Ms. Hen reviews Mirror Mended

 

Mirror Mended

Alix E. Harrow

Tordotcom

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she read the other one in this series, SPINDLE SPLINTERED, and loved it. That was a modern day version of SLEEPING BEAUTY, and this book contains the same characters, but is a spin on SNOW WHITE.

Fairy tales are all stories that have changed in different ways throughout history. The Brothers Grimm wrote down the stories that had existed for years and years, and put them into print, but no definite variation on each tale is solid. Disney might have tried to make audiences believe that their stories are the true ones, but they are farthest from the truth.

This novel takes us back to Zinnia Gray, who has become a SLEEPING BEAUTY hopping savior, fixing each story, so the endings are what they should be. Her friend, Charm, married a princess, Prim, and is living life in the suburbs. Zinnia gets sent to a SNOW WHITE world by the evil queen through a magic mirror. The queen wants to know how Zinnia travels from world to world.

The queen captures Zinnia, and almost kills her. The two travel around to different SNOW WHITE worlds, and meet different incarnations of Snow White and the evil queen. They try to save a young girl from a queen who is a cannibal, and they almost get murdered. Zinnia and the queen realize they have more in common than they thought.

Ms. Hen loved this novel. She adored seeing SNOW WHITE from a different perspective. Zinnia is queer, and likes to fight, and save people, even though she is sick, and should be taking care of herself. Ms. Hen doesn't know what the Brothers Grimm would think of this new queer spin on the fairy tales they put into print, but tales change over time, and people change as well.

Ms. Hen thinks fairy tales are important because they show us a stories that we know are already true somewhere in the universe. Fairy tales are like a magic mirror, that show us honesty, similar to the queen's mirror that shows the truth. The truth is difficult to see, but necessary and painful and lovely all at the same time.

Ms. Hen reviews Dawn

 

Dawn

Octavia E. Butler

Hatchett Book Group

1987

Ms. Hen decided to read this book, because she was browsing in the library in her city, and she was looking for a particular book that was supposed to be there, but was not, but she came across this author in the science fiction section, and she has read several books by her before, so she picked this one up, and checked it out. When she was checking out her book, a little girl nearby said, "Do people actually get books here?" Ms. Hen worries for the future of the world when she hears things like this. Does this child think a library is a place to plug in her phone?

This novel is about a woman named Lilith who is trapped in what she thinks is a prison for a long time, but she finds out later that she is on a space ship, and is being held by aliens. A nuclear war on Earth devastated the planet, and most of the inhabitants ended up dead. These extra terrestrials rescued some, and put them in stasis, waiting for the Earth to be able to repopulated again.

The aliens, called the Oankali, want to take genes from humans and mix them with their genes to make a better race. They decided that Lilith should be their leader, and instructed her to awaken a group of humans. At first, Lilith is angry that she was captured by aliens, but eventually she accepts it. She works to wake up the other humans on the ship, and they prepare to go to Earth, but conflict occurs.

Ms. Hen thinks this might be the most uneventful novel about abduction by aliens that she has ever read. The first half of the book is very slow, and she almost gave up reading it. This novel gets better in the middle when the other humans wake up, and they have to decide how to work together. None of them want Lilith to be their leader, because they think she's one of the aliens.

Ms. Hen continued reading this because she is a huge fan of Ms. Butler, and admires her other books. She understands that some authors write bad books at times, but there are four in this series. She doesn't think she could read the rest, at least not any time soon.

At the Boston Public Library

Ms. Hen's Top Ten 2022

 

Ms. Hen's Top Ten Books 2022

Ms. Hen put together her top ten list for this year, and she can't believe the year is gone already. It always happens, though, and it happens faster and faster as the years go by. She wishes you a happier new year than last year, and possibly the year before. She hopes that the world can come out of the darkness, and into something better. But it's not a matter of how dark thing are, it's how we react to the darkness and despair that counts. Ms. Hen doesn't need to read self-help books to learn that, it's something she was taught a long time ago.

Here is Ms. Hen's top 10, in backwards chronological order:

Leading Men by Christopher Castellani

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/12/ms-hen-reviews-leading-men.html

Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/11/ms-hen-reviews-moon-of-crusted-snow.html

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/11/ms-hen-reviews-dutch-house.html

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/10/ms-hen-reviews-bloody-chamber.html

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/09/ms-hen-reviews-light-from-uncommon-stars.html

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/06/ms-hen-reviews-boy-snow-bird.html

The Doll's Alphabet by Camilla Grudova

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/05/ms-hen-reviews-dolls-alphabet.html

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/03/ms-hen-reviews-red-clocks.html

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/02/girl-in-pieces-kathleen-glasgow-penguin.html

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu

http://mshenreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2022/01/ms-hen-reviews-paper-menagerie-and.html

Ms. Hen says happy new year, and she hopes you read a lot of great books this year, and laugh a lot, and eat a lot of great food!

Best,

S.O.