review
Critically acclaimed for their audacious style and fast-paced narratives, Bronsky’s first two novels have already found an enthusiastic young readership in both German and English. Mirror Child, the first in a new Young Adult trilogy, is the ambitious story of a teenager’s awakening to the adult world, her search for identity and her rebellion against a restrictive status quo.
Juli comes home from school to find her mother gone. When no one else is willing to help, Juli sets out to look for her. The order of Juli’s world, populated by ‘normal’ people and the ‘freaks’ who are kept safely at bay, is shattered when she discovers a despised third caste to which her mother belongs, the ‘phairies’ who have magical powers. With the help of a strange new girl, Juli also finds out that her mother is an artist. Her pictures are said to act as mirrors, revered by ‘freaks’ and feared by the ‘normal’, and they prove to be doors into a parallel world.
Bronsky’s deadpan narrative is perfectly counterpoised by the dark and increasingly fantastical world it describes. Juli finds her mother, but also discovers that her sister has most probably inherited her phairy abilities. Her mission is by no means over …
All recommendations from Spring 2012