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Fiction. Science Fiction. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:In this twisting time-travel thriller, a woman faints on the eve of her wedding�??and awakens at the turn of the century in her grandmother's body . . . The night before she is supposed to get married, Shay Garrett has no idea that a glimpse into her grandmother's antique Chinese mirror will completely transform her seemingly ordinary life. But after a bizarre blackout, she wakes up to find herself in the same house�??but in the year 1900. Even stranger, she realizes she is now living in the body of her grandmother, Brandy McCabe, as a young woman. Meanwhile, Brandy, having looked into the same mirror, awakens in Shay's body in the present day�??and discovers herself pregnant. As Rachael�??the woman who links these two generations, mother to one and daughter to another�??weaves back and forth between two time periods, this imaginative thriller explores questions of family, identity, and love. Courageous, compassionate Shay finds herself fighting against the confines of a society still decades away from women's liberation, while Brandy struggles to adapt to the modern world she has suddenly been thrust into. The truth behind this inexplicable turn of events is more complex than either woman can imagine�??and The Mirror is a tribute to the triumph of the female spirit, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. "What happens will surprise you. In the meantime, settle down for a good read." �??… (more)
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My all-time favorite book is Jack Finney's time travel book, [Time and Again] and I have to say that this
Picture a young woman, on the verge of being married in 1978 (which was the present-day when it was written) being thrown back to inhabit her young grandmother's body in 1900 just as the grandmother was about to be married. Further, the young 1900 grandmother is brought forward to inhabit her 1978 granddaughter's body. It's the story of the grandmother, granddaughter, and their daughter/mother.
For me, besides enjoying the story, I found it to be quite thought-provoking. I kept thinking about whether it'd be tougher for a 1970s girl to go back and live life in the early 20th century or the early 20th century girl coming forward to live life in the late 1970s.
I also wondered quite a bit about how, if this whole body switch thing could’ve been reversed, would that be a good thing, or not.
This might well be the best book no one's ever heard of. Absolutely loved it!!!
Setting: Boulder, Colorado in 1900 and 1978
SciFi/Time Travel
It's 1978 in Boulder, Colorado, and Shay Garrett finds herself on the eve of
her wedding. After looking into an ugly heirloom mirror, Shay passes out and
wakes up in her bedroom, but it's 1900 and
Brandy McCabe--her grandmother. It is the eve of Brandy's wedding. Rumor in
town has it that Brandy is crazy, so when she begins to act even crazier
than usual, it's chalked up to her past behavior...and an attempt to get out
of the marriage being forced upon her by her father. Going through with the
marriage, Shay moves with her husband to a small town up in the mountains
outside Boulder, keeping the mirror with her so she can keep trying to get
back to her own life.
The book has three main sections: Shay living Brandy's life, Brandy living
as Shay, and Rachel who's the mother of Shay and the daughter of Brandy. A
lot of research went into this book--the history of Boulder, the ins and
outs of the characters' genealogy, and the time periods. Even the portrayal
of that blasted mirror is well-done and creepy. I found this to be a
page-turner!
Brandy was going to run away the night before her forced marriage when the mirror takes her to 1978. She finds herself in Shay’s body and her grandmother dead on the floor in her bedroom. The grandmother is Shay in Brandy’s body (it can get a little confusing at times). Brandy does not understand this new time period. She feels that everyone is not dressed appropriately. Brandy retreats into herself and waits for Shay to figure out the mirror. Her family thinks something is wrong with her and are contemplating putting her in a mental asylum (real caring family). After sleeping so much, her family calls in a doctor. Brandy is pregnant (and shocked since she is a virgin). When her family talks about an abortion, Brandy runs away. Luckily for Brandy she is taken in by a nice, eccentric, elderly man. He helps her to stay hidden from her family.
When The Gingerbread House is robbed, the diary is found. Rachel ends up reading it and finally understands what happened to her daughter. It also explains a lot about her mother. You will have to read The Mirror to find out what happens! I have to admit that I put off reading this novel because it was so very long. But once I started reading it, I could not put it down. A little over half of the book is taken up with Shay’s story (with her in Brandy’s body). We then get to find out what happens to Brandy in Shay’s body. I truly enjoyed this book. The only thing I did not like was Brandy in Shay’s body. She made no attempt to read books and understand the time period she was in (or her new life). She acted like some fragile woman with no brain (it was insulting). Otherwise, this was a great book to read. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It is well-written and I loved the plot. The writer even left it so there could be more books as the mirror continues on with its adventure.
I received a complimentary copy of The Mirror from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.
Modern-day (well, 1978) Shay, on the night before what promises to be a loveless marriage, is given a family heirloom as a present: a grotesque mirror. Gazing into it as a thunderstorm rages outside, she is suddenly transported back to the turn of the century to occupy the body of her grandmother
In a way The Mirror is a sort of inverted generational novel: certainly it doesn't read like a fantasy despite having a fantasticated premise and despite the fact that, for obvious reasons, so much of it deals with its main protagonists tackling problems consequent upon that fantastication. Most of the logic of the situation is meticulously worked out, though there does seem one major flaw: In 1978, Grandmother Brandy, who long ago suffered a stroke and cannot communicate, arrives for Shay's wedding, and she dies in the moment that the mirror makes the Shay/Brandy swap, on the basis that there can't be two Brandys at the same time. However, Grandmother Brandy is in fact Shay, grown old in Brandy's body, and there have been two Shays coexisting without disaster for as long as modern-day Shay has lived. There's no evident reason why Shay-in-Brandy couldn't coexist with Brandy-in-Shay.
Reading The Mirror is an enjoyable way to spend some time, and its interwoven tales are moderately involving, but in truth the book doesn't have a whole lot new to offer. Ideal for the beach, perhaps.
Ok done. Not horror, not sci-fi or fantasy, just a neat story about a couple of different young women who have an amazing adventure. I liked the descriptions of how each reacted to her new time-period - it really helped the reader see each time with a fresh and more observant perspective.
Lots of details about communities in Colorado in the very early 1900s. All the extra characters and sub-plots were interesting, too. Because the main characters are healthy young women, there's some sex, and also there's some fighting and skeletons etc, but the overall 'yuck factor' is pretty low in my opinion.
I guess you could call it a ghost story because it did leave me with that same unsatisfied feeling the few others I've read did. That is, the unresolved mystery, the supernatural element that we're to just accept as unbelievable but also as still real.
Everyone/ anyone *might* enjoy it, but a sheltered older teen girl is probably the best audience. I would have worn my copy to shreds when I was 17 and didn't know what sex was and was intrigued by Feminists.
I hear it's hard to find. My ILL had only one copy. If you want to read it, check your library soon, before they run another cull. Otherwise, I don't think it's so amazing you need to pay big bucks for a 'rare' copy.
The novel is divided into three parts, the first of which is my favourite by far. It’s fascinating to observe how a young woman from 1978 copes with life in 1900 and onwards, not to mention being trapped in her grandmother’s 20-year-old body.
The troublesome mirror that causes the time swap, plus much more chaos besides, is a character in its own right. The idea behind it and the story on the whole is an admirable feat on the author’s part. A narrative of this scale may easily be flawed but I didn’t spot any continuity errors or anything of an implausible nature whatsoever.
Without giving anything away, I was slightly disappointed in the ending, as it seemed to fade-out, feeling a little flat. That’s not to say the ending was poor, because it wasn’t, but I’d hoped for something stronger after such a fantastic read.
It's a time-travelling saga of how a cursed mirror twists the lives of the women of one family.
In 1978, Shay Garrett is on the verge of marriage to a wealthy and handsome man. But
At first, she is obsessed with finding a chance to return to her own life, but as time crawls on, she gradually learns to adjust to life in an earlier period.
A good part of the way through the book, we switch perspectives and find out what happened to the grandmother, Brandy. At that point, I have to admit that I had a few moments where it felt a bit repetitive, but soon enough I was interested in Brandy's experiences in 1978 as well. After all, from the perspective of a reader in 2015, both 1900 and 1978 are almost equally 'historical' settings! And, in the end, it needs both to provide the balance that the tale's ending gives it.
Many thanks to Open Road Media for providing me with the opportunity to read this book, and bringing attention to a tale that may have fallen into obscurity. As always, my opinions are solely my own.
There was another book I read (A Will of Their Own) around the same time that also dealt with a trio of women throughout the 20th century. Vastly
Partially I'm not fond of hearing about the bygone way folk lived*. I did find it fascinating as the town/environment that Shay remembered so well changed so much in the 70ish years she was Brandy. It slowly grew into the world that Shay was familiar with, but by the time the world caught up to the kind of life Shay was comfortable with, she couldn't appreciate it as much.
In the end I'm glad to have reread this, equally glad it's an ebook. While it's not to my tastes any more, it's long bugged me I couldn't remember enough of it to think on WHY young me loved it.