MIRA, MIRROR

A melodramatic take on the early and later life of Snow White’s wicked Queen and her magic mirror. Mirror is the protagonist, formerly the younger of two girls apprenticed to a forest witch, and the Queen is the older sister who, in her quest to become “always the fairest in the land,” imprisons Mira in a mirror. Left for one hundred years in the queen’s hideaway, in need of magic to stay alive, and ultimately hoping to become human again, Mirror convinces a runaway peasant girl to pose as a merchant’s daughter; a second story of adopted sisters, complete with identity switches, ensues. Witches “harvest” magic either by being near a creature as it dies, or by taking “a vibrant life and all its pain,” and the graphic descriptions of death strain to be Grimm-like. Purporting to explore weighty issues between sisters, of magic, power, and love, this weakly executed and excruciatingly tedious tale falls short. In the end, the reader is asked to take a huge leap and believe Mira/Mirror’s self-sacrificing actions and her epiphany that “love is more powerful than magic.” Groan. (Fantasy. 12+)