The Mirror Season

Starred review from January 25, 2021
Folding in elements of Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” McLemore (Dark and Deepest Red) whips up a magical realist tale as spellbinding as the pan dulce creations described within this novel’s pages. Known as the pastry witch of San Juan Capistrano, queer Mexican American teen Graciela “Ciela” Cristales works at her family’s pastelería and has inherited her late bisabuela’s ability to “know what bread or sweet would leaven the heart of anyone she met.” After Ciela and a visiting “boy in plaid flannel” are both sexually assaulted at the same party, however, her gift disappears—and a strange season begins in which trees vanish overnight and objects suddenly turn into magical mirrored glass. But when the boy from that night, Lock Thomas, unexpectedly enrolls at Ciela’s high school several months later, with no memory of his assault, Ciela must decide whether to reveal what she knows or keep the truth to herself. With haunting prose and sharp insight, McLemore expertly combines the piquant with the sweet (“I dream of pale fingers pulling me apart like sugar dough”), exposing the fragility and complexity of Ciela and Lock’s hearts post-assault with due consideration and care. Ages 13–up. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary.

January 15, 2021
In the aftermath of an assault at a party, the lives of two teens intertwine as they struggle to find healing, lost magic, and ways to move forward. Like her bisabuela before her, Ciela Cristales speaks "the language of flour and sugar." In her family's pasteler�a, she is La Bruja de los Pasteles, who can sense exactly which pastry someone wants before they know themselves, which flavors will give them courage or help open their heart to love. Although her abuela warned her that such gifts could be lost, she did not know this was true until a shard of glass buries itself deep in her heart along with the sharp, mirrored truth of what happened to her and a boy she'd just met at a party she wishes she could forget. McLemore reimagines Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," or "La Reina de las Nieves," in the weaving of an aching, vivid narrative about two young adults, a White boy and a queer, Mexican American girl, who are grappling with trauma from sexual assault. The poetic and vulnerable prose illuminates the need for more open conversation about sexuality, consent, and abuse without the limits of the gender binary. Balancing raw honesty and hope, McLemore does not shy away from depicting discomfort and injustice, but they also surround Ciela with a loving and affirming community of characters crafted with tender detail in this contemporary novel brushed with fairy tale. Piercing magic. (author's note) (Magical realism. 14-18)

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April 15, 2021
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* After they're both sexually assaulted at a party, Ciela helps an unconscious boy get to the hospital, and after that, she wants to leave the night behind her. Formerly known as the pastry witch of San Juan Capistrano, Ciela inherited her bisabuela's gift for knowing what kind of pan dulce customers need, but after the assault, that power disappears. Neighborhood trees vanish in the night. Certain objects begin turning into recklessly magical mirrored glass. And the boy, named Lock, enrolls at her school, only to be tormented by the same people responsible for their assaults. After noticing the shard of mirrored glass in Lock's eye, Ciela decides she won't let it harm him, and as she helps, her gift for pan dulce gradually returns. Inspired by "The Snow Queen," McLemore weaves an empowering story of two survivors healing together, exploring what consent looks like in every relationship, including with friends and family, after an assault. Their vulnerable, spellbinding story, colored with magic realism and achingly beautiful prose, is about healing after trauma, reclaiming your body and choices, and the empathetic understanding between survivors. As Ciela debates whether or not to tell Lock the truth about his assault, the pair navigate boundaries together. McLemore doesn't shy away from the complexity and impact of trauma, but this is ultimately a transformative story about healing and finding the way back to your own magic.

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Starred review from May 1, 2021

Gr 8 Up-In this novel inspired by their own experience, McLemore employs the device of magical realism as smoothly and artistically as protagonist Ciela creates pan dulce in her aunt's panader�a. This first-person narrative opens like a fairy tale, recounting how her great-grandmother passed the gift of matching specific Mexican sweet bread to each client's needs. This ushers readers into the spring night of Ciela's junior year when she deposits an unknown white boy at the ER. Both of them were sexually assaulted, something that she cannot think about, much less talk about, so she mentally ascribes her own narrative to avoid splintering. Afterward, she begins to notice the metamorphosis of beautiful things in her life, like flowers and leaves, into glass shards, the largest of which is wedged in her heart. This is also when she realizes that her gift is missing. The story unfolds like a puzzle being slowly pieced together through rich, symbolic descriptions strengthened by equally symbolic Spanish translanguaging. Readers feel the agony of injustices committed on queer brown people, and powerless white people, and will be compelled to read deeply until the book's end, and then flip back to absorb more details. VERDICT A masterpiece intertwining painful teen realities involving injustices based on race, ethnicity, class, and gender with trauma and healing within loving, supportive families.-Ruth Quiroa, National Louis Univ., Lisle, IL

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