Reviews with content warning for Drug use - The Mirror Season

A beautiful look at trauma and recovery. I loved the characters and mcLemore’s style. This book really handles trauma well and vividly illustrates what it’s like. I also love food magic! It was great having an m-spec protagonist as well. Strong content warnings for rape, bullying, harassment, homophobia, and panic attacks.

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hell_o_ana's review

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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foreverinastory's review

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dark emotional hopeful medium-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

5.0

I will be weeping forever after this one.

Rep: Pansexual Mexican-American female MC with PTSD, white male love interest with PTSD, Latine lesbian female side character, sapphic female side character, Mexican-American side characters.

CWs: Body shaming, bullying, drugging of side character w/o consent, grief, homophobia, lesbophobia, mental illness (PTSD), racism, rape, sexual assault, sexual content, sexual violence.

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-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

4.5

This book is an important read, but also a difficult one. It's not often that a YA book tackles the sexual assault of a boy, and McLemore deals with this issue with such grace. The comparison of the mirrors to both Ciela and Lock's journeys in the story works so well, and I love how magic is woven into the plot line subtly. It's smooth and fits the characters perfectly.

My heart ached for Ciela and Lock throughout this whole book, which I read in almost one sitting. This book is a stunning look at sexual assault, survivors, and the power structures that often surround being able to get justice and being believed. Seriously, this book is stunning.

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erinsbookshelves's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad 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

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kestrel's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Considering the tough topic this book deals with, I feel like I have to explain my rating but it boils down to one thing. The writing of this book just didn't work for me at all, which I didn't expect to be my issue since I liked a lot the writing in Wild Beauty. But in this one, the descriptions didn't do it for me, and some words and phrases just got so repetitive that I felt annoyed.

Now apart from that, I don't have many issues with the book. Some choices were made for sure, but I'm not sure what I feel about them yet. I do think it's a very important story, and I recommend it as long as it doesn't trigger you. It's about two SA survivors, one is a Mexican pan girl and the other one is a white guy, who are hurt at the same party and at the same time. The girl remembers everything and the pain makes her lose her power, while the guy doesn't remember much. They become friends and each other's support system, and then something more. There are also elements of magical realism in this story, like Ciela's power to guess the perfect pan dulce for someone, or things around her turning into mirror glass after that party (Well, it is loosely based on the Snow Queen fairytale).

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alibader's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

CW: Sexual assault, PTSD, blackmailing and bullying.

This was a very difficult topic to read about and I think McLemore did it justice; this is a needed book in our society today. Using beautiful prose the author integrates gender, sexuality and racial conflicts into the novel. The characters felt so real with so many layers that were explored as the story progressed.

This was my first Anna-Marie McLemore novel and I'm excited to pick up more.

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