Friend. Lover. Victim. Traitor.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Sixteen-year-old friends Red, Leo, Rose, and Naomi are misfits; still figuring out who they are and who they want to be. Life isn't perfect, but music brings them together, and they are excited about what the future holds for their band, Mirror, Mirror. That is until Naomi vanishes before being pulled unconscious out of the river.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Sixteen-year-old friends Red, Leo, Rose, and Naomi are misfits; still figuring out who they are and who they want to be. Life isn't perfect, but music brings them together, and they are excited about what the future holds for their band, Mirror, Mirror. That is until Naomi vanishes before being pulled unconscious out of the river.
She's left fighting for her life in a coma. The police claim it was a failed suicide attempt, but her friends aren't convinced. Will Naomi ever wake up? What - or perhaps who - led her to that hospital bed? And how did Red, the self-styled protector of the group, fail to spot the warning signs?
While Rose turns to wild partying and Leo is shrouded by black moods, Red sets out to uncover the truth. It's a journey that will cause Red's world to crack, exposing the group's darkest secrets. Nothing will ever be the same again, because once a mirror is shattered, it can't be fixed.
Review: wow, this book went in such surprising directions. I didn't see so many of the twists and turns coming and this book also made me think so much more than I was expecting! My review is going to have to be very vague on specifics because I don't want to give away any spoilers for those of you planning on reading, which I would definitely recommend that you do, because I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I was going to.
There is an authors note at the start of the book about what Cara wanted to achieve by writing the book and the message she wanted to get across and I really think she was able to achieve this. I also think it was interesting to include this note before the book began, because you automatically have some pre-conceived ideas about th direction the book is going to go in. I don't know whether I liked it or not but it definitely stayed in the back of my head throughout the book.
The characters in this book are very true to life and i really liked the ways the interacted with one another. I sometimes feel like teenagers portrayed in books don't actually act like any teenagers i associated with when I was a teen or any I have come across in my career so far but these teens were London based and behaved like I would expect teens from that area to behave. I feel a real affinity to Red and championed her throughout the book.
As I have already mentioned, I loved the London setting of this book and really appreciated the fact that these young people lived and went to school in an around London and yet it didn't have them touring the city as if they had never been there before. The setting was very much a background factor. It afforded the characters more freedom than if they were in a rural setting and had to rely on lifts or infrequent public transport, which fitted well with the story, but it didn't romanticise the city in any way. I liked the reality of the setting and it is something that i noticed throughout the whole of the book.
The storyline kept me gripped right the way through and kept me guessing throughout. Some of the issues explored are fairly concerning and so it wasn't a cheerful read most of the time. I did feel anxious for the characters and concerned for their welfare. One of the issues explored in a specific and a general sense throughout the book is their interaction with the adults in their lives. The adults in their lives vary tremendously but there is a lot of negativity surrounding all of those relationships and I found this especially concerning. I'm not sure how i feel about the negative message that this is sending out to young people reading it and so therefore I would definitely say that this book should be aimed at an older young adult audience, or an adult audience.
Despite my misgivings about those messages I really did enjoy the plot and the structure of this novel. The characters felt very real and I was on their side throughout the storyline. The setting didn't feel forced and I was gripped by the twists and turns along the way. I would definitely recommend this book with an added warning that I mentioned above.
No comments:
Post a Comment