Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Memory of Babel

Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Memory of Babel by Christelle Dabos

25 reviews

pengustorm's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense

4.75

More than two years after the ending of book two, we find Ophelia back at home, having essentially cut herself off from the world. This is a dual POV book. Most of the story is Ophelia's POV. She spends six months in Babel trying to find Thorn and figure out how to handle god. Every so often, we get Victoria's POV. While her body doesn't walk or talk, she does astral project quite often and she discovers several things that, to a three year old, mean nothing, but are notable to us, the reader!

Content Warnings

sunlily's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

anarchist_al's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Review of entire quartet on last book. I did miss the Pole setting, and starting on Babel took some time to get interesting hence the four stars.

Content Warnings

harmony822's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Content Warnings

kirstym25's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Content Warnings

maira_h's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I'm honestly disappointed how this series kept going downhill for me.

The setting changed completely– instead of the Pole, it's Babel, another ark in this world. The set of side characters changed too. I'm not really a fan of that change but I understand that this fantasy world is getting bigger.

My problem starts with how Ophelia was potrayed. Her motivation since the start was to find Thorn and follow his footsteps. But let's be real, she had no idea what she was doing. Any adversity she encountered, she somehow managed to conveniently overcame it. Even the clues she found, it all felt like chance. She's brave, I'll give her that. Because no matter what, she stuck to the end. But her motivation to endure was probably also because of Thorn. It didn't bode well with me that once she found Thorn, all she wanted to do was to seek his approval. She didn't even seem to care that there is an entity that is out there trying to do something to her world.

And Thorn– Before, I thought that he was an enigmatic man and I found him interesting. But now, I'm just annoyed. First of all, I feel like we skipped a whole book on how Thorn himself managed to be in a position of power in Babel (I know there was a time skip of 3 years and Thorn explained it, but still, it did not feel believable. The Geneologists seemed like characters who were conveniently created to make it believable). Secondly, his complete lack of communication with Ophelia annoyed me. It's not until the end that they finally opened up to each other. But even then, I still felt like there was a barrier between them. Their strained tension got on my nerves. Three books in and I barely feel any chemistry between them.

There was a map at the beginning of the book– a map of all the different arks in this fantasy world. I was disappointed that the map barely had any relevance in this third book. I thought Ophelia was going to travel to the different arks. But alas, we were stuck on Babel, trying to be an aspiring virtuoso because of reasons.

I was only properly invested during Victoria's chapters. Because let's be honest, her powers are so intriguing. If only we got more of that. If only we got more of Archibald traveling to find LandmArk. If only!

The mystery part made me both confused and curious. But, I don't know if I want to continue with the 4th book just to satisfy that curiosity.

Content Warnings

toffishay's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

An okay edition to this series. I really enjoyed Babel, even if it felt a little long and like we were spending a lot of time there. The asides with Victoria were interesting and I would have liked to have read more. <SLIGHT SPOILER> I also wish that there was more Thorn and Ophelia content. Like she find him and it feel like such a non-event after three years. And then they have the little mini conflict that would have been solved by them just talking to each other. Very frustrating<SLIGHT SPOILER OVER>. I found the reveal in this one to fall a little flat for me, but we'll see how the last book in the series wraps things up.

Content Warnings

saoreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

From Winter's Promise, The Missing of Clairdelune, to The Memory of Babel - the Mirror Visitor series never fails to leave me hanging. I'm seeing sorts of pattern how the story would start out and it would always give Ophelia a confiding person that displays a huge role later on like how she met Archibald, Gail, Fox, then Ambrose, Blaise or even Mediana and Octavio (though I think Mediana no longer's part of the picture). For the last book, I expect both couple will journey this stage together to unveil the secret. I had seething rage for the most part seeing the heroine in such situation, it was utterly unfair and really distressing but how she handled her affairs was very humane of her like in that certain circumstance that was the most plausible decision she could have made. The plot twist really gave me utmost goosebumps, now it gets interesting more than ever as many characters get introduced. From Book 1 to 2, it was Farouk's side POV that was included, and from Book 3 was Victoria's (his child). So, unto the succeeding parts it may continue that way since this little child has uncovered alot of discoveries (through her so-called journeying).

I'm curious to know what happened to Fox.

Content Warnings

chaoticace's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

Content Warnings

grimmdark's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

out of all 3 books i've read so far, definitely my favorite. it's actually really cool to see how much the author improves and where with each tome. loved babel as a setting!!!! so many cool characters!!!! can't wait to read the next and final book. maybe i'll come back for a review later phew!!

Content Warnings

More...