Representation: Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Physical injury in the past, blood depiction, self-harm, anxiety, near-death experience
Score: Six and a half out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.
It looks like I finally got around to reading this one. Mirror to Mirror by Rajani LaRocca was a novel-in-verse I hadn't heard of, but it was a recommendation. It was difficult to get this one as no library had it physically, so I got an eBook edition instead. I glanced at the intriguing blurb, but when I closed the final page, the book wasn't what I expected.

It starts with a prologue where I see Maya and Chaya, before it cuts to the story after a few pages. The plot describes Maya as down-to-earth while Chaya is more extroverted, and the POV switches between them each chapter. Mirror to Mirror is surprisingly heavy for a narrative targeted at a younger audience, especially in the first half spanning 200 pages, where Maya does self-harm (and gets away with it,) all in the guise of achieving perfection. Maya has anxiety, but at no point in Mirror to Mirror does she receive any mental health support, which concerned me, and sent a message that it's acceptable to ignore mental illnesses.

The beginning started off well, but the last 150 pages dampened the mood with a jarring juxtaposition, as Maya had had enough, so she switched classes with Chaya, even when they attend the same summer camp. The characters were likable, but hard to connect or relate with, and the multiple first POVs got confusing--I almost couldn't tell which was which. Perhaps the 3rd POV would've worked better, but the Indian American representation was an appreciated touch. The pacing is slow, too. Did the work need that part when it detracted from the central storyline? I felt LaRocca wrote that as an afterthought, and a copy of The Parent Trap, but without the parents. The climax is dramatic, yet predictable, as I knew the plan would fall apart in the end. It did, as the twins' parents discovered they swapped and lived each other's lives for the entire time. Maya's anxiety is magically gone as well, which I didn't find satisfying.

I expected a deep exploration of mental health, but this was not it. The poetry was okay, but it was more spaced-out prose than real poetry. Adding poetic devices would improve Mirror to Mirror. ( )

Twins Chaya and Maya take turns telling their story. Maya is wound tightly and is spiraling with some mental health concerns. Chaya develops some strategies to get her to reconnect but she realizes her sister needs more help than she can give.
This leads to a rift between the two very close sisters.

Chaya branches out to develop new interests because she believes that competition is making her sister's stree and perfectionism worse. ( )

Identical twins Maya and Chaya look alike and have similar interests, but inside they are different: Maya has anxiety, and believes that she brought seven years of bad luck on her family when she broke a mirror. Chaya wants Maya to get help for her anxiety, but when Maya refuses to tell their parents, Chaya decides the best thing she can do for her sister is to allow her to shine on her own - so Chaya changes up her activities, her music, and her friendships. But Maya doesn't understand why Chaya is changing, and the sisters begin to grow apart. They decide to switch places at their summer camp for a bet: the winner gets to decide where they'll both go to high school. But they don't fool their parents, their little brother Neel, or their best friends, Anisa and Jay, and eventually the truths come out.

Quotes

Sometimes she drowns
in possibilities. (8)

How can we make amends
for something we did
before we were born?
From lives
we can't remember? (25)

I prefer music
to words.
Music can go places
words can't reach. (37)

If I think of all the bad things
that could happen,
maybe
they won't.
I'm constantly aware
of danger in the air. (81)

Mistakes are just the beginning
of getting things right (Dad to Maya, 176)

I'm scared of lots of things, he says.
I just try anyway. (Jay to Chaya-pretending-to-be-Maya, 280)

There is music in the pauses
between notes.
There is life in the pauses
between moments
when you don't know
if anything
will ever be the same. (313) ( )