I dug myself into a hole when I decided to read the third book in the Dark Mirror series. Since my review of the previous book and it being average as all nine hells, I opened this final installment wincing.
A book that should’ve taken me five days to read took me eight instead, PLUS an additional four days to get the guts to read these.
Back in the early 1940s Tori, Cynthia and her fellow mages have saved members of the Rainford family from death and has saved Dr Weiss and his family from Nazi imprisonment. But now these mages have to return to 1804 as the threat of Napoleon invading looms and they must now protect their own land and time. Meanwhile, Rebecca Weiss remains in the 1940s as a French Jew going to a British school, discovering her own magical potential. Such magic may be crucial in defeating Napoleon…
For this being the big battle and the way to conclude the series, it wound up fairly tame. The leads claimed to have found the situation stressful, with the only struggle faced being a broken ankle and them having many feasts and hospitable situations keep their head in the game. It didn’t feel right – more so how the magic system is soft to the point of it being malleable to solve any problem the mages may have. It barely felt like a struggle. Book one featured a greater struggle than in book three – that goes against all narrative logic! Too much was handed to them on a silver platter instead of in a rubbish bag.
As a sucker for World War II fiction, I enjoyed the perspectives from Rebecca and her being welcomed as a Jew in a British community. This part felt the most real and insightful out of anything. I would read the hell out of a novel that was just of Rebecca trying to find a new normal life with the British and the people around her recognising and celebrating her Jewish culture. If there is a story like this, can someone please tell me!
On the flip side, the 1804 society was in comparison completely glossed over. Most of the insights here were fictional due to the inclusion of magic in this world and how pivotal it was in nobility. To me that just screams a bias – at least while researching – towards World War Two. The writing itself showed that especially in this novel, with the world being far more developed in those scenes.
Furthermore, the main character Tori felt nearly useless in this novel. Her power was framed as something so huge, but she was next to never responsible for the story progressing. She was just there for every important moment to boost powers that knowing how bad this magic system is could have been achieved without her help. This is further emphasised by the one thing I hate the most in novels – when the main character doesn’t solve their own problems or achieve their goals. Other people do it for Tori. And that makes me furious at how happy an ending she got.
So in conclusion, I’m glad to finally finish the series, but not that it wasted my time.
Dark Passage gets a score of 2/5. The only parts I loved to death were short lived, like sunshowers in between thunderstorms.
I don’t think I need to do this whole series reviewing thing because you already know my thoughts, but I’ll go through it anyway as per tradition.
Dark Mirror – 3.5/5, the plot twist blew the whole story out of proportion, but it wound up being a very fun read nonetheless.
Dark Passage – 2.5/5, never mind, it’s not fun anymore. It’s a drag. So much talking and planning when there needs to be more actin and exploration.
Dark Destiny – 2/5, I just want a book about Rebecca Weiss now. I want that to be the only thing I remember from this series.
The one way to describe this series is never delivering on its promises. I thought this was going to be a series about a secret mage society protecting England to prove their magic to not make them worthless, and instead I got time travel with a warped magic system. This series had such a promising start in spite of the shock over it not being the story written on the blurb. I should’ve seen this as a sign that it was only going to go downhill. This is to the point where I would guess that somebody else may like it more than me – I’m not going to shit on the series any more than I already have. Undoubtedly, this is the most average book series in existence. It is definitely not for me. I hope I haven’t discouraged any potential readers too much.
The Dark Mirror Trilogy gets a score of 2.5/5 It’s going off the bookshelf.
Yours in writing
Amy