A beautifully disturbing novel that magnifies the 1950's Jim Crow era. A mix between Passing and A Rose for Emily. The novel itself is beautifully written and an absolute page turner for being 300 pages, I flew through the novel. I would absolutely add this to my classroom library as it highlights a horrible and often vaguely taught era of history in a way that would be interesting and engrossing to teens.

I think this was definitely a case of it being me, and not the book. I struggled to connect, and found the narrative hard to engage with- but I think it’s a well written book that examine important topics in a unique way… so I really think it was just me.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Little Brown Books for the eArc!

We get plenty of books about kids on opposite sides of the racial divide during the civil rights movement but I can't say as I'd ever considered what that would look like when the kids in question are biracial twins raised apart. Charlie and Magnolia, then, represent the difference between biological ties and experience. Root magic and spiritualism also play a strong role in the girls understanding their family history, their ties to the land, and what is poisoning the place. Those parts are strong but the characters are underdeveloped. More complex characters would make for a more compelling read but there's enough to consider in this book to make it worth reading.

Thanks to HBG Canada for an eARC for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars

This was such a good book. The writing style flowed really easily, the characters felt so real, and the emotions of the story came through really well. It’s a book about race and segregation. It’s about families torn apart because of who they loved and what they look like. It’s about standing up for yourself and what’s right, and it’s about family and the love between sisters.
The book is told through dual first-person POVs. We follow Charlene (Charlie) Yates and Magnolia Heathwood. The two girls are twins who have no idea the other exists. Charlie is coloured, and when her dying Nana wants to return to her hometown of Eureka, Georgia to be buried in the cemetery there, Charlie accompanies her and is shocked to learn about her sister. Magnolia grew up as an heiress in Eureka with her white grandmother, and she’s been passing as white unknowingly her whole life. When her grandmother drops the truth on Magnolia, her world is rocked. The setting for the book is Georgia in the early 1950s, and I liked the civil rights aspect. Charlie has participated in many protests in New York, and the contrast between her awareness and Magnolia’s naivety helped to establish their characters.
I liked both of the characters, and I thought their voices were distinct. I had no trouble distinguishing between their POVs, and I liked how their different upbringings were so reflective of their characters, but they also had great potential for growth. Magnolia’s character growth was one of my favourite parts because she struggles so much with finding her place in the world when she looks white but she is coloured. I admired her strength, and I thought the missing reflection and the curse were super interesting.
The pacing was really good in the story. It never felt like it was dragging, and I flew through it really quickly. It kept my attention completely hooked, and I was afraid for the characters in many moments. There’s an undercurrent of tension and fear especially in the second half, and I thought the author did an excellent job of conveying the emotions the characters were feeling.
I would absolutely recommend this book to everyone. It was really well written, and I think readers will enjoy connecting with the characters and root for their happy ending even when it doesn’t seem possible.

I loved everything about this. Don’t get me wrong, there were parts where I had to put the book down. Jim Crow is tough to read, but it was so worth it. I absolutely adored Charlie. I was apprehensive about Magnolia. There were times when she made me angry, but to me, that just means she did her job. I loved the characters, the magic… EVERYTHING! This reminded me so much of why I love magical realism.

Charlie leaves her adored hometown of Harlem, New York to escort her beloved but ailing grandmother Jeannette home to Eureka, Georgia, to live out her last days. Little does she know that she is on her way to meet her white passing sister Magnolia whom she has never known about. Will white passing Magnolia embrace Charlie once she knows the truth of her heritage, pick up Mirror Girls and read it for yourself.

Mirror Girls is an excellent example of YA gothic literature replete with key gothic elements such as mystery and suspense, omens and ancient prophecy, haunted houses, tragic love, distressed yet strong protagonists, along with import historical lessons about life and endurance during Jim Crow, and finally wonderful magical elements. As the reader you will fall in love with both Charlie and Magnolia for different reasons, despite one sister raised in the tradition of resistance the other raised in the traditions of the rich, I found myself constantly rooting for them as a family. In my opinion, Mirror Girls to beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyable fantastical and magical read.

A moving story about biracial sisters in 1953 raised separately and coming back together. Part of the story takes place in Harlem, but most of it takes place in Jim Crow era South and the book does not shy away from the reality of what that means. There's also a great ancestral element that gives a wonderful gothic twist to this historical novel.

I've spent some time after finishing this book and can't give it justice, so my review will be short. MIRROR GIRLS is a powerful story about lost family, racism, white supremacy, and the resilience of the African American community in the South set amidst the height of the Civil Rights Movement. I found this book and its discourse around the experiences of Black and biracial people in the South during this time to be incredibly striking and compelling, as portrayed by the main characters Charlie and Magnolia. At times, this book is challenging is the sense that it forces the reader to see ugly realities of racism that are still alive and present today. It is also a portrait of hope for Black Americans in so many ways. This book is impeccably researched and written so that is is very readable. I also enjoyed the paranormal aspects of this one. Truly, MIRROR GIRLS was a book I just consumed in two sittings, and I was really challenged and impressed with this book, and I highly recommend it especially during Black History Month but just in general too.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I read the summary of this book, my immediate first thought was "Oh, ok, The Vanishing Half, but make it spooky", and that seems to be just about what I got, which is fantastic. This book made me angry in the best possible way, as well as making me shed a few tears here and there (naturally). There were so many great quotes here that I highlighted, and I look forward to getting a physical copy when it comes out so I can annotate it. Definitely going to recommend this for my library's list of best books of the coming year.

Charlie and Magnolia are the yin and the yang, two twins separated at birth, both given a different life based on the color of their skin. Yet when Charlies grandmother becomes ill and comes back home to Eurkea for her final the twins are reunited and both learn of a past neither knew existed and along with it a curse that threatens both their lives and well being. Can Magnolia who has always thought of herself as white embrace the fact that she is colored? Will the community welcome her back in when for so many years she has been passing as white and lived with white privilege's? Can Charlie take the knowledge she has from living in New York and bring about a change in Eurkea, which upholds Jim Crow's laws to the highest degree? Together the girls must face opposition, finding out who they truly are, and finding away to create a path forward for them both. Can they do it in time or will Eurkea eat them both alive.

This book has such a lovely way of comparing the dilemma that many African American's faced during Jim Crow in the the South. The pure hatred, and the focus on making sure segregation was upheld to the highest degree. It is just heart breaking some of the different obstacles that both Charlie and Magnolia face. Yet it is so important that people remember how prevalent and how recent these events happened in our history. We are also not faced everyday with the struggle of passing, and being able to embrace your culture. More people struggle with this then we personally know, and I think it is important for teens to learn about the struggle, or to see that others struggle with the same emotions and frustrations.

Thank you so much to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

First of all, I was totally pulled in by this gorgeous cover. And sometimes the cover is the most substance that a book has. Not in the case of this book.

I was totally swept away and into the story right away. I devoured this book so quickly because I just needed to know what happened.

I love the story, the characters, the ghosts and magic… everything!

Oh! It is a ghost story. I read it because I thought it was going to be about the biracial twins (which it is!). I must have missed something in the blurb.

Anyway, I really don’t like fantasy but I finished this one because the story is nice. I enjoyed it. It is a nice YA book about racism mixed with the supernatural.

3.5 stars Full review on goodreads. Fresh story. Ghosts, racist south. White and balcony twins. So much in here to like. It felt choppy at times, but I still enjoyed it overall.

A dark and racially charged version of the separated at birth story, Mirror Girls follows twins Charlene (Charlie) and Magnolia who end up separated after their parents (one white and one black) are murdered on the way to get married. When both girls’ grandmothers, the women who raised them, die mere days apart, the twins are suddenly reconnected and must learn how to be sisters in a Jim Crow world that would rather keep them separate.

Charlie was raised in Harlem after her grandmother fled Eureka, Georgia with Charlie when she was a baby. Charlie has just graduated high school, and can’t wait to begin her career as an organizer (though she’ll need a different job on the side to make actual money). But, her grandmother has grown terribly ill, and her last wish is to die and be buried back home in Eureka. Charlie begrudgingly agrees to make the trip with her grandmother, purchasing first class tickets to make the journey easier on her, but when they are kicked back to the colored section of the train once they hit Maryland, Charlie quickly realizes that she might bee in over her head in a Jim Crow south that she has no experience with.

Magnolia Heathwood is the perfect Southern Belle, but then her grandmother reveals a terrible secret on her death bed. Magnolia is colored, not the white girl she was raised as and believed she was all her life. The revelation doesn’t just shake Magnolia’s reality, she also loses her reflection and her ability to eat and drink. She is trying to live up to her grandmother’s dying wish, that Magnolia continue the lie and secure a marriage to her wealthy, white neighbor, but knowing that she is colored makes it much harder to turn a blind eye to the racism in her community. And, when she learns that on top of being lied to all her life about being colored, about her father’s death, she also has a twin sister she never knew about, Magnolia makes the decision to head to colored town and live as herself. Unfortunately, the black spirits of Eureka are not as willing to accept her as the living community.

This was a powerful novel, and McWilliams has expertly balanced all of the elements. The town of Eureka, Georgia is described as a place that will never change, and the feelings of frustration by the colored residents, but also their complaisance is portrayed perfectly. Charlie’s refusal to accept the status quo is a stark contrast even to colored town’s most radical (protest planning) residents. The colored spirits of Eureka are a character in and of themselves, their anger felt deeply on the pages, playing an important role in the fate of the sisters. A segregationist effort to remove the bodies of colored people from the cemetery and rebury them on unstable swamp land, shows the cruelty and horror of Jim Crow that I don’t think is always as evident in books set during this time period. The bond between Magnolia and Charlie is the real star of the book however, building quickly into something unbreakable despite only just meeting each other (and learning the other exists for that matter).

Its part ghost story and part historical fiction, but at its heart, Mirror Girls by Kelly McWilliams is a story about sisterhood, and family conquering all. This is a must for just about anyone, it may not be the most comfortable read, but readers will not be disappointed.