While I didn’t enjoy Mirror, Mirror as much as some of the Twisted Tales novels that came before it, I still found this to be a fun, quick read.

The characters felt much more developed than they were in the original Disney film. Henri, the prince, not only had a name this time around, but had a personality beyond simply being a Disney prince™️. Snow White, though still the innocent girl I remember her being, was a couple of years older and much fiercer. Even the seven dwarfs, who unfortunately didn’t get as much attention as I would’ve liked, were inexplicably charming.

Ingrid, rightfully nicknamed the Evil Queen, also got more development in this novel. In the film, as I recall, she was simply obsessed with being the fairest in the land. But here, despicable as she was, she had a name, a backstory, emotions. Between the flashbacks scattered throughout the story and her own present-time narrative, she had more depth as both a character and as an antagonist.

Snow and Henri’s slow-burn romance was delightful. I was curious to see how Calonita handled it, as the original film and so many other older Disney stories suffer from insta-love narratives, and I wasn’t disappointed. Snow’s quest to reclaim the throne was rightfully prioritized while their relationship simmered in the background, growing over mutual goals, shy glances, and bold tales.

The second half of the story did, admittedly, feel incredibly similar to a typical YA rebellion plot, but I’m not bothered. Every so often, one comes across a book that isn’t the most original but is simply fun to read; for me, this novel was like that.

Unfortunately, this story did also have its share of flaws. One thing I noticed while reading is that, though the story did hook me, I didn’t feel the same sense of urgency to discover what happened next, as I did in previous Twisted Tales installments. In those cases, I would finish a chapter and want to continue, reluctant to pause for any reason. This time around, I was interested, but also had no problem pausing to spend the rest of the morning playing The Sims 4.

I also believe that the inclusion of the prologue was detrimental. Not only did it confuse me when I first started it reading, it lessened the impact of the final chapters, as the scene described in the prologue is reused, almost word for word, later on. The only real difference was that it was in context, properly placed in the story. Most of the time I have nothing against prologues, whether they’re included or not. And while I wouldn’t consider it a spoiler, as this specific event is referenced in the novel’s tagline, it did somewhat detach me from the story. Instead of feeling shocked or concerned, I remained mostly neutral.

My primary issue, however, was with the pacing. Over the past couple of years, I’ve realized that with shorter novels, pacing can be quite tricky. If a story progresses too quickly, it’s rushed; if it doesn’t progress quickly enough, it drags. In this instance, I feel like Calonita took too long to reach the story’s climax. Planning for the big finale didn’t truly begin until I was about seventy-five pages away from the end, and the actual showdown was handled in the final fifty. After all of the obstacles Snow White and company overcame, after seeing just how ruthless Ingrid could be, the end felt a bit anticlimactic. I know I shouldn’t compare this novel with the last two I’ve read, as each was written by a different person, but in each of them, the final hundred or so pages were wild and made my heart pound before tying everything up in a nice bow. I’d hoped for that to be the case in this novel as well, but in that, I was disappointed.

However, the very end was done well. In both Reflection and Part of Your World, I was happy with the story’s end but hungry for more details. But here, while I certainly wouldn’t mind more information regarding both the royalty and the romance, I was satisfied with how Calonita concluded the story.

All in all, Mirror, Mirror had its shortcomings, but it was a fun story regardless. I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to seeing Calonita’s take on Frozen in the upcoming retelling, Conceal, Don’t Feel. It’s one of my favorite animated movies released in the last decade, so I’m eager to pick up the related novel as soon after its release as possible.

CW: abuse, death of a parent, grief, murder