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Behind The Mirror: A Novel
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 23, 2025
I received this as an ARC through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review.
If I'm being honest, I didn't put in to win this book because I was interested in the story or the self-help aspect of this novel. This book piqued my curiosity and I wanted to know how the author was going to execute the whole melding of a self-help book and a novel. It was about what I expected, although there were aspects that were off putting. The biggest turn off was that, in the very beginning, the author kept changing perspectives. This improved as the novel went on, but it would rear it's ugly head here and there for a paragraph or so in later pages as well.
The other thing that absolutely killed me was the dialogue. When the subject of the interview was talking about her life and her personal growth, everything was fine. There was no back and forth there, so everything just flowed for the most part. When the interviewer and interviewee were actually having a conversation with each other however, it felt like the most painfully staged conversation I ever had the displeasure to read. I felt physically uncomfortable reading it. If I had to equate it to anything, it felt like two people reading Shakespeare out loud in English class that weren't paying attention and don't know how their characters are supposed to interact.
All in all though, there's a good message here and I feel like this is the sort of self-help book for those who need to be tricked into reading a self-help book. The right audience would be able to look past this books flaws and take the message they need from it.
If I'm being honest, I didn't put in to win this book because I was interested in the story or the self-help aspect of this novel. This book piqued my curiosity and I wanted to know how the author was going to execute the whole melding of a self-help book and a novel. It was about what I expected, although there were aspects that were off putting. The biggest turn off was that, in the very beginning, the author kept changing perspectives. This improved as the novel went on, but it would rear it's ugly head here and there for a paragraph or so in later pages as well.
The other thing that absolutely killed me was the dialogue. When the subject of the interview was talking about her life and her personal growth, everything was fine. There was no back and forth there, so everything just flowed for the most part. When the interviewer and interviewee were actually having a conversation with each other however, it felt like the most painfully staged conversation I ever had the displeasure to read. I felt physically uncomfortable reading it. If I had to equate it to anything, it felt like two people reading Shakespeare out loud in English class that weren't paying attention and don't know how their characters are supposed to interact.
All in all though, there's a good message here and I feel like this is the sort of self-help book for those who need to be tricked into reading a self-help book. The right audience would be able to look past this books flaws and take the message they need from it.
September 9, 2025
This title was selected for IngramSpark's Indie Title Discovery Spotlight 2025!
A must-read for fans of contemporary women's fiction, character-driven novels, and emotional, introspective stories.
A must-read for fans of contemporary women's fiction, character-driven novels, and emotional, introspective stories.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews