Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all? I hope you’re well!
I’ve been reading the same book for 2 months, straight! The book was “The Missing Of Clairdelune” by Christelle Dabos. I didn’t hate it but it was very slow for me. Therefore my review will be very lacking in content. We see more characters in “The Missing of Clairdelune” but none of the new ones really had any substance. They were just there. Ophelia’s mother was the only new character that really held any importance to the plot and she wasn’t that important.
2.5 Stars (2 on Goodreads)!
I read “The Missing of Clairdelune” for one readathon. It was Reading Rivalry. I read it for the prompt, a book with different kinds of love/relationships, because there’s family and friendship love as well as romantic love in the book!
“The Missing of Clairdelune” is written/told in Figments, which are the parts of the novel. These are often featuring characters not in the actual story.
Spoilers Below
“Almost everything here was fake: the palms, the fountains, the sea, the sun, the sky, and the pervading heat. The grand hotels themselves were probably just two-dimensional facades.
Illusions.
What else could be expected when one was on the fifth floor of a tower, when that tower overlooked a city, and when that city hovered above a polar ark whose actual temperature never rose above minus fifteen degrees? The locals could distort space and stick illusions all over the place, but there were limits to their creativity.
Ophelia was wary of fakes, but she was even more wary of individuals who used them to manipulate others. That was why she felt particularly ill at ease among the courtiers now jostling her.
They were all Mirages, the masters of illusionism.
With their imposing stature, pale hair, light eyes, and clan tattoos, Ophelia felt more diminutive, more dark-haired, more nearsighted, and more of a stranger than ever in their midst. Occasionally, they would look snootily down at her. No doubt they were wondering who this young lady, desperately trying to hide under a parasol, was, but Ophelia certainly wasn’t going to tell them. She was alone and without protection; if they discovered that she was engaged to Thorn, the most hated man in the whole city, she’d never save her skin. Or mind. She had a cracked rib, a black eye, and a slashed cheek following her recent ordeals. Best not to make things worse.”
This explains the magic system of this world a little, the illusions. The Mirages are the main race that can perform them. Will they be the only race, throughout the series? I think there’ll be a few surprises in the next books that I’m not expecting. Ophelia is at a hotel after the events of book 1 in “The Mirror Visitor Quartet, A Winter’s Promise.” At the end of that Ophelia was sent away from Clairdelune, the main setting of this series at the moment, in this second book in the Mirror Visitor Quartet. She goes to watch a game where Farouk is a player. Farouk is a significant character of this series, but I thought he’d be more prominent in this book. He was very much on the sidelines I felt, when in “A Winter’s Promise,” he was more significant.
After this the plot got boring for me, for a while. I felt like I was trudging through the pages, which wasn’t good. It wasn’t that I hated it, as I said above, but for me, I need to have romance or at least twists and turns. I don’t remember anything about the first half of the book, unfortunately. There weren’t any twists or turns of interest in the first half of the book.
The second half the book picked up a little, when Mother Hildegarde, a minimal character in book 1 went missing, and Ophelia had to find her or be sent away by Farouk. She did find her, but not all went to plan. I think I can remember that Mother Hildegarde died, or did she? There are so many, some might say too many mysteries in this series!
At the very end of “The Missing Of Clairdelune, Thorn, Ophelia’s intended, the reason she ended up in the Pole in the first place is in trouble! For what? I’ll let you read to find out for yourself but I feel it’s going to be significant to the main overarching plot of the series! Also at the end of the novel, Thorn and Ophelia do get married. There is an evil presence in the last chapter or so. This surprised me, but not for negative reasons. It felt weird to have a new plot open up right at the end of “The Missing Of Clairdelune.” “A Winter’s Promise” closed with an ending that could have continued but didn’t have to. Whereas, “The Missing of Clairdelune” just threw in an curveball right at the end. It was interesting but I was left with far more questions than answers. I would have liked it if the book had wrapped up more so.
At the end of the novel, Ophelia goes back to Anima, her home to try to get answers as to where Thorn has gone…Will she find the answers she seeks? You’ll need to read to find out for yourself…
Overall, then, while I didn’t think “The Missing Of Clairdelune” was bad, it was just very dense and all over the place plot wise. One chapter we’d have a mystery and then in the next chapter another mystery, and so on, without actually solving any of them until we forget all about that specific mystery. It just felt like it was too much for one book. That’s why I’m giving it 2.5 stars!
NOTE: I’m sorry that this review is so bad compared to my other ones. I’ve had a busy few days since finishing the book, I was ill in the middle of reading and there was too much information given in the story, if anything.
Stand by for my next, better review coming soon!
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