4 stars

This is a very challenging novel because of an obvious circumstance: its subject matter. The entire novel - from the first page to the last - centers on rape and resulting trauma, and the depictions are close up, honest, and unflinching. Readers need to be aware of both the subject matter and the directness with which it is portrayed before they choose to proceed.

Those folks who are able to make it to the reading stage will receive a number of pay offs. As is the case in all of McLemore's work, this writer has a skill with symbolism and description that stands out the best way. The use of the Snow Queen tale, the glass/mirror imagery, what happens with the trees, the pan dulce, and the list goes on, creates added textural and sensory components to an already layered tale.

There are some twists that make the narrative even more difficult to manage, and McLemore's note at the end of the work highlights how and why the portrayal is so in-depth and raw. It is not to be missed.

At times, I did feel a bit frustrated by aspects of the repetition, but I can also see how this stylistically enhances the theme and the way traumatic memories reveal themselves.

Overall, this is a very difficult read because of the subject matter and the up close view, but readers who can manage the content will benefit from the style and grace through which it is relayed.

An absolutely gorgeous piece of writing from Anna-Marie McLemore. Their previous books have been ones that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but The Mirror Season was one that blew me away. The writing is so polished and beautiful and every bit of prose just hit me so hard

The Mirror Season is told by Cristales, or Ciela as she is also called. Ciela and Lock were both hurt on the same summer night at the same party. Ciela didn't know Lock before that night, and she isn't sure what happened to him, but she knows he was hurt and she had to help him. The rest of the summer she tried to make her life as normal as possible, but that becomes impossible when school starts and she sees Lock again. We as readers don't really know what happened that night, because Ciela is blocking her memoriies and Lock doesn't remember much at all. It's heartbreaking as we watch their memories come back and feel their pain come crashing back worse than ever.

This is a hard, important story. Hurt, despair, heartache, anger, mixed with magic as only Anna-Marie McLemore can do.

The Mirror Season by Anne-Marie Mclemore is a story about two teens finding out that they were both sexually assaulted at the same party and slowly the two began to develop a friendship filled with trees, pastries, and magical shards of glass.

Immediately, I knew that this book would most likely be both incredibly beautiful and horribly tragic. I’ve become familiar with Mclemore’s writings over the years and know they manage to somehow weave magic into their words. It’s not just the fact that they are writing these amazing magical realism stories, but the way they write is so lyrical and the sentences just flow so easily. I finished this book in the span of a day really. I simply couldn’t put it down and before I realized what was happening, I had read chunks of it.

This book made me so incredibly angry and just slightly hopeful for these characters. Cristales, or Ciela as some people call her, is the one telling the story. Not only did she survive something very horrible, but so did someone else. Someone she didn’t know, but she knew she had to help him. Ciela tries very hard to forget what happened to her. All summer she tried to imagine things going back to normal, but then the first day of school starts and in walks Lock Thomas, the boy she saved who doesn’t remember what happened that night.

Just like Lock who doesn’t remember what happened, we as the reader don’t really know either. Ciela can’t talk about it, doesn’t want to think about it, even though some of the memories return when she had to face the people who did this to her. Slowly we learn more and more about who she was and who she’s become as well as seeing her friendship with Lock grow and how together they find a way to help each other. Though things seem to come crashing down around Ciela as the secrets she tried to hide start coming out.

The author did an amazing job writing this story and I’m glad it was written. I honestly think it’s a book that everyone should read and I can't wait for it to be published so every can. This has probably been one of my favorite reads this year.