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A review by bstaats
Eyes in the Mirror by Julia Mayer
3.0
Eyes in the Mirror ended up being nothing like I expected. At all.
I was expecting more of a psychological storyline, but apparently I should have taken the description a bit more literally than I did. Which ends up with the book being an extremely unique, creative vaguely contemporary fantasy story.
I was so pleased to see Julia Mayer tackling such difficult issues head on; and she captured the emotions and struggles with self-mutilation perfectly. Self-mutilation (and cutting in particular) can be treated as such a taboo and touchy subject, that few properly deal with it and it's particularly difficult to convey but Mayer accomplishes this beautifully. The background and descriptions of this are poignant and quite moving.
As well, Mayer writes the story from two points of view, which are the complete opposite of one another and yet she does this quite well. Samara and Dee come across as two very different people, and Mayer writes them with different voices. However, there were times at first when it was difficult to understand the chronology while trying to follow the two POV because of where they would overlap. As confusing as this could be, it also lended a better well-rounded understanding of the events taking place and it became easy to see how two girls could view the same action very differently.
I found some of the dialogue to be somewhat awkward and forced, but that was only occasionally throughout the book. It didn't take away from the overall theme or ambience of reading the book as a whole. What I found challenging was trying to figure out what there was to take away from the book at the end of it, besides the contrast of the differing perspectives. The beginning was strong, but the ending felt like it was lacking in a satisfying culmination of events. To be honest, I simply failed to see what all the drama was worth in the end since many of the issues remained unsolved. I just wasn't convinced that everything was okay, but perhaps that's my need for a neat little ending where I feel like everything's been tied up nicely.
Parts of it were just so unbelievable, in particular the very premise that the novel was based on, yet none of the characteres questioned the events going on. They simply accepted it and tried to move on, ignoring the bizarre events occuring. And while I enjoy reading about strange, fanciful stories I like to hear more explanation of what's going on and why that's happening.
I received a copy of this book from Sourcebooks in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.
I was expecting more of a psychological storyline, but apparently I should have taken the description a bit more literally than I did. Which ends up with the book being an extremely unique, creative vaguely contemporary fantasy story.
I was so pleased to see Julia Mayer tackling such difficult issues head on; and she captured the emotions and struggles with self-mutilation perfectly. Self-mutilation (and cutting in particular) can be treated as such a taboo and touchy subject, that few properly deal with it and it's particularly difficult to convey but Mayer accomplishes this beautifully. The background and descriptions of this are poignant and quite moving.
As well, Mayer writes the story from two points of view, which are the complete opposite of one another and yet she does this quite well. Samara and Dee come across as two very different people, and Mayer writes them with different voices. However, there were times at first when it was difficult to understand the chronology while trying to follow the two POV because of where they would overlap. As confusing as this could be, it also lended a better well-rounded understanding of the events taking place and it became easy to see how two girls could view the same action very differently.
I found some of the dialogue to be somewhat awkward and forced, but that was only occasionally throughout the book. It didn't take away from the overall theme or ambience of reading the book as a whole. What I found challenging was trying to figure out what there was to take away from the book at the end of it, besides the contrast of the differing perspectives. The beginning was strong, but the ending felt like it was lacking in a satisfying culmination of events. To be honest, I simply failed to see what all the drama was worth in the end since many of the issues remained unsolved. I just wasn't convinced that everything was okay, but perhaps that's my need for a neat little ending where I feel like everything's been tied up nicely.
Parts of it were just so unbelievable, in particular the very premise that the novel was based on, yet none of the characteres questioned the events going on. They simply accepted it and tried to move on, ignoring the bizarre events occuring. And while I enjoy reading about strange, fanciful stories I like to hear more explanation of what's going on and why that's happening.
I received a copy of this book from Sourcebooks in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was received.