olgareads 's review for:

The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore

4.0

emotional hopeful 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

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A powerful and uncomfortably honest book about the journey of healing after sexual assault, and the ways in which racism, classism, queerphobia, and stigma against male victims can play a part in the violence and its repurcussions. Ciela and Lock's story is more complicated than those usually discussed, but it's told delicately and with incredible nuance and grace for both characters, so they both have the space to work through what happened to them and the understanding they gain along the way. At times the writing is a bit repetitive – and the style very YA despite the painful topic and heavy tone – but still, the magical realist elements are poignant and the descriptions of pan dulce delicious enough for me to overlook it. Ciela and Lock also have some of the most natural (and sweet and tense) chemistry I've ever encountered in a novel. I know they will stay with me for a long time.