The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow (book review)

GENRE: YA Fantasy

LENGTH: 477 pages

 

PLOT

On the eve of her arranged wedding, Ying Yue is dragged into a mirror by her reflection. She discovers a hidden world inhabited by reflections of everyone from her world who are cursed to mimic them. When the reflections pose a threat, she must find a way to close the barrier between their worlds.

 

CHARACTERS

This novel is a chosen one narrative – Ying Yue (referred to mostly as Ying) is foretold to be the one who can close the barrier. When I first learned of this novel months ago she was one of the aspects I was most excited about as she was pitched as a princess warrior of sorts. Unfortunately, she was infuriating as a protagonist. She was naïve, impulsive, and refused to communicate her thoughts and feelings for no real justifiable reason outside of to cause friction for the plot.

I would classify this book as a fantasy romance (or romantasy). There is a love triangle of sorts between Ying and her real husband, Prince Zhang Lin, and his refection the Mirror Prince. Both have a tendency to be overprotective. I preferred the real prince almost the entire time because he had more depth to his character than the Mirror Prince. This book should definitely be rated PG-13 as there is an intimate scene that, while mostly glossed over, is still more than you might expect in a YA book.

The Mirror people/Reflections had so much potential to be sympathetic antagonists. They were all cursed based on the actions of one. They live a miserable existence. They have every reason to want to invade the ‘real’ world. Yet, with one real exception, they are cartoonishly evil which was disappointing.

 

WRITING

The novel is told from Ying’s perspective. This is a standalone (a lesser common thing in the fantasy genre). The writing, especially when it comes to the romance, leans poetic with beautiful metaphors. Chow wastes no time dropping you right into the action of this story. The first chapter does a fantastic job of gripping the reader. The entire novel is pretty fast paced.

The novel is a blending of Chow’s own ideas along with taking from aspects of Chinese history, culture, and mythology. The mythology is always my favorite part of books like this – it’s the selling point for me. I love reading about other culture’s mythology because – just like Ying’s character – I yearn to inhabit a world like in the storybooks.

The novel explores two topics. The first is humans being the real monsters (one we’ve seen time and time again though we never seem to learn from it like fairytales are intended to teach us). The second is misogyny within Ying’s community and how women are seen as weaker and must scheme to gain power that is handed to men (again, a pretty common touchstone, but as a feminist I’m always going to support these narratives). These topics aren’t really full addressed, however, more so acknowledged but never truly resolved within the narrative.

I would put a trigger warning for sexual harassment/assault in one scene of this book in which a man perpetuates this against Ying, so be mindful of that.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was one of my most anticipated releases/reads of the year. As someone who hopes to one day be a published YA fantasy author, I preordered this book as I want to support debut authors in this genre. I was fully confident this would be a 5 or at least almost 5 star read for me, but I was sadly mistaken.

There's so much good here - the concept, the pacing, the flowery prose. There are two things I think would have really elevated this novel. First and foremost, Ying should be replaced as the protagonist. Secondly, some characters and topics need just a tad more depth to them. I understand Chow is limited in this second one by it being a standalone, but I still think it could have been managed.

I still plan to pick up Chow's next book because I think she shows real promise - I've no doubt her craft will improve as her career continues.

FINAL RATING: 3⭐️