like Ophelia, as the main character, is somewhat relatable. She is navigating a new environment with many challenges thrown in her way and she handles it way better than most people would. Her determination and resilience are great heroic qualities that I quite enjoyed. 

On the other side of the coin, Thorn is perhaps the most unrelatable character in many ways. He’s so smart and efficient at what he does that it’s hard to see him as someone that you should like. He is extremely relatable in one way; he is not great at showing others how he feels. I think this is more common than we would like to admit. He, like Ophelia, has to learn how to handle his budding feelings for his fiancé. 

The supporting characters in this book are very complex and have real depth while taking absolutely nothing away from Ophelia. They enriched the story greatly. 

The storyline of The Missing of Clairedelune was also very satisfying. It had boring parts like most stories do but for the most part, it kept me turning the pages. There were even a few nights while reading that I opted to stay up and keep reading past bedtime. Without giving too much away, the romantic story between Ophelia and Thorn kept me engaged. 

The romance was great but not the only fantastic feature of the storyline. I loved the pacing of the book. It seemed like there was almost always something happening or setting up for something to happen. 

My biggest complaint of this book is similar if not the same as my complaint of a Winter’s Promise. Thorn is a pretty big character in the book and the storyline but he’s not actually in the vast majority of the scenes. I get that he’s supposed to be kind of aloof, mysterious, and a bit of a workaholic, I wish that he and Ophelia interacted face-to-face more though. 

The ending of the book was satisfying. It ended on a pretty big cliffhanger that made me want to go by the next book ASAP. Not only was there a cliffhanger, but there was a lot of information revealed at the end of the book that brought some of the world that Dabos has created into perspective. I’m excited to see what Christelle Dabos has in store for the next book in the Mirror Visitor Quartet. 

Recommendation

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Many factors will go into my recommendation, many of which are covered above in my thoughts but some are not. 

First, I would like to discuss the cover of the book. It’s an old overused saying to never judge a book by its cover and that is certainly true. There are many great books with subpar covers and many books that are terrible with beautiful covers. It cannot be denied that books with beautiful covers are helped greatly. They are picked up more and the blurb on the back is read more often. They are purchased at a higher rate and look better on a shelf. 

The Mirror Visitor quartet all have beautiful covers and the missing of Clairdelune is my favorite cover of the quartet. I originally picked the first one up though because the cover at the store caught my eye. The art is beautiful and the colors pop. 

Second, the characters in the book are super fun to follow. Dabos does a particularly good job with Ophelia. She does a great job developing her and the cast of supporting characters is fun to read as well.

Third, the storyline is great. There is just enough happening to make me want to keep reading but not so much that it’s in your face all the time. The story made sense and there weren’t glaring plot holes. It was fun to read. 

The romance between Thorn and Ophelia kept me engaged and wanting to keep reading. I wanted to know what was going to happen with it and as I kept reading, I got sucked in more and more. 

Spoiler Below

The romance was a great part of this book. In my opinion, it was the only thing that made Thorn relatable. He falls for Ophelia and her feelings are somewhat unclear throughout the story. Regardless he shoots his shot and his feelings aren’t immediately returned. I think that is the most relatable thing about Thorn because that has happened to most people in one form or another. It was nice that Dabos could take such an unrelatable character and make him relatable in some way. 

Spoiler Over

A couple of minor complaints about The Missing of Clairdelune. First, the lack of face time between Thorn and Ophelia. It seemed like Thorn liked Ophelia for almost no reason because he didn’t know her. He liked how she handled things and her bravery but between the first two books, he spends hardly any time with her at all. 

Second, though the storyline was great, and the pacing was pretty good, there were a couple of places where it was pretty slow. If slow happenings aren’t your strong suit, just be prepared. 

Overall, The Missing of Clairedlune was a great read. GLF Books gives it 4 stars because of its storyline, characters, and romance with its beautiful cover being a point in its favor as well. 

Posted By: glfbooks.com · In: Book Reviews, Fantasy