A mixture of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, the story follows a girl who goes on an adventure through a mirror and is transported into a magical imperial Japan! Yuki is forced to move schools and start over, she misses her best friend and isn't having a good time fitting in. When she befriends a shopkeeper at a Japanese antique store the last thing she expects is to fall into a magical mirror and land in a magical imperial Japan! Yuki will now have to find a way back home before it's too late. This was a cute take on the classic story and a fun spin on it. The adventure was nice and I love the touch of magical Imperial Japan in it!

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books | Balzer + Bray for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I was hooked from the cover, it had a great fantasy element that I was hoping for. I enjoyed how well everything that it worked with the inspirations and loved the use of Japan. The characters felt like they were supposed to and it had the fantasy element that I was hoping for. I can’t wait to read more from Miya T. Beck.

I loved the Pearl Hunter and was excited to see a new novel appear. Seing the mirror on the cover I understood that this was going to be a portal adventure, but it's alright because this author creates unique and fantastic journeys with out-of-the box themes. This time, a contest of poetry in ancient Japan with Asian inspired culture, even yokais. An Alice/Oz kind of story.
I love the character's love for lists, I too love lists, they bring order and calm to my world. The main character goes through her own journey to understand the truth and where she belongs and in the process she unmasks evil.
Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher for this e-arc.

Yuki Snow moves to Santa Dolores, leaving behind her best friend Julio. Yuki's father passed away, but was a professor who taught philosophy classes based on Alice in Wonderland and put together a poetry event for the local schools. Yuki's mother, Hana, has remarried a kind man named Doug, who gets Yuki a "magic mirror" with a tiger on it from a local store. She is so enthralled with it that she visits the shop to buy one for Julio, and meets the owner, Momo Fujita, who tells her the story of Sei Shōnagon, famous poet and author of The Pillow Book. Since Yuki is also fond of making lists, she is intrigued, and interviews Ms. Fujita for a school project, spending some time in the shop. When Yuki has a falling out with Julio, she has to deal with a mean teacher, Ms. Ghosh, and she finds out that her mother is pregnant at 41, Yuki escapes into the magical world of the mirror, where she meets Sei Shōnagon and finds out that even though she is from the Land of A Merry Cat, she is in the running to become the next priestess of poetry.

This was an interesting twist on Japanese folklore and would be a good choice for readers who enjoy portal fantasies like Bedard's The Egyptian Mirror, Giles's The Last Mirror on the Left, or Abu-Jaber's Silverworld.