CW: graphic descriptions of sexual assault, harassment, homophobia, bullying

The Mirror Season is my second book by Anna-Marie McLemore even though I own all of their books. This book made it very clear that McLemore’s writing is simply one of my favorites. Their writing is just pure magic! The Mirror Season had me hooked from its very first line. This is a story of survivors and learning to live in a body that doesn’t feel like yours anymore. The main character, Graciela Cristales, loses her confidence as a result the assault and her journey centers around the guilt of what happened and finding herself.

Part of this journey means becoming La Bruja de los Pasteles once more. Ciela has granted to her by her great grandmother which tells her what type of pan dulce someone needs, what pan dulce will soothe them and fill them. I feel like I’m not doing the gift justice, but it is truly fascinating and I want to write a piece about it. This brings me to the food descriptions in the book, they are just scrumptious and I kept asking my partner if we could go to a pastelería because I want to try all the pan dulce mentioned in the book. Now, moving on to some other aspects of the book.

Ciela became one of my favorite characters quickly. She is the first character I’ve read about who is Pansexual. I cannot speak to this representation myself, but I certainly hope to read more characters who share her identity. One of the things I loved most about her was her love for her family. Family interactions in YA is something that I pay close attention to. Ciela’s love is found all over the book, not just in her interactions with her family members but in what she says. She always has a story about her cousins or tías or grandparents or parents. The narrative is full of these tidbits about her family and I enjoyed reading about a character with deep familial bonds that went beyond her nuclear family.

The book follows Ciela’s perspective and the reader learns about the night of the assault through her. The unraveling of the narrative was amazing. We got bits and pieces which Ciela felt comfortable sharing with us. She was in control of it and we were there to experience her process. I enjoyed how information was revealed to us and so many things caught me by surprise. Moreover the layers of her story interweave with Lock’s story. The dynamic between Ciela and Lock was great and filled with humor. In an interview with the Write or Die podcast, AM McLemore mentioned how The Mirror Season has the most humor out of all their books because it is something SA survivors do. I was laughing out loud at the jokes, the humor was very witty!

Another topic McLemore discusses is how queer brown bodies are often sexualized. I really enjoyed this discussion because I found it related. The author touches upon how bodies with brown bodies because of them being so over sexualized are seen as an open invitation when they are not. I found this extremely relatable and reminded me of my own experiences and how from a young age my body has been seen like that.

There was another discussion about Ciela loving her body from a young age because her mother and other women in her family encouraged her to do so. I absolutely loved this! This is something I also found relatable because it mirrored (I had to do it!) my own experience and journey with loving my body. I think it’s really important to encourage body acceptance from a young age and the impact it has on the person.

The Mirror Season takes inspiration in the fairytale of the Snow Queen. This is not a fairy tale that I’m entirely familiar with, at least not anymore. I used to have a book of translated fairy tales and I remember La Reina de las Nieves being right before the Emperor’s New Suit. However, I don’t think it was one I read often. The story has some descriptors of the fairy tale, so being unfamiliar with it doesn’t hinder the pacing or anything of the sort. Me not knowing the base fairy tale did not affect my enjoyment of the fairy tale aspects in The Mirror Season. I was enthralled by the mirrors and the secret forest. I love anything that has to do with nature, so the forest was just amazing to me.

The Mirror Season presents the reader with a raw exploration of being a sexual assault survivor. We experience Ciela’s journey of regaining her confidence, finding love, and living as a survivor overall. Her interactions with Lock are full of humor and I enjoyed how their dynamic. The story has so many aspects to it that I loved. The fairy tale, Ciela’s character, self-love, and the pacing are just a few of them.

You know those books that draw you so deep into the story that you forget about what's happening around you? The kind of books that make you feel like you're in that moment because the writing is so captivating and descriptive? The mirror season is one of those books. And it's almost one of those books that you don't want to be in that moment. Not because the book is bad but because the content is difficult. This book is heartbreakingly beautiful. It hurts to read and could be really triggering for some people, so please be mindful of content warnings before starting this. I ghost as far to say that this book is like devastating because you just you feel for them so much and you want to help them but it's a book and you can't reach in and hold their hand or say that it wasn't their fault.

Spoke follows Ciela who is living in the aftermath of trauma. She and a boy were both sexually assaulted at the same party and when she sees him again they end up becoming friends. The only thing is he doesn't remember the night and she can't forget it. They both have this weight of guilt and heartache and trauma that's neither one really knows how to tackle and how to work through and so they're both going about it in their own way. Ciela works in a pastelería, and she has this magical ability that she can guess what pastries people are going to want before they know that they want them but that magic begins to fade and disappear after her assault. So she spends a lot of the book trying to figure out how to get this magic back and dealing with the additional loss on top of her assault. I don't know how to explain the rest of this book without giving spoilers away but please give it a chance if you're able to.

Sexual assault is a major theme of this book. It is discussed both peripherally and in graphic detail.

Rep: biracial pansexual MC, lesbian side character, m/f queer relationship

I knew where this book was taking me since the first few pages. I knew in my gut what was going to be revealed and the emotions this book brought out of me were intense!

Ciela is sexually assaulted at a party and at the very same time, in the next room, a boy who has been drugged is enduring the very same thing. She doesn't know his name but she does make sure he gets to the hospital. Ciela doesn't report her attackers because she is the brown-skinned scholarship kid and these boys are white with influential parents. She knows how it would end up for her. She she attempts to go about her life as normal as she can. But she has lost the wonderful ability passed on by her bisabuela to predict what people want to eat at her family's pastelería. And when she goes back to school for her senior year, Lock, that boy she brought to the hospital that night three months ago, is in attendance.

He doesn't remember her at all, but she is determined to be his friend. She knows what happened to him even if he doesn't remember and she just wants to protect him from the other people who were involved in that terrible night.

This book was full of sadness, secrets, healing, beauty, magic and mirrored glass that if a shard breaks off and pierces your skin, it will turn you into a different person than you were. All Graciela wants to do is make sure that the fragment of mirrored glass that she sees glinting in Lock's eye doesn't burrow deeper and change him like it changed her.

The Mirror Season made me cry. My heart broke for these two teens who endured so much. The progression of this story moved so smoothly and even though I knew what the pages were trying to tell me from very early on, it was simply an amazing, unrivaled devastation that I won't soon forget.

Thank you so much to the author for writing a powerful story about such a painful topic.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.
I wish you all the best! <3

It was probably a really bad decision to read this and The Wicker King at the same time, knowing how heavy they are, how unapologetic they are, how they dig into the realities of people "at the fringes" (poor people, queer people, people of the "wrong" gender, etc). What I loved specifically about The Mirror Season is how it dug into the conceptions of how two very different people (a queer brown girl and a white assumed-straight boy) handle being sexually assaulted.

The main reason I didn't love this more was that the elements of magical realism (ie. random objects turning into mirrored glass and La Bruja de los Pasteles) were super repetitive. Any time Ciela's pastry witchery was mentioned, it turned into half a page of listing off a bunch of pastries. And the mirrored glass - it was just a constant barrage, almost a distraction from the really important conversations and revaluation happening around them.

I love how frequently Spanish words and phrases were sprinkled through the text, without bothering to hamper the prose with English translations. Most things were easy enough to guess if you're not a Spanish speaker and it helped really get us into Ciela's head.

I also wish we had seen more of the summer between the party and the first day of school, though I also understand why we don't. Instead we get it all in a bit of a whirlwind, in pieces when they become relevant.

Also, for this one, read the Author's Note. It's one of those moments where you feel like you've been punched in the gut. But you also have to admire McLemore for telling this story and breaking down several of their decisions.

BOOK REPORT for The Mirror Season by Anna-Marie McLemore

Cover Story: Shades of Blue
BFF Charm: Big Sister
Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Talky Talk: Real (Beautiful) Talk
Bonus Factors: Pansexuality, Tasty Business
Anti-Bonus Factor: "Cool" Kids
Relationship Status: Support System

Content Warning: The Mirror Season is a book about the aftermath of sexual assault and dealing with the trauma of such a violation. While it's not graphic in its depictions, it is an honest look at the events and resulting issues.

Cover Story: Shades of Blue
This moody color scheme fits the tone of the novel nicely (in addition to reflecting the pansexual nature of the main character); it makes me feel both sad and hopeful, which is exactly what the book made me feel, too.

The Deal:
Until that night, Ciela Cristales lived in a world of magic and cinnamon. Known around town for her "magical" ability to tell exactly what pastries someone needs when they visit her family's pastelería. But then she went to a party where she and a boy she didn't know were both sexually assaulted, and her gift's disappeared.

Ciela hasn't told anyone about that night. She's made herself smaller, less noticeable. But then the boy shows up at Ciela's school, and helping him navigate the halls and peer politics might be the one thing that brings her gift back to life.

BFF Charm: Big Sister
Although Ciela has a very large extended family, she's close with her parents, and she has a great best friend, she comes across in The Mirror Season as very lonely. She's closed herself off from people as a coping mechanism and spends a lot of time going through the motions, pretending that nothing happened and doing as much as she can to not think about the events of that night.

As someone who frequently pretends like things are fine when they're not, I can't fault her for this. Neither can I say that talking about it would make things better—although that's advice folks seem to give a lot, processing and working through traumatic experiences is such a personal thing, and what works for one person might not for another. But I'd love to be there for her when she did need someone to lean on/a shoulder to cry on.

Swoonworthy Scale: 7
Lock Thomas is someone Ciela wants nothing to do with. He doesn't remember that she was there that night, thanks to him having been drugged by someone at the party. He doesn't remember that she's the one who took him to the hospital, or that she was facing her own attackers in the room next to the one he was in. But helping Lock get to know their school and how to deal with the (unfair) school politics actually helps Ciela, both with her "gift" and in processing the night's events. He doesn't treat her like she's broken, although he quickly figures out that she's experienced similar trauma to him. But she just can't bring herself to tell him the truth about that night … even when it becomes crystal clear that he's exactly the kind of person Ciela would love to have play a larger role in her life.

Talky Talk: Real (Beautiful) Talk
As with all of McLemore's books, The Mirror Season mixes the magical with the harder side of real life. This book is their first contemporary, and it's likely the most personal—McLemore writes in their author's note that they are a survivor of multiple sexual assaults and wrote this book as part of the healing process. It's a novel that feels like a modern fairy tale in its morality; it's beautiful while being heartbreaking, but is ultimately a hopeful tale about overcoming trauma. The characters are nuanced and real, and even the magical aspects feel like something that could be part of modern life. (McLemore has a true talent at making the magical feel possible.) The book's not an easy read, but it's a stunning one that will linger for a long while after you finish, both the darker aspects and the bright ones.

Bonus Factor: Pansexuality
Although Ciela never exactly labels herself, she does think about/examine her feelings towards folks that lie in various places on the gender spectrum. Although the book isn't really about her pansexuality, it's a lovely examination/explanation of that sexuality.

Bonus Factor: Tasty Business
What I wouldn't give for a box of pastries from Ciela's family's pastelería! McLemore describes them in mouth-watering detail. And there's something so magical about a pretty pastry; even when Ciela's gift is acting up, I'm sure eating one of her creations would be a transcendent experience.

Anti-Bonus Factor: "Cool" Kids
Ciela and Lock's assaults were perpetrated by some of the most popular kids in their high school. Kids who wouldn't face consequences even if Ciela and Lock reported them because of who they are—and who their parents are.

Flames, I tell you.

Relationship Status: Support System
You broke my heart, Book, then pieced it back together. Our time together was horrifying and heartbreaking and hopeful. I want nothing more than to be there for you for the rest of whatever time we might have together, to see you rise from the ashes a beautiful phoenix.

A powerfully moving and distinctive take on sexual assault. McLemore’s classic writing style and touches of magical realism are in full force, and while the secondary cast is often not the focus of the story, they are well-defined and feel like part of a complete universe. However, Ciela and Lock are the focus of the story, and their relationship, after something of a slow start, blossoms with beautiful and painful realism. Interestingly, although per the author’s note The Snow Queen was one of the initial inspirations for the work, I actually found that the references felt a bit random. Fans of McLemore’s other work might enjoy, as well as those who enjoyed Arnold’s Red Hood and Johnston’s Exit, Pursued by Bear.

This was an incredible heartbreaking read. My heart breaks for any survivor who has had to suffer the trauma and injustice of sexual assault. This book handles it delicately, with all of the delicate care that it deserves. This is a journey and growth for both Ciela and Lock as they try to overcome this trauma, while woven through with Mclemore's signature spellbinding writing and poignant magical realism.

With The Mirror Season, Anna-Marie McLemore delivers a stunning, deeply personal look at surviving the trauma of sexual assault. Graciela (a pastelería witch who knows exactly what baked goods her customers need) and Lock’s (the new kid in town on a scholarship to Ciela’s school) paths intersect one fateful night when they’re both sexually assaulted at a party. Only Ciela remembers the details of what happened, and Lock’s sudden appearance at her school dredges up those memories as she attempts to help him push back against those who try to bully and shame them. McLemore uses Magical Realism to deftly weave together a stunning tale depicting how deeply impactful and devastating these experiences often are.

I think it’s important to note that this book contains frequent flashbacks to the above-mentioned assaults and that each flashback gets progressively more detailed and graphic. In an author’s note at the conclusion of The Mirror Season, McLemore details how Ciela’s story mirrors some of her own experiences. I think that many readers will also find it to be a beautifully reflective – though devastatingly raw – read. I also think that many readers will find it to be extremely triggering, so I advise proceeding with caution if this subject matter is something you’re especially sensitive to.

First and foremost, this is an incredibly well-written book that – in my opinion – does a great job at dealing with a very difficult subject. Through Ciela, we get to see the gamut of emotions a sexual assault survivor might experience: anger, grief, pain, guilt, fear. But the heaviness of those emotions is delicately balanced with more hopeful themes of healing, reclaiming, and absolution. Additionally, McLemore does a fantastic job of not only having diverse characters but also touching upon how being in a minority affects the characters and their experience of being sexual assault survivors. I loved Ciela and Lock’s relationship, as well as Ciela’s close friendship with her ex-girlfriend, Jess. Oh, and the food? The descriptions of all the pan dulce had my mouth watering!

So, why isn’t The Mirror Season a five-star read? There were several elements within the plot taken from Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”, though I don’t think these additions were particularly necessary or used to their full potential. The shards of mirror supposedly warped the characters’ vision of the world, though neither Ciela nor Lock seemed affected in any significant or lasting way. To me, their responses to various situations seemed… if not reasonable, understandable, given the circumstances. Various items around Ciela spontaneously transformed into glass, and again, this didn’t really affect the plot in any way outside of her having to constantly try and hide these abnormalities. I realize that these elements are likely meant to be metaphorical, but something about the meshing of these metaphorical elements with the actual magic of Ciela’s pastry abilities didn’t work for me.

Content warnings: graphic on-page depictions of sexual assault, homophobia, bullying, gaslighting, some violence.

“You can make me quiet but you can’t make me forget.”

The Mirror Season is powerful and impactful, but it is also a bit hard to read at times. While it’s filled to the brim with magic and a teen girl getting lost in her pain by baking and falling in love, it’s also a story of pain and missteps. I’d say if you want to read a story about healing after sexual assault, then you should definitely pick this one up. There are quite a few situations in this story that someone could find triggering, so. (Sexual assault, bullying, gaslighting, betrayal of friendship)

“This close to him, my heart is not scar tissue around a sliver of glass. It’s a living thing, hot and luminous.”

Ciela Cristales’s world is turned upside down when she and a boy she barely knows are assaulted at the same party. She loses her gift for knowing exactly which pan dulce is right for each customer at her family’s panadería. Trees begin disappearing all around her. Mirrored glass begins to appear, shattering and burrowing into Ciela. When the boy from that night shows up at her school, Ciela discovers his name is Lock, and that his memories from the party are much fuzzier than hers. As Ciela and Lock grow closer, she knows she can never tell him about the depth of the trauma that has bound them together.

The Mirror Season deals directly with sexual assault, but does so in a way I haven’t seen before. Like all of Anna-Marie McLemore’s books, this YA novel has magical elements woven throughout in a natural, seamless way. The Mirror Season also draws inspiration from the Snow Queen fairytale, and snow, ice, and mirrors are used throughout the book to echo Ciela’s trauma. I found this to be a unique and creative way to talk about trauma, and it brought Ciela’s voice and feelings to life.

This novel is very much about two teens bound together by trauma. Ciela and Lock were assaulted at the same party, and they find themselves drawn together. As they begin to form a tentative friendship, that will grow into more than friendship, Ciela finds herself forced to confront her painful memories of that night; she’s also trying to disentangle her feelings for Lock from her pain and her trauma. Lock’s memories of that night are fuzzy, but Ciela knows who assaulted both of them, and she must grapple with this knowledge. She struggles with carrying the weight of that night on her own, while also wanting to protect Lock from the pain that comes with knowing the truth.

Ciela and Lock’s relationship is truly the center of this novel. Anna-Marie McLemore addresses how the intersection of identities is intrinsically linked to trauma. Ciela is a pansexual Latina girl, while Lock is a white boy. Ciela’s experiences as a sexual assault survivor in a queer brown body is indredibly different than Lock’s as a white male survivor. Their relationship is one born from trauma, but that eventually blossoms into beauty in its own right. Throught their friendship, Ciela and Lock find themselves both processing their pain and allowing themselves to take up space. The relationship between them constantly shifts throughout the book as they both work through their memories and trauma. This novel also deals directly with bullying, and how queer brown girls are forced to navigate the world.

While The Mirror Season is obviously about some very heavy topics, it’s also very much about family, friendship, and food. Ciela has grown up at her family’s panadería, where she’s inherited a gift from her bisabuela: she always knows exactly which pan dulce each person needs, whether it’s something sugary to soften their hearts, or the spice of cinnamon to embolden them. In the wake of her assault, Ciela finds that her gift has disappeared, and she mourns the loss of a piece of herself as well the connection between her and her bisabuela. Ciela’s family and best friend can see Ciela’s pain, but she can’t bring herself to tell them about what happened. Ciela’s connection to her family and to food feels utterly palpable, and is written in such a beautiful way.

Anna-Marie McLemore is one of my favorite authors, and The Mirror Season may be my new favorite of their books. Like their previous YA novels, this one is full of beautiful, poetic prose, and just the right hints of magic. The Mirror Season leans far more contemporary than most of their books, but still calls upon magic and fairy tales to tell its story. I found the pacing and structure to be spot-on; the story flows in a way that mirrors the constantly changing dynamics between Ciela and Lock, as well as between the two of them and their own journeys as survivors.

Readers who’ve enjoyed Anna-Marie McLemore’s previous books will love The Mirror Season, though I encourage all readers to prepare themselves and prioritize their mental health while reading. I’ll be honest and say that this was an incredibly difficult review to write. The Mirror Season carries so much depth, trauma, and pain, while also holding space for hope and resilience. There is so much more to say when it comes to this hauntingly, heartbreakingly beautiful story that I cannot even put into words. Instead, I’ll say that I’m eternally grateful to Anna-Marie McLemore for drawing upon their own experiences to give us this gift of a book. It’s one that I will never forget.

Ciela is assaulted at a summer party and nearby, she knows a boy is being hurt, too. She helps him to the hospital and doesn't expect to see him again but once the school year starts, she realizes he's attending her school - the private school where the students who assaulted them are the types whose parents donate tons of money to the school. Ciela and the boy's lives intertwine as they work through the messiness of healing from trauma.

This was near to my heart because it's set in San Juan Capistrano, a place I can actually imagine. The magical realism elements lent to the tenderness of the book, I think. Ciela is La Bruja de los Pasteles, she knows what pastries the customers entering her aunt's pastry shop want before they do. This is a gift passed down from her grandmother, but after her assault, a shard of glass buries itself in her and she loses her gift. Shards of glass start showing up around her, a physical manifestation of her trauma. McLemore pulled inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen" - in their author's note, they state, "La Reina de las Nieves is portrayed as the queen with the frozen heart. But no one asks how she came to be stripped of all her warmth. [...] No one asks if her palace of ice is a world she rules or a room she's been locked into."

This book dealt with sexual assault, race, gender, class, and sexuality in such tender and thoughtful ways. Ciela's loving family and best friend, her developing relationship with the boy who was also at the party, and the hope and care in the narrative all really pulled the story together for me. The conversations around consent, respecting others' wishes, and feeling ownership over one's own body were powerful.

I'd decided to take a break from YA fairy tale retellings. That was a clearly a mistake because I missed out on this author! I can't believe this is my first Anna-Marie McLemore book and definitely won't be my last.

The Mirror Season had beautiful, lyrical writing with a touch of magical realism. The story seemed to be loosely inspired by the Snow Queen, but I loved that it didn't try to follow the plot of the fairy tale too closely but instead reimagined it, using it more as an inspiration to tell a completely original (and way more modern) story.

Just a heads up that sexual assault and its aftermath was a significant part of the plot but the book was also about a lot of other things: family, exploring your sexual orientation, bullying, and friendship.

Looking forward to trying more of this author's books!

After being sexually assaulted at a party, Celia tries to repress the memories of that night and pretend like it never happened. She keeps quiet, knowing that no one will believe her, a brown scholarship student, versus the rich, white teens responsible for the assault. However, Celia's attempts to forget are ruined when she discovers that Lock, the boy who was sexually assaulted at the same party, is now in her class. Celia remembers what happened but Lock doesn't and she can't bring herself to tell him. As the two become friends, the unspoken events of that night fester, causing strange phenomena in town and disrupting Celia's own pastry-specific powers.

This was a very intense, heavy read. There are numerous flashbacks to the assault which gradually get more detailed and graphic. Balancing out Celia and Lock's heartbreaking struggles is the joy and healing they find in everyday life -- planting trees, cooking for their families, crocheting, and baking. Celia finds comfort in working at her family's pastelería, using her ability to divine what each customer would like best, pairing them with a confection that will help them deal with the issues in their lives.

As always, Anna-Marie McLemore's writing is lovely and lyrical, and the story is tinged with vibrant magical realism. The Mirror Season is wonderfully queer: Celia is pansexual and several supporting characters, including Celia's best friend, are queer. For fairy tale fans, this is also a unique take on the story of the Snow Queen.

The Mirror Season was a difficult book for me to read. It was hard to read about Celia and Lock's experiences and how they tried to deal with what happened to them. The bullying they experience from the classmates responsible for the assault turned my stomach. Despite the content being at times hard to get through, this is an important book about survival and what happens next.

This book is visceral and emotional and it hits you hard in the feels repeatedly. But it's also a story of survival and life and not letting the bad overtake the good.
Ciela and Lock have joined the small group of fictional characters that I just really want to gather up in a big hug and tell them it's going to be okay. They both go through so much and to read about the powerlessness they feel and to know that it's as real as all the delicious bread that Ciela's family bakes in their panaderia breaks my heart.
I don't want to go too much into the plot because the way things slowly get revealed and how each character reacts to them is as integral to the plot as the things that happen, but I will say that even with all the heartbreaking elements, it really does leave you with a very bright feeling that there is a future after.
I will recommend this to anyone who will listen, but I will do so with a very strong trigger warning. Even being as lucky as I've been and having no experience to relate it to, there are things that hit particularly hard. I can't even begin to imagine how it might hit otherwise.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for the early read!

This is a beautifully written book about an obviously heavy topic, but it's handled in a careful and extremely empathetic way (after all, the author's note discloses that the events reflect things that actually happened to them). I appreciated the way the novel focuses on sexual assault of men as well as women and how women can be rapists/abusers, since it's such an under-discussed (and highly stigmatized) topic. On a different note, I also appreciated how McLemore wove the fairy tale of the snow queen thematically and more literally into the narrative and how their narrative really adds nuanced to the already nuanced old tale. (I also loved the magical element and how whimsical the main character's abilities at her family's pasteleria are, and how this book doesn't just focus on misery or trauma by any means.)

Pros
Boys Too: This book tackles the difficult topic of assault, and it does something very important in doing so. It brings boys into the picture as victims. It brings girls into the picture as abusers. If it is hard to make the larger world believe a girl who has been assaulted, it is all the more difficult for a boy to speak and be believed when he says he didn't want it. This book brings not just Ciela's story to light but Lock's too, and this is just one step in helping others, regardless of gender, to speak up about what happened to them, what they didn't consent to do.
Fairy Tale Flavor: Though this book never fully falls into the fairy tale mode, it is full of poignant allusions. It holds the strains of fairy tale--the Snow Queen--like a distant refrain, an inspiration, an echo of that tale that is shattered and pieced together in our age. The author beautifully combines metaphor with magic into the scaffolding of this story. A slow-silvering world, courage-inducing sweet breads, and a magical forest of stolen trees: the pieces are beautiful and beautifully combined as well.
Class, Race, Sexuality: Not only does this book tackle the difficult topic of assault, it also draws into the mix several reasons why someone may not report--or feels they cannot report. Assault is definitely the focus of this book, but it encompasses so much more without those other issues (class, race, sexuality, and more) really being the point. This book offers a poignant view of how socioeconomic class affects the choices we have or think we can act upon. It brings race and racial expectations into the picture, and sexual orientation also plays a role in what can happen and what has happened. The white, straight, non-scholarship students most definitely have more privilege in this book, but their privilege manifests not in major ways, necessarily. It manifests in the little ways and counts much more for it.
Cons
Triggering Content: This book takes a hard stance on assault, and it is a stance that needs to be taken. The author writes from a place of personal experience, drawing all of that pain and confusion into the mix. Though this narrative is important, it will also be difficult for a lot of people to read, and it may be too difficult for some readers. And that's okay.
Risqué Content: Sex and sexuality are used as a coping mechanism in this book--as a way to fight back, to reclaim what was taken from the main characters. There are antics involving condoms and lewd anatomical puppets that make sense within the story but that may be a bit too much for some of the YA crowd. There is a definite tone and flavor surrounding sex that isn't for every YA reader. It is plot-necessary but may be too much for some.
Explicit Content: This book does a lot of toeing-the-line, a lot of dodging the details for the sake of Ciela's (and the reader's) sanity, but this book doesn't always dodge the issue. There are definitely some scenes that are explicit. These scenes are far from glorified. They involve assault, after all, but for the age category, many will find it too much. This is a book for older readers. What at the start may be somewhat triggering evolves to become more explicit and more on-the-page as the trauma is unraveled and the horrible scenario finally brought to life.
Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Anyone who liked the idea of Natalie Walton's Revenge of the Sluts but wanted a more nuanced execution should check out this 2021 contemporary. Those who appreciated the slow-healing of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak should check out this new narrative about reclaiming a voice and bringing horror to the light.

An absolutely beautifully written book. I was immediately pulled in by the author's poetic writing and their stunning prose. This is a book that deals with a very heavy topic that I do advise many to approach with caution.

CW: SEXUAL ASSAULT, TRAUMA

The way Anna-Marie McLemore wove in the story of the Snow Queen was seamless and such an interesting take. At first, I was confused as to if the book was fantasy due to some elements of magic and till now I wouldn't know if I would call it a fantasy book, but Ciela's trauma and the way she addresses this is woven and connected to the Snow Queen's story. I was honestly so stunned by how amazing the storytelling was.

Ciela and Lock are both survivors and their story is a strong one of self-discovery and strength. I absolutely fell for these characters and how vulnerable they are together and as individuals. The way they deal with their trauma is heartbreaking and completely bounded to reality -- there is no right way of coping with such a terrible thing.

With such a heavy topic and as a survivor, I applaud the author for their bravery and for even being able to write such a book. These things happen in reality and the realism in this book breaks my heart. I hope that people read this book with an open mind and understand it as well as the author wants us to.

This is a book I highly highly recommend if you are someone that can read through such topics. It is absolutely beautiful.

Anna-Marie McLemore's writing is immaculate as always in this story about two teenagers who are dealing with the aftermath of being sexually assaulted at the same party. While I was impressed with the writing, as I always am, there were a lot of things about this story that made me feel uneasy- and not in the way they were supposed to. There's a "plot twist" so to speak that basically revictimizes our male character and that didn't settle well with me nor did how it was handled in the book. It's becoming apparent that McLemore loves using the theme of "sexual intimacy is healing" and while it's tiring at this point, I did find it a little out of place in a book about sexual assault. While I believe people should heal any way they can, it would have been really empowering to see the book take a stance that you can heal and regain agency of yourself without having to have sex.

Thoughts and Themes: I had to give myself a few days to sit with this one before I wrote my review on it. This book is a heavy one, let me start with that, it deals with sexual assault and the aftermath of being sexually assaulted. It’s hard for me to put into words my feelings about this book and all the feelings that I had while reading it. There are so many moments in this book that I just highlighted and put an exclamation mark on because there was no words for how I felt.

I would say that my favorite part and the most heartbreaking part of this book was the author’s note that is at the end of the book. The author’s note reveals that this story is based on experiences of McLemore and a friend who were both assaulted by the same person. I briefly know the story of the Snow Queen so I liked how the Author explains the story in the end and how no one asked how the Snow Queen got to be so cold and have a frozen heart.

I really loved that this book touches on not just the sexual assault that occurs but the trauma and the healing that can take place afterwards. I really liked the aspects of magical realism that were included throughout the story and how this book was a retelling of the Snow Queen. I liked that this book gave an explanation for how someone could have their warmth taken away from them but also how they could work at taking it back.

Something else that I loved about this book was all the pan dulce that was talked about. I was debating on if I should mention this because I didn’t want to take away from the important talk about sexual assault but the pan dulce adds to the story for me. It didn’t just make me hungry but I loved that Ciela is able to figure out what type of pan dulce everyone needs but can’t figure Lock out and also is unable to use this magic for herself.

When I first finished it I felt like I wanted more to this story but after thinking about it, I like that it is left unfinished. I think leaving this story unfinished shows how there’s still work to do, and that their healing continues beyond this story. I think that leaving us without an answer honors the truths that McLemore wanted to share with us readers.

Characters: These characters are really what make the whole story work, I really enjoyed getting to know each of the characters that we get to meet in this book. I think that even our bad guys are important to this story and thought it was good they were included.

Ciela and Lock are assaulted at the same party by the same set of people who go to their high school. I thought the way that Ciela and Lock’s interactions throughout the whole story go were very well done. I liked how much emotion was put into each scene between them, whether it be one filled with love, confusion, hurt, or pain. Ciela and Lock’s relationship really stood out to me in this story because it was them ultimately deciding that they get to tell their story. I liked how this relationship changes throughout the book as it grows, destroys itself, and goes through the process with them.

I really liked getting a chance to not only see how Ciela was processing her feelings about the situation but also get to see Lock’s reaction as he figures out more about that night. As the reader, there are things that you can guess from the start and even when you figure it out, I don’t think you are prepared for the thoughts that Lock has about it all and what Ciela realizes. I think it was great to see both of their feelings on the page but also how they reconcile what others did to them, and the fact that this was done to them.

Writing Style: The story is told in first person through the perspective of our main character Ciela. I really liked that we got to see the story through her view because we get to see her process her feelings about that night. I think it was important that it was Ciela who got to share her story with us, and that we got to see other perspectives through interactions they had with her.

I thought it was great that while we get to know some of Lock’s feelings from what he tells Ciela, and what he doesn’t say, we don’t really get to see his perspective of things. I think that not including his feelings and having Ciela have to think about how he might feel, allows her to give him space as well as giving herself space. I think that Ciela thinking about Lock’s feelings on that night finally allows her the space to have feelings about that night as she tells her parents, and best friend, Jess.