*4.5 rounded down*
Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

"The Girl with No Reflection" by Keshe Chow is an East Asian mythology-inspired coming of age young adult fantasy that follows Princess Ying Yue. She once believed that she would marry for love, but as her wedding day to the crown prince dawns on her, she realizes that she will be subjected to a loveless marriage. Until her reflection pulls her into a mirror world and tells her that she can give her relief by switching places. In this mirror world, Ying meets the crown prince's reflection and believes that she can be happy here. But after an attack from a mythological snake, she realizes that this world poses a bigger danger than she thought. A danger to her home and Ying is the key to stopping it.

I LOVED this. It was so fun and felt really refreshing. If you've ever seen any liveaction Chinese fantasy dramas, this really evokes the feeling of watching those. Ying is a fairly compelling lead and while some of her choices had me side-eying her and saying "Oh you dumb child," she's also a teenager (I think) and seemed to be very sheltered by her family. That said, she's also incredibly emotional and persevering which really reminded me a bit of Usagi/Sailor Moon. She fights hard for what she believes to be right and I don't know, she got me emotional at some points. I also enjoyed this because Chow did not shy away from the gore that would be present in danger and I loved it. Chow did a great job with the action scenes in this which I think is a really good sign. There is romance in this, sort of enemies to lovers, and it's very much love triangle and honestly, I did not have the patience for it. Everytime there was a romance scene or a makeout scene, my eyes glazed over. I just don't care to read about teens making out, but that might just be me I guess. Anyways.

Overall, would recommend.

<i>The Girl with no Reflection</i> is a thrilling and, dare I say, spooky tale, rooted in Chinese mythology that blends political court intrigue and horror in a wicked, goodbump-raising way.

When I first read the synopsis, I was instantly intrigued by the premise. The main character, Ying Yue, entered a mirror world that looked just like her own except everything seemed better than her own world. My first thought was that this story had <i>Coraline</i> vibes. While I have never read nor watched <i>Coraline</i> (I saw the trailer and the button eyes scared me so much I never watched it), I know the general gist of the story.

I loved the concept. It was something I’d never read before which made it thrilling to discover all the little details in this world-building. I also really enjoyed the blend of the Chinese culture with the horror genre. Up until now, I’ve only ever watched or read western horror. So to see one of my favorite genres play out in an Eastern culture I’m very interested in and eager to learn more about was both unexpected and so much fun.

Ying’s character sometimes aggravated me. She was either too naive or too stubborn. Instead of listening to the advice of others who knew better, she always did what she wanted and often ended up making more trouble. It was giving “I’m a strong independent woman” but to the extreme. A woman can be strong and a fighter while also knowing when to back down and let others take the lead.

There are two love interests in the book but I wouldn’t call it a love triangle at any point throughout this story. Firstly, the cold and indifferent crown prince Zhang to whom Ying was betrothed. And secondly, his mirror counterpart, the Mirror Prince, who was everything Ying wanted. He was kind and attentive, he listened to her and let her roam free. Hoverer, the romance between Ying and the Mirror Prince was a bit too instantaneous for me to ever ship it fully. I felt like Ying fell head over heels with him within seconds after only the briefest act of kindness. As a girl who had been trained in strategy and fighting by her father, I did not expect her to be so naive and this bothered me. Furthermore, I never really liked the Mirror Prince. He felt too perfect. I was missing some flaws that would make his character more authentic. Zhang, on the other hand, had plenty of flaws that fleshed out his character which made me like him instantly. He was broody and distant which made me eager to get behind the walls he had erected around him to find out more about his character.
Consequently, I much more enjoyed the developing dynamic between Ying and Zhang. It started off rocky but grew gradually throughout the story in a natural flow as both characters gained each other’s trust through their actions. I thoroughly enjoyed their bickering as they drove each other nuts. But I enjoyed their romantic scenes even more as they were filled with that toe-curling tension.

The plot was a well-balanced play of action scenes, political intrigue, and romance. I never felt like the plot had reached a staggering halt. The flow of the story was very smooth and easy to read. It had plenty of plot twists (some I saw coming and some I didn’t) and it was overall very fun to be surprised.

The writing was very beautiful and lyrical and I enjoyed reading it very much. However, if there is one thing I did not like, it was that there was a lot of tell instead of show. I found a lot of sentences in which the telling was very prominent and where I found myself reforming them into a show. This made it very hard for me to empathize with the characters’ feelings, especially in their moments of grief. It was a constant tell of emotions instead of showing the reader their true pain. Don’t tell your reader how sad and gutted your character feels. Show them through the tells in their body.
While I enjoyed TGWNR very much, I could never fully emotionally invest because of this tell-not-show writing. There was always an invisible wall up between me as the reader and the characters in the story.

Overall <i>The Girl with no Reflection</i> is a solid debut with a lot of potential. Fans of <i>Coraline</i>, <i>Song of Silver, Flame Like Night</i>, and <i>Violent Made of Thorns</i>, as well as lovers of Chinese culture and horror, will enjoy this dark, romantic take of vicious monsters and mirror worlds.

Thank you Delacorte Press for the e-ARC!

If you want to read horror Chinese folklore inspired YA fantasy with gothic vibes, this is it!

this book is telling us about the mirror and our reflection behind it, but it made me question like is that fr????? such wonderful yet i need more from the book so i didnt confuse when i read some parts

the girl with no reflection is a story that ultimately fails to live up to the expectations established by its premise. telling the story of ying yue, a princess who discovers a mirror world where nothing is as it seems, the book’s intriguing start and worldbuilding are quickly dragged down by its flat writing, clunky pacing, and irritating romance, creating one of the most frustrating reading experiences i’ve had all year.

that’s not to say that there’s nothing to like about this book. the mirror world is genuinely such an interesting and creative setting, and i loved that the first few chapters got right into the story without heaping piles of unnecessary exposition on my head. additionally, there was a twist toward the end which i thought was good. unfortunately, that’s basically where my “things i liked” list ends.

to start off with what i didn’t like, i thought the writing in this book was very bland. i don’t have much else to say about it, except that it didn’t make me feel what it clearly wanted me to feel. to be honest, it might have been fine if there weren’t so many other things i disliked that only emphasized how dull it was.

i also wasn’t a fan of the pacing. i’m not sure if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but i usually like long standalone books. however, i really think that this book would have been better off as a duology. so many things happened in its 400+ pages that it just ended up feeling disorganized for me, with some scenes feeling rushed (and anticlimactic as a result) while others were dragged out for way too long.

however, my feelings toward the writing and pacing are nothing in comparison to my hatred toward the romance, which ended up being so strong it surprised even me. i cannot stress how sick i am of this specific style of bland enemies to lovers that has been popping up in fantasy for the last few years. both the initial forced tension and the (unconvincing) eventual spiels about how the two characters involved are so in love that they can’t live without each other actually make me want to throw myself into the pacific ocean. ying and the prince were boring at best and infuriatingly melodramatic at worst, and nearly everything about them had me either yawning or throwing mental tomatoes at my screen.

(also, while i’m on the topic of romance, there’s a romance-related “twist” toward the middle of this book that is so unbelievably obvious it’s laughable. i don’t think i could think of this review as finished without mentioning it at least once. all i’ll say is that if you’ve read a decent amount of mediocre ya fantasy, you’ll see it coming from about a million miles away.)

to say the least, i did not like this book, which is unfortunate because the concept of it had so much potential and the beginning was strong. of course, there are over a hundred five-star ratings at the time of me writing this review, so ymmv. however, i wouldn’t personally recommend this to anyone unless they happen to enjoy stories that stand out at the start and only decline from there.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing this arc.

This book was so fun! This scratched the itch for a historical drama. I cannot recommend this enough to you if you love Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan! If you like k-dramas or c-dramas I have to say you are going to LOVE this book! The lead female is so strong and how she uses her powers is just delightful to follow!

First off thank you NetGalley on an early ARC of this book. All thoughts and reviews are my own.
I absolutely loved loved loved this book! I have been reading a lot of Chinese inspired fantasy books and this was definitely one of my favorites.
I loved the main character Ying. I found myself not only rooting for her throughout the story but fully understanding her decisions and agreeing(although not always right) with her throughout the book. The love story between her and Prince Zhang Lin was beautiful and I just love everything about old Chinese dynasties.
This book transported me right back in time with the beautiful writing I felt like I was back in the old imperial dynasty of China.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Chinese inspired fantasies or any fantasy and is looking to fall in love with how things used to be.

This was a wonderfully gothic and horror Chinese folklore inspired YA fantasy! I loved the idea that reflections are sentient beings and are plotting to overthrow their human counterparts. Definitely made me feel creeped out here and there for sure! 🫣

The story follows Ying Yue as she marries a cold prince and finds herself able to traverse into another world via mirrors. She’s a spunky and outspoken 18 year old that has really struggled finding her place in the royal family since she’s not been allowed outside of her chambers. I liked her characterization overall though I did find her rather impulsive here and there and a bit too trusting in people. Her dynamic with the human prince was chaotic at best thanks to massive miscommunication issues on all sides, but I found their love to be rather sweet towards the end. ♥️

The mirror realm was so cool to explore, and I found myself wishing for a bit more in explanation into its creation, and the people who live there. It all kind of felt rather one dimensional (no pun intended) in the long haul, but that’s just what I thought. 🤷🏻‍♀️

All in all, I had a great time reading this rather creepy story about evil sentient reflections. Big thank you goes to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for accepting my request to read in exchange for an honest review, and to the author, Chow, for crafting such a wonderfully gothic and horror inspired YA fantasy steeped in Chinese folklore! 🐉

Publication date: August 6!

Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️

1.5... rounded up I think. Because honestly a book has to really OFFEND me to be a 1 star - this was close but not quite there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Delacorte Press for the eARC of this book.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book. Daresay, I hated most of this book. The following is all my own opinion. I hope that others find joy in reading this book, because I'm sure some people might.

First, we will start with the very few things that I thought were done well. First, Chow's writing is inherently good. She's got some talent there, in the actual writing. There were some moments that felt like...smutty dark romantasy coded.... that grossed me out a bit to see in a YA book. (The knife up her leg and the "rest assured I would have destroyed you. Fuck honor") This book honestly could have gone very well as a dark adult romantasy... Oh well.

The only real scene that I liked was the cabin near the beginning. That was actually pretty sweet and I enjoyed seeing Ying and the Prince together away from others.

That's basically it. Now we get into what I didn't like. And this will feel like a rant... Because honestly it is.

Where do I start?

How about the FMC? We get one of the stupidest FMC's I have ever seen. She is portrayed as this immensely feminist character but honestly that "feminist" nature just makes her seem dumb? She can do everything herself! Except, no, she can't? She needs others to help her. Like when she used her feminine wiles to seduce the prince and poison him and then she ran off to save her maid - thereby putting her in the clutches of the Mirror Prince again. Good job! I can tell that Chow tried with this character but honestly, she was so insufferable and I HATED how she trusted so easily in the beginning. And here's the kicker. SO. Chow was going for a "Ying falls in love with the first person who shows her kindness" thing - kind of like ACOTAR with Feyre and Tamlin. But Feyre spent her whole life not being shown love - being the breadwinner for her family and them just not caring. Ying spent her life with a LOVING family and was alone for only THREE MONTHS before the wedding night. That's it. It made no sense for her to fall insta love with the Mirror Prince? She even says later that she had a stable boy that she hung out with who favored her and so she had to have SOME semblance of attraction right??? Their insta love was the first true EYE ROLL. Because we all knew from a MILE AWAY that he was evil.

Which can bring me to my next point. FORESHADOWING. IT WAS BAD. This book was SO predictable. I guessed every single twist as soon as the foreshadowing appeared. It was like she was handing up the post-its with the reveal with her poor foreshadowing. Mirror Ying being evil? Called it. (come save me? Puh lease.) Mirror Prince being evil? called it (too nice/perfect). The Empress poisoning the king? Called it the moment we were in the throne room that first time. What are they building down there? Gallows you idiot. Don't look outside, Ying. Her family or her maids are going to be executed. It was just ALL SO PREDICTABLE that I rolled my eyes at it all.

And let's add a side note about that execution sequence. Chow was trying to pull at our heart strings and show the pain of losing family. Yes, family who DON'T EVEN HAVE NAMES DURING THIS SEQUENCE. Ying NEVER names her brothers who died. Not ONCE. How the EF do you grieve your brothers without SAYING THEIR NAMES. If there is one thing she could and should change in this book before publication, it's adding those names in. Please. That is just.... so rude to anyone with multiple brothers.

Also.... can I just add.... HOW did the emperor direct all of this when.... he was ACTIVELY BEING POISONED AND ON HIS DEATH BED???????? Do we really think that he could command all of this to happen when the prince and (supposedly) the empress were trying to stop it???? I'm thinking the empress didn't care at all because she definitely should have been able to stop it. I'm kind of disappointed that this was never brought up at all because it actually made ZERO sense.

What else made zero sense? How, when Ying was still being "hunted' for treason, did she GIVE ORDERS IN THE BATTLE? Did the treason and PUBLIC EXECUTION of her family not like.... hinder this in any way? Is it just because it was the Prince's army only? She also ordered some servants around before the king died too. So like.... Idk. WHAT.

There is just so much I can say about this book and most of it is negative.... Overall, I feel like the author threw in a lot of things that worked well in other books into her book and poorly executed them all. Her idea of the Mirror World was cool but it was good idea, bad execution. Though honestly her world building was pretty nonexistent...

Random but... I love that her family was there in the Palace this entire time (until the execution scene) and this girl never sees them. /s She was oh so sad in the beginning to leave them and then it's like they don't exist until they are THROWN AWAY.

There are people who will love this book, I'm sure. But I can't. For most of the second half of this book, I was rolling my eyes, cursing, and reading with my mouth hanging open like "I cannot believe any of this."

I cannot believe I finished this book in a day. I deserve a medal.

I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC of this book. It’s Crimson Peak meets Us vibes intrigued me. There were so many facets of the story I loved, including the creepiness of the mirror world. I was enthralled with the Chinese mythology, which inspired major elements of the plot. To be honest, I went back and forth on whether to rate this book as a 5-star versus a 4-star read. Ultimately, I fell on 4 simply due to the character development being sacrificed for pacing. I longed for more scenes demonstrating the dynamics between Ying and her mirror self. Ying’s relationships with her family and maid/friend made it impossible to understand her motives to save them beyond being told it was important. There were nice scenes written within the romance, but it too seemed forced for the sake of brevity, and therefore, unrealistic. Despite this, I truly enjoyed The Girl with No Reflection, would encourage others to give it a try, and would certainly read more from this author in the future.

The Girl with No Reflection is an amazing, and thrilling piece of fiction that keeps you on the edge of your seat and your head buzzing with anticipation. The plot is on point, and the characters have so many intricate details that help pull the book together into the amazing package deal that it is. The main character just kept it so intriguing. Keshe Chow amazingly included the opposite world in a way that made it seem real. (For a bit after the book, I stayed cautious around mirrors. Afraid that I would find something weird about my reflection.) Absolutely loved the intricacy of the world and the vulnerability of all of them. They seemed truly human. Excepting the doppelgangers. They were evil, but that's beyond the point. I'm just saying that everything was amazing and I would ABSOLUTELY recommend this book to friends and family. Keshe Crow did an amazing job of writing this book, and I would love to see more of her work in the future. The Girl with No Reflection was a book that was on point and one of the best books I have ever read, which is saying something. It was amazing. Thank you for reading this overly long and boring paragraph.

I enjoyed this. I found the world to be really well-crafted and compelling. I also really liked the way that the twists and turns presented themselves, and were well in line with the pacing of the story. The first half of the story is definitely reminiscent of a gothic horror story--a young woman moves into a creepy mansion where her betrothed is cold and wary of her. Soon, she begins seeing weird things out of the corner of her vision, compelling her to dig into the sordid past of her new home. The second half of this story was an epic saga of a Chinese fable that is filled with a ton of fantastical elements--fantasy war, dragon-riding, magic, royal court drama, etc.
I will say that I found the change in...genre to be a bit abrupt. I didn't dislike the change, but I do wish that we would have gotten each story as its own entity. I was really intrigued by the gothic horror romance of the first half and really would have enjoyed to see that to its conclusion. But I was similarly interested in the Chinese fable second half, and wish we could have gotten more time to explore that world and those ideas.
Even with the genre-related whiplash halfway through, I do think that both respective halves of the story were well-paced and I enjoyed the characters. Overall, this was an interesting story with a fun mix of gothic horror elements and Chinese mythological themes. I'm really interested to see how others liked this story--I'm mostly curious how others found the genre-change halfway through! I'm really excited to get physical copies of this into my branch, because I think that this is a pretty unique story that touches on Chinese fables in a compelling way!

Unsettling and elegantly crafted, The Girl with No Reflection was twisty and subversive in all the right ways.

tl;dr
Well-paced with some cool world-building and exciting twists, but has a bit of genre whiplash part way through.

Thoughts
This feels like two books stitched into one. The front half of the book has all of the vibes of a gothic romance: a young woman moves into an ancient opulent house, finds her husband-to-be cold and standoffish, and soon sees strange things out of the corner of her eye that everyone else insists aren't real. The deeper she digs, the more sinister things become, until her reality is shattered. And then suddenly we're in the second half of the book: an epic, sweeping, Chinese fable filled with mythical creatures, dragon-riding, war, alchemy, court drama, and a big prophecy. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I enjoyed both parts on their own. The portion where Ying first visits the mirror world is especially well-written, with a creeping unease and some really unique world building that I loved. There are some big fight pieces and twists in the second half that are also a lot of fun. It's just a strange combination taking the two of them in together. For all that, I still think it's paced out well enough as one book, so I'm glad the author didn't try to stretch it into two. A fast-paced read for anyone who likes their big action mythology paired with just a touch of horror.

Everything about this book is done so well. The Chinese mythology and history is explained so readers understand without having to know it going in. The descriptions are lush and vivid, and the characters are so well-drawn, even while maintaining some mystery. The author takes us on a ride through new worlds, with fantastical creatures, characters who may be double-crossing monsters (or are they?), young love and lust, and a young woman main character whose journey twists and turns as she discovers herself and her strength.

I was initially really intrigued by the premise here, thinking there would be interesting stuff regarding the main character and her own reflection. That part of it remains the most fascinating and engaging aspect of the book. Other things, like the romance plotlines and the magic/mythology, fell flat for me. The romantic interest seemed Tortured in a way that I've seen a million times before, without anything new or unique that made him stand out. Their relationship was confusing and hot and cold but in a way that was tiresome. Their chemistry was believable, but only because we anticipate that characters like them will end up together...being familiar with this sort of romantic arc, you kind of know from the get what's going to happen. An original premise limited by its own reliance on tropes.

I think the author had a few ideas of different books she wanted to write and unfortunately decided to combine them all into one. This makes for a confusing, grating read. It would also have benefitted from an actual plot.

It's packed with twists, turns, and romance that'll keep you hooked from beginning to end. The characters are so vividly written, especially Princess Ying Yue, whose strength and resilience shine through every page. But what really sets this book apart is its world-building. If you're looking for a captivating read that'll transport you to another world, look no further. This book has it all - adventure, romance, and secrets waiting to be uncovered. Trust me, you won't be able to put it down!

Such a fun and twisting adventure that had my jaw dropping! I loved the independent and unapologetic main character.

I stumbled upon Keshe's TikTok a while ago, I think before it was acquired, and I was excited.
It was a quick read. Even if, at some point, the fast-paced action was slowed down by a lot in the last quarter, let's get into it.
The writing style was hard to relate to. I just read Poppy War, and some humor in it is relatable, but the humor here was too modern for ancient times in fantasy. We don't know what brain cells or species called assholes (and more) to make this cute banter between the heroine and the wishy-washy love interest. The plot quickly turned into a romantasy since that was the main takeaway after Ying was constantly attacked by the mirror world creatures. This is a shame since I would have liked more dialogue with Ying and reflection Ying.
It got to the point where I was rolling my eyes. Ying can get so stubborn that she literally wants to break the world to save her maid (whom we've got no scenes with to care about), who got kidnapped and got mad with the Prince for stopping her. He constantly wants to help, and she keeps attacking him verbally and putting herself in a hate corner. It was not giving enemies to lovers at all since he never perceived her negatively, so Ying is very offputting. I would have liked it if Ying's changed character arc weren't so polarizing. The subplot with the EMperor was pretty heavy-handed, bringing the rating down.
Would I recommend it? Not to everyone.

The Girl With No Reflection ARC

I really like the main concept of the mirror world. As a big fan of Coraline and the movie Us this book seemed right up my alley. I really liked the main world and mirror world that the author created. However, the tension was kind of broken early on in the book with an early plot twist and then the plot was kind of all over the place and wrapped up very quickly and conveniently.

I did like the romance in this book and the grumpy/serious version of the prince pitted against the kind version of the prince. Ying is a very headstrong character and there wasn’t a lot of character growth, but I did like that not everything worked out for her. She did face real trials throughout the story.

The main thing that threw me off a lot was the dialogue. At times it really took me out of the story. It went from formal speech to modern speech and swearing and some lines that really just didn’t fit the tone at all. It’s almost like modern characters playing dress up and not following any actual societal rules.

Overall I didn’t love or dislike the book. I think some people might absolutely love this book, it just wasn’t for me.