Anna-Marie McLemore's THE MIRROR SEASON is such an exquisite, necessary, and empowering book. It surprisingly contemporary for McLemore, yet the main character Graciela (Ciela) is deeply rooted in her Latinx family, both in her daily life and in her magic, which is a gift from her bisabuela. This gives the story the deep connection and vivid world many of us love about McLemore's stories. The depiction of Ciela's pansexuality is fantastic and it will make many of my students feel seen. Representation matters! The complexity of pansexual representation here is especially rare (and needed), including the ways in which its used again Ciela and the ways in which her identity is erased by others because of her appearance and/or who she is dating.

Most important is the representation of Ciela and Lock as sexual assault survivors. They so beautifully reflect the complex and difficult process of dealing with such a hurt. The connection between the two characters show a range of ways in which people may (or may not) process such pain and how that may (or may not) affect the people around them.

McLemore's use of humor in THE MIRROR SEASON is unexpected and so very needed. We need to see the healing power of laughter, which is rarely shown in books with trauma and assault. I have worked with teens who process their traumas through writing and some of the most powerful outcomes have been through using humor as a way in--and through--their stories. I can't wait to put this book into their hands.

Firstly, I would like to thank MacMillan Children's Publishing group for providing a digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley as part of the Fierce Reads Recommends: W21 Sneak Peek sweepstakes from the Latinx KidLit Book Festival. The Mirror Season is a powerful novel about two people coming together as a result of a shared traumatic experience. One of the novel's central themes is how the haves are treated differently by society from the have nots. Graciela Cristales and Lock Thomas are scholarship students attending the same high school. She is Mexican while Thomas is white. PJ, Victoria, Chris, and Brigid are donor kids. Graciela and Lock are repeatedly bullied and their tormentors go unpunished. Another theme at the center of the story is that of how trauma can affect all aspects of a person's like. In Lock, Graciela finds someone who can relate to her battle with overcoming her trauma. So there is this internal struggle between gravitating towards someone who can relate to what you went through yet at the same time wanting to separate yourself from that person as their presence also serves as a reminder of the pain. It is a duality that felt real and honest throughout the story. There are also instances when the characters who faced abuse use humor and pick up hobbies as coping mechanisms. These little details really resonated with be as they contributed to the realistic portrayals of victims of abuse. The story also has a magic element that I enjoyed. Graciela has inherited magical baking skills that weaken as a result of her trauma. Her journey to overcome her trauma is also one to restore her magic. Spanish culture plays an important role in the novel. There are many references to Spanish food. There are also several phrases in Spanish throughout the book, including instances of Spanish words within sentences in English. These enhanced the storytelling for me. Lastly, there are several mentions of body positivity, which added to my appreciation of Graciela as a protagonist. The Mirror Season is a powerful story of overcoming trauma, mixed with a little magic, but with an honesty that is sure to leave an indelible mark on the reader.

TW: Sexual assault. The plot of this book deals directly and somewhat graphically with an incident of non-consensual sex involving alcohol and other substances.

To those reading this as potential readers: this book is beautiful, but difficult. There was never any way for it to not be difficult, and the heaviness is handled as well as I think it possibly could be, but if you've dealt with sexual assault, this is frankly a book that will probably be really triggering. That said, it's potentially also healing, and at the very least affirming. For anyone who hasn't dealt directly with sexual assault, and wants a difficult and complicated but truthful and unflinching perspective, this is definitely worth a read, although it will obviously not be light reading.

To those reading this as potential recommenders: I am having trouble thinking of the student to whom I would recommend this book, to be quite honest. I would never recommend it without telling a student what they're getting into, but I would have to know a student quite well to be sure this is what they could want. BUT this is the kind of book we have to have quietly on our shelves, so someone can find it when they need it. So when a peer recommends it to them in a way I don't think I could, we have it there for them to read.

More practically, I would never rip a book out of someone's hands, but I might have some hesitations about letting a younger student (we have kiddos down to 12 at my school) walk out of the library with this. Ultimately students' reading decisions are their own, but as comes up in the book, letting someone make a decision with information you know is incomplete is not harmless.

This review is a little differently structured than my usual deal, but I did want to acknowledge some kick-ass things about the book beyond subject matter. The magical realism strikes a perfect balance, where it can't be assigned just to the character's perspective, but it's also not entirely clear what exactly is and isn't happening. Also this book is stuffed full of rich, rounded characters, even in tiny roles. The world of the book feels so real and vivid. Finally, this book made my stomach growl any number of times with amazing food descriptions! I need to read some of McLemore's other books so I have something by them I can more easily recommend.

I hope I've given enough warning that anyone who picks this book up feels like they know what they're getting into-- if you feel up to it, this book is stunning.

Thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, the Fierce Reads team, and Netgalley for my eARC of The Mirror Season.

Now.

This is not a happy story. Healing is often more pain than reward. I urge readers to take caution as it goes heavily into triggering topics.

Graciela, Ciela for short, and Lock have been violated at the same party, but only Ciela truly knows the depths of what took place. As we travel through this novel we watch her navigate her grief, anger, and pain at what was done to her, along with the burden of the guilt she feels. There were many beautiful moments filled with lovely prose and imagery, and I adored the Spanish interwoven all throughout. This is a book of grief, the social implications of what it means to confront those with privilege, and the weight of guilt and not knowing, but it is also one of reclamation, healing, and the absolving of shame you don't deserve. So overall, it was...good.

But then......why 2.5/3 stars?

Because a decision is made with full knowledge that someone else involved doesn't have that I found completely unnecessary, deeply unsettling, and incredibly upsetting in a book filled with deeply unsettling and incredibly upsetting moments. I'm not going to go into depth because it is a HUGE SPOILER. But I truly believe that it didn't need to be done the way it was and I'm so angry that it happened in this book that is, for the most part, written well with some truly stunning moments that have the potential to leave a deep impact. The timing of this specific moment changed everything for me. It completely altered my experience as a whole.

I honestly can't wait until more people read this so I can truly discuss. Maybe I'm seeing it wrong. I just wish wish wish that one specific moment didn't happen the way it did.

Honestly, I don't know what else to say.

4 stars

This is a very challenging novel because of an obvious circumstance: its subject matter. The entire novel - from the first page to the last - centers on rape and resulting trauma, and the depictions are close up, honest, and unflinching. Readers need to be aware of both the subject matter and the directness with which it is portrayed before they choose to proceed.

Those folks who are able to make it to the reading stage will receive a number of pay offs. As is the case in all of McLemore's work, this writer has a skill with symbolism and description that stands out the best way. The use of the Snow Queen tale, the glass/mirror imagery, what happens with the trees, the pan dulce, and the list goes on, creates added textural and sensory components to an already layered tale.

There are some twists that make the narrative even more difficult to manage, and McLemore's note at the end of the work highlights how and why the portrayal is so in-depth and raw. It is not to be missed.

At times, I did feel a bit frustrated by aspects of the repetition, but I can also see how this stylistically enhances the theme and the way traumatic memories reveal themselves.

Overall, this is a very difficult read because of the subject matter and the up close view, but readers who can manage the content will benefit from the style and grace through which it is relayed.

An absolutely gorgeous piece of writing from Anna-Marie McLemore. Their previous books have been ones that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but The Mirror Season was one that blew me away. The writing is so polished and beautiful and every bit of prose just hit me so hard

The Mirror Season is told by Cristales, or Ciela as she is also called. Ciela and Lock were both hurt on the same summer night at the same party. Ciela didn't know Lock before that night, and she isn't sure what happened to him, but she knows he was hurt and she had to help him. The rest of the summer she tried to make her life as normal as possible, but that becomes impossible when school starts and she sees Lock again. We as readers don't really know what happened that night, because Ciela is blocking her memoriies and Lock doesn't remember much at all. It's heartbreaking as we watch their memories come back and feel their pain come crashing back worse than ever.

This is a hard, important story. Hurt, despair, heartache, anger, mixed with magic as only Anna-Marie McLemore can do.

The Mirror Season by Anne-Marie Mclemore is a story about two teens finding out that they were both sexually assaulted at the same party and slowly the two began to develop a friendship filled with trees, pastries, and magical shards of glass.

Immediately, I knew that this book would most likely be both incredibly beautiful and horribly tragic. I’ve become familiar with Mclemore’s writings over the years and know they manage to somehow weave magic into their words. It’s not just the fact that they are writing these amazing magical realism stories, but the way they write is so lyrical and the sentences just flow so easily. I finished this book in the span of a day really. I simply couldn’t put it down and before I realized what was happening, I had read chunks of it.

This book made me so incredibly angry and just slightly hopeful for these characters. Cristales, or Ciela as some people call her, is the one telling the story. Not only did she survive something very horrible, but so did someone else. Someone she didn’t know, but she knew she had to help him. Ciela tries very hard to forget what happened to her. All summer she tried to imagine things going back to normal, but then the first day of school starts and in walks Lock Thomas, the boy she saved who doesn’t remember what happened that night.

Just like Lock who doesn’t remember what happened, we as the reader don’t really know either. Ciela can’t talk about it, doesn’t want to think about it, even though some of the memories return when she had to face the people who did this to her. Slowly we learn more and more about who she was and who she’s become as well as seeing her friendship with Lock grow and how together they find a way to help each other. Though things seem to come crashing down around Ciela as the secrets she tried to hide start coming out.

The author did an amazing job writing this story and I’m glad it was written. I honestly think it’s a book that everyone should read and I can't wait for it to be published so every can. This has probably been one of my favorite reads this year.