As you may know, since Cara Delevingne announced to the world she was going to publish her first book I wanted to read it as soon as it came out. So when I went to the bookstore and found it displayed under a white light beam, calling my name, whispering me to take it home... I could not resist. So yeah, I bought it and started reading it as soon as I got on the train back home. And guys, it caught me from the first page.
She has written Mirror Mirror with Rowan Coleman, but even though Cara's writing is very descriptive, powerful and deep, she wants to catch the reader with every single word. She writes a mystery mixed with family and teens' drama. And it all results to a really good combo filled with love, friendship, secrets, insecurities, and any single thing from the everyday life you can (or not) imagine.
I want to talk to you about one if the insecurities that appear in Mirror, Mirror. There’s a paragraph I found actually deep and valuable. It talks about the real life and the one you see in the media, there I felt that who was talking was Cara herself. It starts saying: “Because you see, I like the me in that world, the one you see on social media. That me looks like a person who knows what they are doing, what they want, where they are going. That me is on-point. That me always looks good, always looks relaxed (...) The reflection of me, that lives behind the shiny screen, is the one who gets the likes, and the hearts, and the direct messages.” And then: “But it took me a long time to think that way about this me. The real life, no-filter me.”
This paragraph made me imagine Cara writing it on her Instagram, or on her notebook, or saying it in front of all these media that make us feel that if you don't have a perfect body, a perfect mind, a perfect life you will be considered trash. What all these famous show us is mostly fake, they're not perfect, because no one is, and that's what Cara's telling us here.
“I’m a wave, I thought: even when I’m breaking I’m strong.” ― Red.
Red is an extraordinary person, who realizes that the pain to become someone you're not is not worth it, not mattering what others said you have to be yourself. I have too many things to say about Red, because this character is what I've been waiting so long to find in a book. So I'll only say this kid is kind of the "I would not be the main character of any book ever in my life" person, but ends up being. Red is not a cliché, is a great change. And I love that.
“I thought, if I just close it in it will go away.” ― Rose.
Rose. The diva. Who everyone thinks is happy as anything but has a dark secret inside her no one knows but her best friend (as known as Red) and that torments her, makes her feel afraid of being alone. But she neither want to seem vulnerable thus she doesn't let anyone know her weaknesses.
But guys there's nothing wrong in showing people you're human, no one's perfect. We all have our things inside and sometimes it's good to take them out, or at least recognize in front of those who we really trust that sometimes we cannot be strong enough to bear our own stuff. There's nothing wrong in asking for help.
“This is where life happens, in the stuff that’s left behind.” ― Naomi.
Naomi is kind of a geeky girl. Before the band she was bullied by her schoolmates just because she was different, but she never let them win. And after the creation of the band she becomes the best bassist of all times and starts being popular as the fandom increases. She loves anime and all this stuff, until one day she takes her geeky clothes and the makeup off and "starts being normal". Why? You'll have to discover it by your own.
“Like anything else was ever possible.” ― Leo.
Leo has something that's overlooked in the book if you don't pay enough attention. I think he's mature, clear-head, and he would do anything for the ones he loves. As you can see when his big brother Aaron controls him, and Leo justifies it by saying he's his brother, and that blood goes first and foremost. He's not dumb, he's loyal, that's why he set her mother before his brother when it was time to. This boy is amazing.
** spoilers ahead **
There are two parallel stories in the book: Red's life and Naomi's mystery. And they're both well connected.
You grow with Red, change your mind with her, her story open your eyes to the real world even you're reading a fiction novel. How she changes, how she cares about her loved ones, how she fight against the issues... She looked straight at her eyes on the mirror and faced the truth: she was not going to let the evil win. She needed a hero, so that's what she became.
And then you have the mystery plot, which is always there, everything turns around it but sometimes you don't notice it. Naomi's disappeared and no one knows why, where nor with who. When she appears on the riverside she's practically deathly injured, she's taken to the hospital and she's sedated (the whole book runs with her in the hospital). The tricks and cheats that Naomi's big sister, Ashira, does to find what happened, and who did that, to her sister are amazing. I guessed who was the guilty on chapter 34, but it was equally astonishing reading it a chapter later.
Now let's talk about the plot twist. When I read THE sentence that changes the whole book and gives it more sense, it shocked me so hard.
I had been thinking during 221 pages that Red was a boy, and it results to be a girl. My head exploded when I read that sentence. I didn't know how to react, so I closed up the book and looked forward (nowhere in concrete because I was on the train), and all I could think was "what?". And that was all I was thinking about till I took the book and continued reading when I arrived at home. Honestly I still think about it sometimes, because I did NOT expect that.
And what a beautiful ending.
What's treated in this book is a really serious matter. I have no idea how I can talk about it without bothering anyone, so I'll only say that don't trust anyone who's not from your closest circle of family and friends, always tell them when you meet someone new, let them know you're fine, notice them about your everyday life even though you don't like it, because once you hide them something it can become something bigger and worse. And of course never trust someone who wants to isolate and ban you from the ones you love.
In conclusion, you'll have to read till the last word to know what happened to Naomi and to know how all ends up.
Genre: young-adult, contemporary, lgbt+.
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