“I’m not scared at all anymore. My rage, strengthened by years of struggle, is a powerful beast rattling my rib cage. Ready to be unleashed.”

Book title

Mirror Girls

Author

Kelly McWilliams

Date published

08-02-2022

Date started

14-02-2022

Date finished

16-02-2022

Page count

320

Stars

3

Summary

As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia.

Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from mirrors—the sign of a terrible curse. Meanwhile, in Harlem, Charlie’s beloved grandmother falls ill. Her final wish is to be buried back home in Georgia—and, unbeknownst to Charlie, to see her long-lost granddaughter, Magnolia Heathwood, one last time. So Charlie travels into the Deep South, confronting the land of her worst nightmares—and Jim Crow segregation.

The sisters reunite as teenagers in the deeply haunted town of Eureka, Georgia, where ghosts linger centuries after their time and dangers lurk behind every mirror. They couldn’t be more different, but they will need each other to put the hauntings of the past to rest, to break the mirrors’ deadly curse—and to discover the meaning of sisterhood in a racially divided land.

My review

Totally different from what I usually read, but refreshing nonetheless to read something like this. You’re living the story through the eyes of Charlie Yates, a darker skinned girl, in the time racism was considered normal. Her twinsister, Magnolia, is much paler and lives on the side of the ‘whites’, in a village where the seperation is very important. Charlie lives with her grandmother in Harlem and fights for her rights and everyone that has a darker skin color. When her grandma falls ill, her dying wish is to be buried in the village she grew up in and to see her other granddaughter one more time. This is very strong story about how the world was and can never be again. You fall in love with Charlie and her personal growth, but Magolia her inner battles are beautifully written. There is a curse and sisters have never been more important. I didn’t really like the way of writing, but the characters where very thourough.

Quotes

“Because every time I accept that I’m worth less – less than a man, or a white person, or a gosh-darn oil baron – it punches a hole in my spirit. Punch enough holes and your spirit breaks.”
“I’m not scared at all anymore. My rage, strengthened by years of struggle, is a powerful beast rattling my rib cage. Ready to be unleashed.”