The Looking Glass by Janet McNally

Sylvie, a 17 year old girl who lives in New York, once lived in the vast shadow of her sister Julia, a precocious dancer who won almost all of their teachers’ hearts effortlessly. But Julia was also a drug addict, who overdosed and left New York a year ago. When a mysterious package is delivered to Sylvie’s doorstep, she starts to see clues of her sister’s whereabouts almost every place she goes.

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Sylvie has been trying to fill in her sister’s footsteps at the National Ballet Theatre Academy while it seemed like everyone else on the entire planet was pretending that Julia didn’t exist after a career ending incident that could’ve led to her actually dying. But with the help of her best friend’s brother and her dog, she wants to find Julia and ask her why exactly did she leave.

I think this book, like all other books with hints of fairy tales, was nice, and I was pleasantly surprised after reading such an amazing piece of work (thanking you dearly, Janet McNally). I absolutely loved such an upbeat-with-a-dark-twist book, and would love to read more books with the same genre. 

Sylvie was a very brave character in this book, and I enjoyed her role very much as she kept trying to figure out what the vague, amorphous clues in the book that her sister sent her meant. It was quite interesting because she really loved her sister and wanted to see her again, and I think that was one of the main reasons that she had to keep going, making sure that she would see Julia, even if it was the last thing she would do.

Also, I liked the plot twists in the book, especially when it turns out that Julia’s ex-boyfriend was- well, actually I’ll leave that for you to read. I have almost no right to spoil the book for you…

Another thing that I’d like to add, and it’s more of a sideline topic; I absolutely adORE the name Sylvie. The reason behind this is the show LOKI. One of the most awesome characters in the show was named Sylvie and she was absolutely the most rebellious renegades that the show and MCU had to offer. Maybe, I don’t know, this kind of influenced me to like the character Sylvie in The Looking Glass, so it was nice to see a nostalgic name in the book, especially one that I love.

Something that I thought was strangely off about the story; ballet wasn’t really relevant to the story, to be honest. Janet McNally could’ve given any other hobby or passion to Sylvie, apart from ballet, and I think she would only have to change a few words to switch from ballet to, let’s say, piano. But it was fine, I mean, the plot was the most important thing in the story, and I am very glad that it wasn’t a trashy, dumb plot that no one could understand.

This book was nice, and I would give it 3 out of 5 stars, but if you like this book, don’t take it personally. This book review is entirely my opinion, so comment down below on what you think.

Thanks!!