We all know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. But we don’t know a lot about the wicked queen, and we know even less about her magic mirror. “Mira, Mirror” by Mette Ivie Harrison takes us on a journey through a different perspective of the fairy tale, into the past of the wicked queen and that mirror.
The book is told through the point of view of Mira, a young girl who doesn’t possess any real beauty of her own. She is sold to the neighborhood witch for a cord of firewood, and becomes an apprentice to the witch, who also has another young girl living there as well. The other girl, named Amanda, was already quite talented in the dark arts, and she taught Mira how to take the magic from things around her and use it for her own gain. Amanda’s goal was to be beautiful, and every time she stole magic, mostly from dying animals, she used that magic to tweak her appearance a little bit. She also changed a few things about Mira, too, but never as much as she changed herself.
Mira knew that Amanda craved power, but she never expected what came next. Amanda found a beautiful mirror, and, using her skill, imprisoned Mira inside it. She cast a spell that would allow Mira to transform her into the most beautiful woman in the world, but she never gave Mira enough power to release herself from the mirror. For a hundred years Mira hung on a wall in an old cottage, waiting for the day when she would be released from her spell, but one day Amanda stopped coming, and Mira believed her dead.
After many years of being alone, a young girl happened upon the cottage, and Mira convinced her to take her along. She wove a spell to help the girl’s dreams come true, not expecting her own release to come about as well, and certainly not expecting friendship and forgiveness. All this did take place, though, in a very unusual way, bringing this surprising, fascinating, and beguiling story to a highly satisfactory ending.
(This book was published in 2004 by Viking.)
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