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London asked this question about Disappearing Earth:
What did everyone think of the ending? I was totally shocked that the girls were found. It seemed like a book that would have a more ambiguous ending. Despite the implausibility (Marina herself talks about how low the odds are of finding a missing child), I thought it was completely satisfying.
Leo Walsh <spoiler>I'm not 100% sure the girls were found. It's ambiguous, which is why it still haunts me.

Remember that their mother Marina is at a festival b…more<spoiler>I'm not 100% sure the girls were found. It's ambiguous, which is why it still haunts me.

Remember that their mother Marina is at a festival based on a shamanistic Summer Stolsice rite, which seems to function Halloween does in western Europe: a time when spirits walk and the veil between worlds is very thin. And Marina "jumps" into a flame, engaging in that ritual, losing herself as she waits for the police.

It's only then that we see the girls. But the ending is odd. Are they spirits? If they are alive, it could be the police they hear, but icould be something else. Perhaps the kidnapper got away, Or perhaps, are they being sex trafficked, living in a brothel, and the people they hear clients? Etc.

Very unclear.

PS. I was unsold on the book until the final chapter. I thought it an okay if overly episodic mash-up of vaguely related stories that ended too soon. But that last chapter may have me go back and revisit the book. But I doubt it will ever rise in my estimation to a five-star read, the final chapter moved it from 3 to 4, IMHO.
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Disappearing Earth
by Julia Phillips (Goodreads Author)
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