Review: Mirror World

 Mirror World by John Calicchia
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: August 27th, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon 

Book Description:

What would you do if you saw the future apocalypse of the world in a mirror? Would you try to save the world and those you love, or die trying?

Welcome to my life, this is the vision of the future I've been cursed to see.    – Cailyssa Larkin

When Cailyssa Larkin looks in a mirror she has an ominous feeling that someone is watching her. Stranger still, she has visions that foretell the future. While visiting her Uncle Spencer, Cailyssa gazes into a mirror and sees a dark future that only she can change. With the future of her own world hanging in the balance, Cailyssa bravely enters the portal to the Mirror World. Here, the Dark Lord controls all the mirrors and bends reflections so all creatures see evil within themselves. With her sister Terry, her mysterious best friend Daemon, and a host of weird and wonderful creatures, Cailyssa embarks on an epic quest to overcome the evil forces trying to destroy her world. She can only defeat the Dark Lord by finding her true self and discovering the family secret that has led her to Mirror World.

This book, written by a psychology professor, integrates famous psychological studies in the story. Readers will enjoy learning important life lessons through the psychological concepts illustrated in the book.
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Mirror World by John Calicchia is the story of a girl who is thrust into a magical world she never knew existed and is in charge of saving it from an evil Dark Lord who has come into power. His plan is not only to take over the Mirror World that Cailyssa just learned about, but he wants to branch out into our world as well.

This book had a lot of promise to it, but there were a few things that were holding it back. I wanted to really like this book- other worlds, angels, dragons, magic, a fight to save the world – but it still ended up falling a bit flat for me.

There was a lot that happened in this book. I kept thinking that it would end and continue on with a series, but the entire story was condensed into one book. I think that if this was done as a series instead, it would have worked better. It didn’t seem like there was enough time to really mold the characters into three dimensional ones who the reader could really connect to. However, if there were more books, the action could have been slowed down and more interesting details worked in.

Another thing about the characters was that their reactions didn’t always seem real. Cailyssa and her sister Terry are experiencing this world for the first time, and both pretty much take everything in stride versus the shock and adjustment periods that would presumably be  normal. Cailyssa is tasked with learning and controlling all this new magic she now has and has to save Mirror World to save her own world, but a lot of the time she seems to be more interested in her hormones and getting Daemon to like her. I’m not sure that she’s got her priorities straight on that one.

There are angels as well as fallen angels in this story, which is another aspect that I like to see, because the lore is always interesting to read, but again- there wasn’t much there. I would have like to have more about the angels and the stories behind them, but that might be a personal preference based on my tastes.

All in all, Mirror World might not be my favorite book, but it also isn’t necessarily a bad one. I think it would have worked a lot better if it wasn’t condensed into one book, and would have been very interested to read a series about this journey. 

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 Author Bio:

John Calicchia Ph.D. is a professor of psychology who also works with children and young adults as a licensed psychologist. 

He lives near Boston with his lovely wife and two amazing daughters. You can usually find him in the pool swimming with his two big dogs.

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