A Mirror Mended, by Alix E. Harrow

I have to say I didn't immediately connect this to the first book in the series--the opening makes more sense now. I actually liked this one better than the first, because I enjoyed the interaction between Zinnia (from Sleeping Beauty) and the Evil Queen in Snow White (I was particularly affected by the fact that the Queen has no name). The derivative nature of the story is a feature, not a problem, which makes it hard to give a raving review for me. But Harrow has enough new and interesting things to say about what it means to make your own story that I can give it 4 stars. There are plenty of fables out there for this treatment and they will make a comfortable living, which I hope Harrow uses to push off into something more ambitious.

My Goodreads Review

Mr. Death, by Alix Harrow

A very sweet little story about an apprentice Reaper, someone who guides the dead to the afterlife. Many thought it should have won the Hugo and Nebula awards over Sarah Pinsker's "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather", but I'm respecting the judges' choice here--the ending is a bit on the sweet side and shades toward judgments on who should and shouldn't die that have problematic potential. I really liked it though.

My Goodreads Review

A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E. Harrow

A lot of stories are retellings without disclosure. This one discloses, and makes the story part of the driver. It's hard for me to give a derivative story more than 3 stars, and I'm not tempted here. It's a nice story--really, it is--and protagonist Zinnia is satisfyingly complex. She is dark and fatalistic but not depressed. She seems to be wringing what life she can out of a flawed body, just lamenting that it's not enough. Harrow also gives us a good indication of how much emotional energy very ill/terminal children can spend taking care of their parents and others ostensibly taking care of them. Again without dwelling on it.

The erstwhile Sleeping Beauty (Princess Primrose) is well done also, imbued with a steel backbone. Harrow generalizes--this applies to princesses everywhere that are trapped by their circumstances.

So it's a good book. Glad I read it. Full disclosure, I am not a teen girl so I did not connect with it, and that may be why it left me in the end unmoved. It will move others.

My Goodreads Review

The Sycamore and the Sibil, by Alix E. Harrow

The Sycamore and the Sibil is an exploration in feminism and what it's like to be pursued by a powerful and unpleasant man, which is familiar territory by now but the take on the magic in the story is really interesting.  I've read several stories from a tree perspective, but it's always worth thinking about how life would be that slow, and the price that would be paid to achieve that slowness.  Enjoyed it.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow

As this book got rolling, I really began to enjoy it. The prose is a bit self-conscious, but January Scaller is a fine protagonist, at the end truly grounded in herself and very honest with the reader all the way through. The plot twists nicely and the story thoroughly explores how hard it is to go against one's instincts, and against someone you love and loves you, even if you must. I am glad I read it.

But I do have my misgivings. Seanan McGuire has been doing a YA series on magical doors that lead to fantastic places and appear to only certain people, and that series has been up for most of the same awards. The style of prose is even similar, kind of flowing and self-conscious in the same way. Maybe I have had enough of Doors? Possibly I have even had enough of people who have decided, against all evidence, to believe in magical things. We have a lot of that going on right now and it has gotten us nowhere good.  

My Goodreads Review

Do Not Look Back, My Lion, by Alix E. Harrow

Do Not Look Back, My Lion by Alix E. Harrow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a decent story, but only just a little interesting, and that interest is around how Harrow mixes and stirs hard and soft traits in men and women, and husbands and wives (any combination seems to be possible, though all the characters are cis-gendered). Rebellion against a society continually at war is very thoroughly done, but also very timely, so am not sorry I read it. It's a Hugo nominee for 2019, and will contend.



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