Storm of Echoes (Spoilery Discussion)

Have you read this series? Do you have feelings? Please share!

Series CW: violence, bullying, abuse, child death, infertility, kidnapping, suicidal thoughts, murder, ableism, body horror, forced institutionalism, mental illness.

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[nin_.]

WE NEED A FIFTH BOOK OR MORE ISTG there's so many things to fix, like how the arks are going to function without their family spirits, how Babel is going to reconstruct after everything LUX did, Ophelia finding Thorn, Lady Septima answering for her crimes, the downfall of the Observatory of Deviations... I like to believe that the end means that theyre going to find each other because they always do, so I trust that they find each other again, but OMG I NEED TO SEE IT ON PAPER UGHH

[Elinorel]

Absolutely agree with all your points. It cannot end like this. How is she going to find Thorn? Archibald’s illness? Berenilde? They have been left unfulfilled. Absolutely devastated… still digesting it..

[wewenika]

This book gave me so much pain. It’s been like two week since i’ve finished it and i still don’t know what to do with myself…

[gracefulsnake]

I have been so in love with this series. In love with Ophelia and Thorn. I didn’t even KNOW I liked slow burn romance until I read this series. I just finished this book like 15 minutes ago. I feel betrayed. I think that’s it. When you said you trusted the author that’s when I realized. I put my hope, love, faith in this author that they would make it through. They went through SO much. SHE LOST HER FINGERS. And she can’t even have a happy ending with Thorn?! He FINALLY found peace with himself and he can’t celebrate that with Ophelia? Also WHY couldn’t she pull him out? The Other was already sucked into the Wrong Side. I just… I have so many conflicting emotions and all I want to do is cry. I hope they add an epilogue to the graphic comics/books because if they don’t I’m actually going to cry for real.
So in short. My chest feels heavy. This is still one of my favorite series. But I feel dejected…

[TerezatheTeacher]

I had recently been very disappointed in other fantasy series that got me super invested and then fucked up in the last book that I was really afraid of being incredibly disappointed. So I was expecting a let-down so much that I ended up mostly relieved that the big questions about the world and echoes were kinda satisfactorily explained and that the whole thing kinda made sense. Still very sad about Thorn tho, broke my heart. Impressed that Dabos doesn't mollycoddle her characters. Other YA characters often get very thick plot armour and here, the author really doesn't mind hurting them permanently. Kudos to that. My heart broke but I'm proper impressed.

[e.c.l.]

I have read this series few month ago and I was broken. I literally cry while reading the fourth book and I hoped that there would be a fifth book but Christelle Dabos indeed confirmed that she won't write about this universe for now and I don't think she will. Since the second book, we have expand the world of this saga in another way and it was so interesting to see. For Ophelia (or Ophélie) and Thorn relationship I haven't been disappointed because contrary to others novels this relationship in more complicated and honest with complex characters. The first time I have read the last book it was logical they never see again but more I think about it more I think they actually find a way to be with each other even if we don't have any confirmation from the author. And of curse the only way I find to recover from this reading is to tell to my friends to read this saga :)

Sorry if my writing is bad but I am not an English speaker, I am Belgian so I read the saga in French so I don't know if all the name are the same in English version.
Christelle Dabos recently write another book but it isn't rely to "The mirror visitor Saga" : Here and only here" but I haven't read it yet.

[oliviamontoya]

I waited this book for a year to get in the English version here in México because I was really hoping to see the end of the story finally explained, but most of all I wanted to see Thorn and Ophelia finding their way together!! Basically the third book gave me the impression that eventually they will make it happen. AND IT DIDN’T. I finished the book and immediately thought: “How did we ended up bold, sterile, widowed and fingerless?!” Hahaha honestly I didn’t expect that kind of suffering after the whole complicated plot about time and space, but… Ok. Still love the series, it just broke my heart 🥲

[marianneguevara]

I'm so happy to find people who I can talk about this series with!! There's not enough people out there to have a discussion with on this series. I finished this The Storm of Echoes back in March and was prepared for all the feels; my mind was crafting all these horrible heartbreaking endings so when the end did come I found it wasn't as devastating as I imagined it could be. Still broke my heart though😅😭I wouldn't say that Thorn and Ophelia are separated for ever though.

"Thorn had given humanity it's dice back, who would give his own dice back to him?"
"Us, " said Ophelia. "You and me."
It wasn't a promise. It was a certainty...It was in the here and now that she would find Thorn again.

The narrative voice pretty much implies that Ophelia and Thorn will be reunited. Its just that we as the reader won't be seeing it. In a way Dabos leaves it to our imaginations how their reunion will play out. Its frustrating for sure but its better than leaving it completely open ended. Technically we got our "happily ever after"; were just not going to be privy to it. Thank God those lines I mentioned were included in the text because if not I would have fallen into utter despair for sure.
I would love to see Mirror Visitor Quartet content from Dabos, if not a concrete continuation of Thorn and Ophelia's story than at least let us see the other Arks! I really want an illustrated guide to this world. We only ever got to see Anima, The Pole, Landmark, and Babel. There are so many other arks we never got to see. Although, I understand that the other arks didn't have much to do with the central storyline. Loved learning about your thoughts on this book.

[captainravioli]

I just finished it like half an hour ago. Was sitting in silince for awhile just letting it sink in, then i went to scouring the internet to fill the whole it just left in my heart. I could maybe let go that thorn and ophelia dont end up together at the end because its open ended for both if dabos wants to continue aswell as let the readers fill in the gaps, and from how determined ophelia seemed im sure she'll eventually get him out. But what dabos did to gail and fox i cannot forgive, they deserved soooo much better and they deserved a happy ending. I also wish we got more epilouge after everything settled down, i want to see how berenilde reacted to ophelia explaing thorn is on the wrong side still. I also wish they didnt leave the family spirits in a childlike state, it would have been nice seeing what they actually could have been and not wasted leader potentiol (i also really wanted farouk to step up and be good for berenilde and victoria) overall you summed it up nicely with just feeling let down/betrayed after fallowing and falling in love with these characters.

[MargoDiego]

My daughter BEGGED me to read this novel bc I love fantasy novels... and I wholeheartedly agree with you. That was a THOUSAND PAGES!!! And I am completely unsatisfied! I won't say it was a wasted read... it was a good book. But ALL THE QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED!!! It was awful.

[selenamiller]

I agree 100% with this last book not feeling rewarding for the over 2000 pages we read, we wondered, we schemed, we deconstructed our own minds to wrap our thoughts around what could be possible in this storyline. I was here for all that and for the romance, and I feel jipped out of a better ending between Thorn and Ophelia. I’m glad he came to a revelation of accepting things about himself but I wanted more for him and I wanted more for Ophelia in this relationship at the end of the story. I could have taken more of the relationship and happy endings after this new world began again instead of so much description at the observatory :( so much run around trying to discover the Other and Eulalia at EVERY SINGLE STEP. I was rooting for them soooo hard. And I don’t get why we had to loose so many great characters right at the very end and so ominously to! Like I didn’t even know Gale & Fox weren’t going to come back till Ophelia said their name in a list of people she lost….I thought they fell into the void and would return like everyone else.

[jennarodriguez]

I just finished this series a few days ago, and I felt so down afterwards. I couldn't tell if it was 100% because of Thorn and Ophelia not being together at the end or just the series coming to an end. I'm also trying to get some others to read it because I want someone to discuss with and commiserate with 😭 I really loved the ending of book 3, and I was expecting the end of book 4 to be like that but even more of a pinnacle because it was the end of the series. I even thought maybe Ophelia and Thorn would end up parenting Victoria somehow since they couldn't have kids 🤷🏻‍♀️ But no. We get none of that. Just Ophelia is going to travel through every mirror to see if she can get to Thorn. I feel like it would have been better if Archibald somehow got sacrificed instead of Thorn, since he started to take on a more primary role in the plot to take down God. I also didn't at all see Elizabeth actually being Eulalia Gonde coming, and it was weird to me. It wasnt like a plot twist where I thought "Ohhh I get it, that makes sense." It was more like "What? Really? Ummm ok..." I would say overall the second half of the Storm of Echoes felt like Dabos got tired of writing and didn't know how to tie the end of the book together. I hate to say it like that because I absolutely loved this world and all the characters in it. Just so sad and disappointing at the end 😭

[susie-k-q]

My daughter gave me a Winter's Promise to read on my beach vacation.... I have now finished TSoE - and I am baffled. Hello - even Luke Skywalker got a new arm - she is in a magical world and they cannot give her fingers back?? I rewrote the whole ending in my imagination. Too many unfinished story lines.

[selenamiller]

I will definitely reread this series, but it might take me some time to not be hurt to start all over from the very start since I know the ending . I hope the mirrors open up again as well while we heal 💙🪞great review and discussion! I really needed to hear someone else’s opinions too :)

[nin_.]

I think the point of the language surrounding the observatory was to represent ableism through fiction, I think its a metaphor for the mental health system in today's world and how its exploitative, I do agree that the plot point of it should've been exploited a lot more though, Christelle Dabos could've even just had Blaise (the character who was institutionalized in the Observatory when he was a child) explain in further detail the effects of the place, but I could literally write a whole essay on this topic its so interesting.

[oceanla]

OMG thank you i’ve juste finished and i am UPSET

[АнастасіяНищота-Фостяк]

All 4 books took me through the whole range of emotions and did not let go until I was done reading them, but that ending was almost like a slap in a face in a bad way. The need to talk about it is too obvious

[valeriomartino]

I love the complicated, but I felt the series was too short. There were a lot of things hinted, i was expecting something more from Arcadia and from Vittoria( Thorn 's niece).I loved the deviation observatory arc, in particular Ophelia's introspections( it gave me Neon Genesis Evangelion vibes). Ofc Babel society is abilist, but since they are an hypocrisiac society it feels coherent with the rest of it.

[c.c.]

I just finished it. I am crying so much! A little more than that even. Omg I can't 😭

[Player_]

Loved the review. Although the build up and the payoff at the end is so annoying. Like nothing happens in the middle of the book until the end. I just have to push through. Was the series good yes. The world building and characters are amazing. But the author, to me, should have done a better job with the investment readers placed themselves.