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Mira, Mirror by Mette Ivie Harrison
Mira, Mirror By Mette Ivie Harrison
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Mira desperately wants a sister, someone to love and trust. When her parents sell her to a witch, Mira thinks she has finally found a sister in her fellow apprentice, but her new sister instead uses Mira’s trust to lock her away in a mirror, so that her sister may become queen. Every day her sister comes to Mira, giving Mira just a bit of magic, so that Mira can reflect it back as beauty in her sister’s looks. Until one day the queen ceases to come, and Mira is abandoned on a wall for a hundred years.
Then comes Ivana, a simple peasant girl running away from a cruel father, and Mira sees a chance to use Ivana to get off the wall and find enough magic to transform herself. She offers to transform Ivana into someone her father won’t recognize. Along comes Talia, a merchant’s daughter, and Mira switches their faces, so that both can live a new life. As Talia and Ivana become friends, soon sisters, Mira fears that they will repeat her mistakes and feels her glass heart melting. And her quest for magic may soon threaten the two girls she is beginning to love.
This was an interesting fairytale retelling for me because there was essentially no romance. Love is a major theme, but it’s a sisterly love. The only romance in it felt rather tacked on, though at the same time it was somewhat realistic because the main thing drawing the two people together was the need for someone else in their life, and that is certainly a driving factor in relationships. Still, the love mentioned on the back cover is very clearly sisterly love, and I don’t particularly like a book that doesn’t have much romance, especially when it’s a fairytale retelling.
On the back cover, there is a quote from Holly Black – “Grips you from the very first page all the way to the surprising conclusion.” Now, I have to say the conclusion didn’t strike me as all that surprising, more like confusing. Yes, things happened as they needed to, Mira got her redemption and a chance to confront her sister, but… it seemed a bit pointless. I think the author was going for a tragic ending, but it really felt more like it wrapped up too neatly. Things just happened to coincide in a way that brought the ending together. And I was disappointed in Mira’s fate, though again, I think the author meant it to be a surprise and not what the reader was expecting. No, it wasn’t what I was expecting, but I still didn’t find it that fitting for the book.
One reason I did like the book, however, is that the main characters were all very well done, and the author did a good job of tying together themes and ideas. Magic felt realistic and the characters stayed consistent in their actions throughout the book. I did find the other two girls to be more interesting than Mira, and I’d have liked to have found out more about them after the book’s end.
Overall, I’m not quite sure where to place this book. It’s a fairytale retelling, but it really didn’t appeal to what I like in a retelling. The author was trying to be dark, but I never quite bought into the idea that it was a dark book. In other ways it was rather light-hearted and a story of growing up, but then it wasn’t exactly that. I’m not sure who I would recommend this book to. It wasn’t bad, and I kept reading it all the way through, but I can’t say I exactly enjoyed it. But I can’t say I didn’t either.
So I guess what I’m saying is, don’t come at this book as your typical fairytale retelling and with those expectations. It’s certainly no Ella Enchanted; in a lot of ways, it’s more of an Artemis Fowl, but without the wit and humor.
Ratings Reasons:
Action 3 ½- Magical action was one of the best parts of the book, and I was intrigued by the usage and role of magic.
Romance 1 - It tried to be there, but failed.
Characters 4 - The main characters were well-defined, and the author did a good job of characterizing everyone.
Overall 3 ½ - Again, I kept reading all the way to the end in short order, but I’m not sure how much I really enjoyed the book. It’s kind of one of those "if the back cover and this review make it sound interesting, give it a try." But I’m not telling you to rush out and buy it.
Extras:
Mette Ivie Harrison has writen two other books, The Monster in Me and The Princess and the Hound. She also has a blog where she talks about her current projects.
Another take on Snow White (which this book is somewhat a retelling of) is Fairest by Gail Carson Levine. One of my favorite Snow White retellings though, is Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman, which is from the witch’s point of view. It’s perfectly creepy.
This is a book I read for the Twisted Fairy Tales Reading Challenge.
Parents: 10+ Nothing bad here, but I think an older reader might enjoy it a bit more than a younger one.
That’s about exactly how I felt about this book when I read it.
crichoux reply on March 24th, 2008:
Glad someone else felt the same way!
I actually really liked this book because I thought it was really different; I hadn’t read anything similar to it. I read it a long time ago, borrowed from the library, but I bought a copy since I had really liked it. I have yet to reread it, and I’m planning on that soon, so…maybe my opinion will have changed.
crichoux reply on March 26th, 2008:
It.s one of those books where I can completely understand how someone else might like it. It struck me as well written, and interesting… it just didn’t mesh with me. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping to.
I didn’t like the book for most of the reasons in the article. I found it confusing and both the characters and the ending were hard for me to like. I read it when i was out of books to read so perhaps i rushed through the book to fast to enjoy it and understand it perfectly.