Rating: 
Summary: A poor reflection
Review: I was quite disappointed with Gregory Maguire's latest novel. After thoroughly enjoying Wicked and Confessions..., I had expected at the very least to be drawn into the story, to have a sense of wonder, to care about what was happening. Instead, I found myself finishing the book out of a sense of duty rather than desire. To me, Maguire knocked this one off. Yes, I respect that he tied in the Snow White tale to real historical characters. But I thought that he did a far better job transporting a fairy tale into a point in history with Confessions than he did here. Mirror Mirror seemed forced: the changes in points of view were jarring, the poetry (yes, poetry) felt like filler, and I did not care about any of the characters. That being said, he prose is still strong, powerful. It's not the telling of the tale that I have issues with (well, except the abrupt changes in POV and first/third person narrative) but rather the plot itself. At the very least, I would recommend that readers wait for a paperback version rather than plunk down the cash for a hard cover.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I've read "Wicked" and I'm 3/4 of the way through "Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister" so I think that "Mirror Mirror" is simply an anomoly. The story didn't flow, the characters were flat, and the history was off enough to bother me. Honestly, I wish that I had skipped it.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe if you don't have anything better to do...
Review: It was certainly a creative book and I found it an interesting rendition of the tale of Snow White. However, it was VERY odd at times. Also, much of the book leaves the plot to the imagination, which I like, but I felt that some things could have definitely been elaborated on or expressed more clearly. I felt the author's style of writing was made to be excessively complex. Perhaps he subconciously wanted to emphasize the fact that this was a book for adults rather than children. Or maybe he just writes that way normally (I haven't read his other work). However, I think the story could have been told better in a different voice. If you like fantasy and history, you might want to grab this book if you have a long plane flight in front of you. That's why I did.
Rating: 
Summary: A Brisk and Lively Reading Experience
Review: Just for a second, forget everything you know about the well-known story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Forget the animated movie with the singable songs, forget the familiar story line with its happy ending. Instead, imagine a darker tale, filled with political intrigue, doomed quests and dark family secrets. Now you can taste a little of the flavor of Gregory Maguire's new novel MIRROR MIRROR. As he did with his previous novels WICKED (based on THE WIZARD OF OZ and now a Broadway musical) and CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER (based on "Cinderella"), Maguire takes the bones of these old, well-known stories and completely reinvents them into well-developed novels that can stand on their own. Maguire has been writing children's fantasy novels for a long time, so it is no surprise that he can skillfully play with elements of classic fantasy and make them into something totally new and often surprising. But don't think that MIRROR MIRROR and its predecessors are novels for children --- no, these are definitely fairy tales for grown-ups. In MIRROR MIRROR, history and fantasy are intertwined, and two of the main characters are the decadent (and incestuous) Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia. Near the beginning of the novel, the two pay a visit to the widower Vicente de Nevada and his strikingly lovely daughter Bianca at their villa, Montefiore, tucked in the hills of Tuscany and Umbria. Cesare sends Vicente off on a seemingly hopeless quest for the last remaining branch from the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. The beautiful but vain Lucrezia, her eye always on opportunities for personal advancement, offers to set up residence at Montefiore and keep an eye on Bianca. Vicente's quest takes years, and eventually he is assumed dead. Soon enough, though, Lucrezia's jealousy of Bianca's looks --- and specifically her resentment of Cesare's attraction to the girl's youthful beauty --- drives her to plot the girl's demise. As you might guess, however, the lovely Bianca survives, and the increasingly desperate Lucrezia is driven to more and more extreme lengths to destroy the girl who is "the fairest one of all." Maguire's skill in MIRROR MIRROR, as in his previous works, is with playfully reinventing familiar plots with darker themes and characters. Here the dwarves, for example, are not silly slapstick characters but shapeless, nameless stone-like creatures who gradually gain elements of humanity through their interactions with Bianca and their own quest to retrieve the mirror that causes so many problems: "The dwarves had hobbled out of their stony natures partly by accident and somewhat by design. . . . But now they couldn't empty their pockets of memory, of irritation, of regret or conundrum, of paradox or paradise. They were trapped by the laws of their own devising." The transformation of the dwarves is just one of the thought-provoking themes running through the novel. Character development, however, is not particularly strong in this book or in Maguire's previous fairy tale adaptations. In his earlier novels, Maguire played with characterization by making the reader care about traditionally unsympathetic characters such as the wicked witch or the ugly stepsister. In MIRROR MIRROR, though, the "evil stepmother" figure portrayed by Lucrezia Borgia remains unlikable from start to finish, and her motivations are never adequately explored. Even the character of Bianca is not particularly engaging --- she remains a passive, somewhat lifeless character throughout the novel. Part of the problem is the rate at which Maguire changes narrators --- each brief chapter is told from a different point of view, and just as we settle into one character's voice and vision, we're whisked away to the next. This narrative technique does make for a brisk and lively reading experience, though, which provides a nice contrast to the sensuous, luxurious descriptions of the Italian countryside. Readers looking for an imaginative, playful reworking of classic tales can't do better than Gregory Maguire's fractured fairy tales, and MIRROR MIRROR continues his strong tradition. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Rating: 
Summary: Wicked fans: don't bother with the brilliant Mirror, Mirror
Review: This novel is far more sophisticated and thoughtful, and a more demanding read than Wicked, with its primitive, politically correct concepts that really amount to nothing new or original. Mirror, Mirror is not a story of Snow White -- we all know by now that Maguire concentrates on peripheral characters, not the traditional heroes -- it focuses on the misery and self-hatred that motivates the Wicked Stepmother -- in this story, Lucrezia Borgia, with whom, of course, the author took liberties, as he would with any historical character. This novel is a complex, intricate portrait of what seems like an unforgivable person, yet she can break your heart without making you want to forgive her. Through the dwarves subplot, Maguire also examines humanity and self-identity that sometimes can be achieved only through the eyes of another. If you *loved* Wicked, just rent the Disney version of Snow White; it'll make you happier. Mirror, Mirror is for well-read grownups with functional attention span.
Rating:
Summary: As good as "Wicked"and "...Stepsister"
Review: What a great year Gregory Maguire must be having. His novel "Wicked" has been adapted into a Broadway musical, and has opened to mostly positive reviews, and his new novel reminds people what he was so good at in the first place. His last book, "Lost" a modern ghost story seemed to be written by a competely different person from the man who reinvented both "The Wizard of Oz" and "Cinderella". He has now returned to his fairy tale roots and concocted his own spin on the Snow White story. Blending the factual Italian Borgia family with a land owner named Don Vincente and his beautiful young daughter named Bianca, Maguire manages to tread very closely to the story many people are familiar with. The one area he diverges from is the dwarves. Gone are Bashful, Sleepy and Doc, and instead are creatures more of the earth than human.I also thought his "apple" was both inventive and clever. A well told retelling.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining re-telling of a classic fairytale
Review: When Vincente de Bevada requested some land from Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, little did he know the price they would demand of him. When they arrived years later at his home of Montefiore, Cesare demanded an almost impossible task: to retrieve a branch from the Tree of Knowledge that still bears three perfect apples. With threats to his home and family, Vicente reluctanly agreed, leaving his daughter Bianca in the care of Lucrezia. As the years passed, Cesare became enchanted with the young Bianca, much to the dismay of his sister, Lucrezia. In a fit of jealousy, she hired a huntsman to take Bianca into the woods to get rid of her so beginning Gregory Maguire's unique spin on the Snow White story. It's filled with all the things that everyone already knows about Snow White: the magic mirror, a poisoned apple, the seven dwarfs (though they aren't the cute ones from the movie). Yet, Maguire has set them in a real place, 16th century Italy, with real historical figures playing major roles, such as Lucrezia Borgia as the great wicked-stepmother-type. She's perfect inthe part, especially with the notorious background of the Borgias. It reads almost as if it were a real chapter in the Borgia history. I found the story incredibly entertaining and didn't want to put the book down once I began. Taking a well-known story and making it new is a difficult task which Maguire handles with ease, much like in his other works. A fine and entertaining book.
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