Talking sparrows, whispering woods and endless drama has been the essence of our stories and fables. The charming prince and a conversing mirror still hold a safe place in our hearts. This is the sole reason we crawl back once in a while to the world of fantasy where everything is possible.
For those who love to once in a while forget the boundaries of possibilities and immerse themselves in stories from dreamland, Cecelia Ahren has compiled two short stories in a book. One of the lesser known works of the author, ‘The Girl In The Mirror’ is by no means disappointing. The author has brought together the world of fantasy and realism together and woven two great stories.
Cover
Based on the first story by the author, the cover page is a composition of a beautiful mirror and butterflies. The garden themed cover page only looks much more appealing on the hard cover edition that I hold. Though the book is smaller than other books on the shelf, it sits pretty there.
Characters
The book is a collection of two short stories. Grellie and Lila are the two main characters of the first story. They share a loving bond. Grellie has a strange phobia. She likes to keep all the mirrors in the house covered with a black sheet. She loves to bake at strange hours and has never left her house after losing her eyes. Lila, like her friends, finds it strange too but she loves her grandma too much to confront her. The two characters are very peculiar. They are unique in their own way. The author is not very descriptive about them since it is a short story. This lightens the burden and makes the characters more interesting.
The second story is about an old man who has a machine which can make memories. He has melancholy in his mannerisms. He is smart to distinguish between the fakers and the true souls but he is trying to mend his own memory. Another beautiful character invented by the author.
Content
The book is a collection of two short stories.
The first story is about a grandma and her daughter. The blind grandma lives atop a hill in a spooky house. She is visited by her granddaughter often. Lila is vary of the strange behaviour too,especially by the covered mirrors in her house. These mirrors cease to bother her till the day she is about to marry the love of her life. The turn of events change her life upside down. This story with not a great ending is going to be embedded in the reader’s memory.
The second story is about the old man who possess the memory machine. With this machine he can add memories to a sequence of events. He cannot change them, just add something more to it. He is desperately trying to hold on to a memory from his past and trying to change a tiny bit which means a lot to him. Another story brilliantly written, the author surprises the readers here too.
Language
The stories are written in short and simple sentences. The candid relationships between the characters in the two stories is worth appreciating. The fantasy element of the stories is kept intact even though these are happening in recent times.
Good Points
The cover page is beautiful. The stories are the ones you would want to tell your children about. The concept is very interesting. The fantasy in the stories breathes life into the books. Floating in the air in a distant land not very different from ours, is how the narration makes one feel.
Bad Points
Otherwise a brilliant composition, the book is smaller than other books one may come across. It may have been better to retain the regular size than making it this small.
Overall
Even though it is a lot different from ‘Flawed’ which is the first book I read from the author, this one does not disappoint either.
Who do I recommend this to
This book is for those who like a little bit of magic in their day to day life.
Quotable Quotes
He is neither a doctor nor a scientist. Some consider him a psychologist, but he is not that either. He is merely a man who has loved, and for that he has acquired a wealth of experience, not just for what he does now and is known around the world for, but for his life.
And he doesn’t believe that fate brought him to where he is now either. Now does he believe in fate. Accidents happen. That’s just what they are. Accidents.
Because I know how a moment can pass - how you’ve really wanted to say something to someone or do something, but something happens and you don’t, and you almost want to explode afterwards because you didn’t do it.