#BookReview of Mirrored by @alex_flinn

About the Book: 

Mirror, mirror in my hand…

Beauty is the key to everything. At least, that’s how it seems to Violet—ugly, bullied, and lonely. To be beautiful, in her eyes, is to have power and love. And when Kendra, the witch, teaches Violet how to use magic, she may finally get what she wants.

For Celine, beautiful since birth, her looks have been a hindrance. She discovers that beauty is also a threat—especially to her stepmother, Violet, who doesn’t want anyone sharing the attention she worked so hard to get and who will do anything to be the fairest of them all.

But beauty isn’t only skin deep and love isn’t based on looks alone. And though Violet and Celine may seem to be completely opposite, their lives are almost… mirrored.

Reviewed By: Rachael

Publisher: Harper Teen

Recommended Age: Young Adult

Genre: Fantasy, Retelling

Goodreads | Amazon

About the Author: I was born on Long Island and grew up on a street called Salem Court. This probably influenced my interest in witches (It also means I can't use that as a password or security question -- and no, I won't tell you my first pet's name). When I was five years old, my mom said that I should be an author. I guess I must have nodded or something because, from that point on, every poem I ever wrote in school was submitted to Highlights or Cricket magazine. I was collecting rejection slips at age seven!

I learned to read early. But I compensated for this early proficiency by absolutely refusing to read the programmed readers required by the school system -- workbooks where you read the story, then answered the questions. When the other kids were on Book 20, I was on Book 1! My teacher, Mrs. Zeiser, told my mother, "Alexandra marches to her own drummer." I don't think that was supposed to be a good thing. Nonetheless, I learned how to read, and my second grade teacher, Dr. Gross, was much cooler. He was the one who handed me a copy of Ellen Tebbits and said, "I think you're ready for this." I didn't know what that meant, but I was VERY EXCITED.

My family moved to Miami when I was in middle school. I had a really hard time making friends, so I spent a lot of time reading and writing then. But unlike Christopher Paolini or Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, I never finished writing a novel (Note to teen writers: It's okay not to finish your novel in high school). That was also when I learned to be a keen observer. By high school, I'd made some friends and gotten involved in various "gifted and talented" performing arts programs. I studied opera in college (I'm a coloratura -- the really loud, high-pitched sopranos.) and then went to law school.

It was law school that probably helped with my first novel. Breathing Underwater deals with the serious and all-too-common problem of dating violence. I based the book on my experiences interning with the State Attorney's Office and volunteering with battered women. I thought this was a really important topic, as 27 percent of teenage girls surveyed have been hit by a boyfriend. I'm happy that the book is so popular, and if you are reading this bio because the book was assigned for school, I'm happy about that too. There is a companion to Breathing Underwater, in Caitlin's viewpoint. It is called Diva.

I started writing an early (and laughable) version of Breathing Underwater in college (I was really bored on a car trip with my parents). I later learned that my mom tossed it out when she was cleaning my drawers. Thanks, Mom! I didn't get back to it until I had my first daughter, Katie. I'm self-taught. I went to the library and took out books on writing. Then, I read a lot of young-adult novels by writers I admired. I write my first drafts longhand, then I type them.

I think I write for young-adults because I never quite got over being one. In my mind, I am still 13-years-old, running laps on the athletic field, wearing this really baggy white gymsuit. I’m continually amazed at the idea that I have a checking account and a mortgage. So I try to write books that gymsuit girl might enjoy. It’s a way of going back to being thirteen . . . knowing what I know now.

Right now, I live half a mile away from my old middle school, in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami, with my husband, daughters, dogs, and cats.

My Review: I really like this take on Snow White! I really liked how the author reinvented Snow White and the dwarfs. We get to see the evil stepmother before she was evil and had her own problems. I felt drawn towards the misfit version of Violet. I felt her pain and understood her awkwardness. The way the story was well put together. I could not put the book down. My only problem was that the ending was very predictable. But it was still worth the read!

Do I Recommend this book? Yes!!

 

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Posted in: 4 Stars, HarperCollins, Review, Young Adult