"Mirror Me" Review

Mirror Me by Lisa Williamson Rosenberg

Amazon First Reads November 2024

Pages: 319 Genre: thriller

Rating: 1.5 Star

Kindle Highlights (you're not missing much this time though)

Eddie Asher arrives at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital convinced that he murdered his brother's fiancée Lucy, who he considered to be his best friend. The problem is, he can't remember what happened. Eddie experiences blackouts that he has only recently begun to attribute to what he calls The Other. For Pär, The Other's identity, Eddie's anxiety is nothing new. That's why it's Pär's job to protect Eddie from the worst of things (according to Pär, anyway). But when Eddie brings them to the Psychiatric Hospital in search of Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in dissociative identities, Eddie and Pär find themselves at odds, which sets Eddie on a path to uncover the secrets he's been missing from his life so far.

I'm sorry to say that ultimately I didn't enjoy this book very much. It was boring and generally forgettable. It's unfortunate, because I was really down with the idea of the book. The concept was cool (even if it seems like it wouldn't be good for those with DID), and I enjoyed the general topics explored in the book. Themes of racial identity and adoption and family were very prevalent, and it was interesting to explore them through Eddie, a biracial adoptee in the '80s/'90s. But really, nothing else in the book held up enough.

The book got off to a very slow start, and I never felt like it picked up. There were two main "timelines" throughout: Eddie's past (mostly told by Pär) and Eddie's present (told by both). After establishing where we are and what we're doing in the present time, we spend a significant portion of the book in the former, which is ultimately just a retelling of events. Sure, we're gradually uncovering truths, but that's what novels are. I was interested in this section, but I couldn't get past the fact that it was ultimately just context meant to bring us to the main conflict of the novel: what happened to Lucy. Especially since the present timeline went forgotten for so long. This made it hard to engage with the story as a whole, as I felt like I was just waiting for The Point to come instead of being able to enjoy the story as is.

I also just wasn't a big fan of this writing style. I understand that the premise was meant to be confusing, and that part of the book was piecing together The Truth between Eddie and Pär's memories. But there are two problems with this. First, Pär just felt like a liar. I understand why he isn't telling Eddie the full truth, but me? The reader? It had the same vibe as mystery books where they need to lie to the reader to create an engaging story instead of learning how to gracefully withhold information. Second, the writing was sometimes felt like it was trying too hard to be artsy, meaning we prioritized sounding poetic over clarity. If the whole plot is about uncovering secrets, the secrets should be pretty clear once they are actually uncovered. As it was, I'd often have to reread sections to make sure I was following whatever was being hinted at.

All of the characters, other than Pär, also just felt very bland. They all had unique personalities, sure, but generally it felt like they were just there to react to Eddie as needed. And there were a lot of them. The worst part of the whole thing was Eddie and Lucy's relationship. As it was so central to the plot, this really soured my opinion on the whole thing.

As an Amazon First Reads book, Mirror Me was fine. I was at least interested enough to finish it. But if you ask me in a week, I doubt I'll be able to tell you anything about this book other than the fact that it was bizarre.