Review: How not to live up to your nickname
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2014
Emily P. DeLoach: Escaping the MirrorI picked this book up because it reminded me strongly of Tricia Drammeh's novel about damaged teeneagers, The Fifth Circle, which I admired as a portrait of two young people adrift. Escaping the mirror is a novel about a young girl hauling herself through a nightmare of abuse, abandon, and oblivion in drugs and drink. The girl, nicknamed Evil, is no angel, but how could she be given the abuse she has endured since her mother upped and left? Her brother Jim is no hero, even though he has taken upon himself the role of protector. The nicest character is of course Dopey, the one who picks up the pieces after Evil shatters the mirror.The story is told through the eyes if Evil, Jim, and Dopey, who take it in turns to relate the story of the few weeks of the start of summer that change all their lives. We see the awfulness of Evil's home background, Jim's weaknesses and how he is gradually, for all his good intentions, going the same way as all the men in his family. There is a tragic inevitability in Jim's reaction to his sister's friendship with Dopey, his role of protector that depends entirely on Evil doing what he wants her to do, and the violence that seethes just beneath the surface even when he is in his role of defender of the weak.Without wishing to give too much away, Evil develops from a limp dishrag who only seems to light up when she gets angry, to a much deeper, more mature girl, as she comes to terms with her situation, her family, and what she wants for herself.The story is much more than a depiction of misery; there is a feeling of hope at the end that things might just work out after all. The epilogue rounds it all off nicely with just a hint that there are no fairy tale endings in real life.P.S. I'd have given this 4.5 stars if it was allowed.