Dieses World Building und die Story werden immer spannender und fantastischer. Einfach genial wie alles in einander greift.

Mein Lieblingsband der Buchserie Nachdem ich alle Bände durch habe, kann ich euch sagen: dieser Band war meiner Meinung nach der Beste. Der Plot bekommt einen feinen, neuen twist, die Charaktere sind inzwischen wahnsinnig weit ausgebaut und wie immer bei der Spiegelreisenden nimmt die Story im letzten Drittel plötzlich unerwartet Fahrt auf. Diese Buchserie hat (fast) alles: eine glaubwürdige, starke FMC, fein entwickelte Nebencharaktere, die einem ans Herz wachsen, eine großartige Story, eine Erzählweise, die schön „snackable“ ist, Emotionen und schön ausgearbeitete Plot Twists. Auch, wenn keiner der Bände für mich eine 5/5 war, ist die Spiegelreisende trotzdem eine meiner liebsten Buchserien. Absolute Empfehlung!

Ebenso wie die ersten Teile Mega spannend, die Geschichte bekommt immer mehr Sinn. Die Welt Babel wirkt erstmal ganz interessant, aber Stück für Stück merkt man, der Schein trügt. Wirklich toll.

Ich liebe die Geschichte rund um Ophelia. Leider war dieses mal die Story etwas langgezogen. Thorn ist mir wärend der Geschichte ziemlich unsympathisch gewesen, das wurde aber gehen Ende hin immer besser. Leider endet dieser Teil ja mit einem ziemlich Cliffhanger. Ich bin schon gespannt wie die Geschichte weitergeht und enden wird.

8,5/10 - 4,25/5 The setting drastically changes in this book and there's a 2 ½ year time skip so things are not the same. But anyone who's read the second book would know that. The actual plot that was chugging along in the back the entire time now gets on the main stage. There are lots of reveals and new characters to meet. -Writing- It was very clever to include <spoiler> Viktoria’s chapters to show the perspective of the characters on pole. The balance between her childish mind and the information she can't process being delivered to the reader was well done. Especially since we are away from Pole and this is our only way to provide us with information about Archibald, Berenilde and aunt Roseline. Adding to that Viktoria accidentally gets into situations that give us info about God. I wonder why she is mute, I'm sure there will be an explanation for that. </spoiler> -Worldbuilding- Babel is a fascinating and yet again totally different place compared to both the pole and Anima. While Anima is matriarchal and pole is patriarchal Babel seems to be more…equalitrarian? Idk how to call it. Just neither of that. Clothing plays a big role in how society works. The arc is also the closest thing we get to capitalism with how much emphasis is put on work and achievement. The mix of all arcs and the different powers is really cool. A clever idea to showcase multiple arcs without actually showing them. -Characters- Ophelias journey continues. She really never stops growing as a character. Now she has a goal and is hellbent on achieving it. She has always been a determined, strong character, but now she is more than ever. <spoiler> There's one very impactful line she says. Ophelia spends almost the entire time telling herself that she would be able to endure everything in Babel because she survived pole. I loved that because it's one of my favorite things in a story when characters go through hell and are strong as fuck after it. At one point she breaks down and realizes that actually it didnt make her stronger but weaker instead. It gave me goosebumps. Even though I like the traumatized hero trope, i know this true and I love that the story acknowledges that trauma does in fact weaken people. </spoiler> I'm still convinced that Thorn is autism-coded. I would love to hear an autistic person's thoughts on how well this is executed. <spoiler> And now he has OCD too? As someone with OCD I felt represented and loved that. Poor him though. </spoiler> He is still described as slenderman. Such an unusual love interest. Honestly, I don’t always know if I like him. I feel like I don’t know his inner world well enough to understand him. <spoiler> E.g. how cold he is towards Ophelia here. II know he can be bad with expressing emotions but it irks me a bit that he is supposed to be so deeply in love with her but then he doesn’t even look at her to notice she’s bruised all over her body. Homegirl is being bullied and showered in glass shards and he acts like it’s all easy. Take some care of your woman!!! He also states that he only wants to save Ophelia and that is the reason why he’s doing all this but that isn’t true? He wanted to get God even before he knew Ophelia? Maybe his motivations changed but that isn’t what he says at all. </spoiler> What annoys me quite a bit is how little we get to see of Berenilde. She was one of my favorite characters in the first two books and now she gets like three lines. Huge disappointment. Same goes for Viktoria, her daughter. <spoiler> While we get her chapters, we don't get others interacting with her, which is what's so important about her. I mean except for the cool extra info, why would I care about a 2yo kid's thoughts? It's not like her personality shines through anyway. She is a baby!! All I wanted is Ophelia spending time with her. It was such an impactful moment when she decided to take responsibility for her and she sees her for two mins and chugs off. Thorn too. He doesn't even see her at all. </spoiler> Generally this is a bigger complaint here, I miss the characters from book 2. We meet multiple new characters: Octavio, Elizabeth, Mediana, Helen and many more. They're all very different and feel organic. -Relationships- We get so so so much more of Ophelia and Thorn. I did like that, most of the time. <spoiler> It was pretty weird though how Ophelia suddenly got obsessed with Thorn. She spent the second book hating him and then slowly getting along with him and at the end she is like “I belong with him” and now he's all she thinks about. What about developing feelings? They just appear out of thin air. It's not that I didn't like her feelings for him, it was just a pretty stark and sudden change. There were zero indications before that she was slightly into him and now this? Ughhhh. It was enjoyable that the roles were reversed and now she was the one lusting after him while he was giving her the cold shoulder. I loved that. The tension was so palpable. Ophelia being the one who was hindering their relationship from progressing was pretty nice too, especially her realizing and overcoming it. I'm torn (...) on whether I like the first kiss scene or not. It was surprising and cute but I didn't like the sentence where ophelia says she tries to get off and he won't let her. Just because she confessed doesn't mean he can just kiss her even if she backs off. But she was into it so it's OK ig... The scene made me all sweaty which is a good thing for a romantic scene. I also greatly enjoyed the intimacy they had in the fade to black scene at the end of the book. It was just so wholesome and showed their connection very well. Overall it just went from 0 to a 100 in a hot minute and that’s just not my cup of tea. Especially for a slow burn romance that took this long to build. I am happy they didn’t end up on the last page of book 4 because that means we get to see them as a couple but I can’t help feeling that this was rushed. I know for neither of the characters why they fell in love with the other and we just completely skipped Ophelia yearning after Thorn. Yes, she is thinking about him 24/7 here but that’s not the same as yearning. I want to hear about the butterflies!! </spoiler> -Plot/Pacing- The mystery that has been looming in the back the entire time and got more development in the second book now becomes the star of the show. This is accompanied by another murder mystery and Ophelia trying to survive the hardships Babel offers her. This book is slower than the second one. <spoiler> When I read that 2 years and 7 months had passed since book 2 I had to take a break because that shocked me so much. And then I laughed because Ophelia was truly in her twilight new moon phase, not eating or going out bc she was so sad about Thorn. I didn't expect Kunigunde to just have died offscreen. That was… something. I never liked her but she was a not unimportant side character. </spoiler> It was nice to see ophelia struggle and build herself up from the bottom again. Those are her best moments. She faces so many struggles though, it was terrible. This poor woman is just trying to find her beloved and everyone is trying to kill her. <spoiler> Mediana invading her memories was such a horrifying scene. All the time before when she was threatened or in danger at least she was safe in her mind. But now even that was taken and her deepest secrets unveiled. I struggled reading after that because it just was so bad to witness. All I wanted was for Mediana to die and disappear, so I was genuinely relieved and happy when she got hurt. Idc if Ophelia was starting to feel better with her, she had to go. And she didn't even die!!! </spoiler> Overall I liked the way the mystery of God was unveiled step by step. The plot wasn't as crazy as in book 2 but it has a good mix of world building and plot. <spoiler> It has always been clear that Ophelia was tied to this God figure but I’d never have figured this!! It’s insane how little details like the name or the memories of God feeling similar tie into this. </spoiler> -Conclusion- I think I like this one a little bit less than the first and second book. There are many things it does well and I enjoyed another round of worldbuilding but I also missed the pole and wasn't 100 % on board with how the romantic relationship was executed.