Tuesday, January 12, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Mirror: Broken Wish by Julie C Dao

 



The Mirror is a four book YA Fantasy series being published by Disney through its Hyperion imprint, which was hyped up a little bit back in the beginning of 2020 (and then seemingly not at all afterwards?  It might just be I am not in the right circles).  The books are being written by four decently known women of color authors, Julie C Dao, Dhonielle Clayton, J.C. Cervantes, and L.L. McKinney, three of whom I've read before and enjoyed at least a little (even if I don't think I've really loved any of those 7 books I've read and haven't ever read anything from Cervantes).  The series is based upon a fantasy magically cursed and possessing a magic mirror as a heirloom, with each novel detailing a new generation and setting for the family to continue its story.  The combination of the authors involved as well as the generational framework over multiple novels made this book, The Mirror: Broken Wish, which starts the series, of decent interest to me.  

And Broken Wish is a pretty well done novel by Julie C Dao, even if it feels a bit more like a beginning than a complete story.  Set in mid 1800s Hanau Germany, the story follows a young girl with a magical talent for seeing the future and a poor witch who has been abandoned by all those she tried to trust.  It feels very much like Dao's first novel, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns - not in being the story of someone turning to evil, but in how it essentially serves as an origin story for the series' titular mirror and ends in a rather dark fashion.  As you might expect from the first book in a four book series, do not expect a happy ending here, but what this book does contain is generally a well told story that keeps me interested in reading book 2 next year.  

----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
Agnes and Oskar moved to the town of Hanau, Germany in the 1840s, desperate to start a new life where no one would care about Oskar's bastardly origins.  Oskar is desperate to create and maintain a good reputation for the two of them with the town, but when Agnes's gift-giving to her new neighbors result in her striking up a friendship with the estranged woman Mathilda, Oskar is afraid that their connection will result in their disgrace.  Mathilda, thought to be a witch, offers Agnes a potion that will help her have children in exchange for nothing more than Agnes' lasting friendship and Agnes accepts....but when Oskar convinces Agnes to cut off ties with Mathilda, the strange woman is heartbroken and moves away for good.  

Years later, Agnes and Oskar have managed to have three kids, but know themselves to be suffering from a curse as a result of Agnes' betrayal: for every two good things that happen to them, one bad thing happens as well.  And the first of their children, 16 year old Elva, shows a strange magical gift: the ability to see the past or future in reflective surfaces.  Terrified still of being estranged from the community they've grown into, Elva's parents warn her to keep her talent hidden and to avoid such surfaces if she can.

But when Elva foresees a disaster, she decides she cannot simply ignore her powers anymore and so she seeks out the only one able to help: The legendary Witch of the North Woods, who might be the very person who once cursed her family all those years ago.  But what she finds is a woman still heartbroken from prior betrayals, a woman she comes to love as an aunt, whom she feels determined to help....despite the hateful prejudices the townspeople have towards her and her powers.....
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Broken Wish begins as the story of Agnes for its first 20% before jumping a generation to Agnes' daughter Elva.  It's a story of earnest young women fighting against prejudice and expectations in very different ways but also very much the story of Mathilda, a woman who has endured those prejudices in heartbroken loneliness for her entire life.  There is magic in this world, invested in people like Mathilda and Elva and others, but there is also the ugly realities of mid 19th Century Europe, where outsiders to the accepted order (especially women) are mistrusted and mistreated...at best.  

Again, into this world we have three women: Agnes, Elva, and Mathilda, even if most of the story is told from Elva's third person perspective.  Agnes is a well meaning woman whose kindness endears her to Mathilda - who has known no such kindness in her life.  But Agnes is too scared to go against the established rules of society and that fear is repeatedly stoked by her husband Oskar, who is deathly afraid of what will happen to them if they acquire a bad reputation.  It's a fear that overwhelms her good intentions repeatedly - first in making her break her promise to Mathilda and later in trying to suppress Elva's use of her powers.  Agnes is the type of person ashamed of the cruelties she knows she has committed...but will still keep doing them out of fear.  

By contrast her daughter Elva has Agnes' kindheartedness but lacks that fear: she believes there is good in the world and that she can act to make things better if she tries hard enough.  She believes that she can have a good life with the man she loves, who she can trust with her secret, and when she finds out about Mathilda, she believes that she can get the older woman to leave her isolation, where her presence will force the town to accept her.  Elva is unfortunately a bit naïve about these things - the world of mid 1800s Europe is not one that is accepting of outsiders but her intentions are pure and its hard not to love her for them - and to hope that things will turn out well.  

Mathilda's story is of someone essentially broken by that prejudice.  Even before Agnes, she was betrayed by someone she trusted, and then Agnes' own betrayal resulted in her sealing herself away magically into total solitude.  So when Elva tries desperately to bring her back into the light of view, she is highly resistant - she knows how this is likely to go.  And when Elva appears for a moment to have broken a promise, she withdraws even further, refusing to accept apology or explanation - in essence being a slight bit as judgmental as the people she despises.  Mathilda's heart is frozen cold by the time Elva gets to her, even if Mathilda has never been anything but well meaning, and it's so hard not to be heartbroken as a result of it.  

The intertwining of these three characters combines to create a plot where practically nothing that happens is surprising....and yet it's hard not to get drawn in all the same.  It's a story - as noted above - of well meaning people ostracized just for being different and of the different ways one reacts to such prejudice and how much anyone can really fight back against such ingrained hatred.  The result is a bit heartbreaking - again do not expect a happy ending here - and it's not really a fully satisfying one: it very much sets up the books to come, even if those books will take place generations in the future.  But it's still captivating and sets up perhaps the hope that things will change for the better, and that the people who were broken by this world can find happiness in the future, and the book is short - a little more than 300 pages in large print paperback - so the fact that this ending isn't fully satisfying on its own isn't as much of a problem as it might otherwise be.

My biggest issue with this book is what is missing from the setting and story.  The Prejudice described in this book is of women who dabble in witchcraft, of men who are born out of wedlock, and of two women in the past who loved each other.  There is no mention of religious prejudice here, or even of religion at all, which is kind of disappointing: I know this is a Disney book, and thus suggesting that Christianity has some flaws might not be allowed, but it's kind of a big source for all of the above prejudice - and of other prejudices this book does not include (as a Jewish person, this is kind of a thing that hits home).  Moreover, other than the side presence of the Brothers Grimm, there is really little about this setting that really makes the setting feel specifically like it takes place in Hanau or Germany as opposed to any other place in mid 19th Century Europe (again the lack of religion here is a notable omission).  The next three books take place in New Orleans, San Francisco and New York, all somewhat iconic locations in their time periods, so hopefully they'll do better on this front.  

Still, this is a really interesting character focused story and the start of something that looks like it might become something special.  It's very much on the Middle-Grade side of YA (don't expect anything more than kissing to happen romantically), but it's well done and I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here  
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