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The Girl with the Mermaid Hair
Click. Sukie Jamieson takes a selfie after her tennis lesson. Click. She takes one before she has to give a presentation in class. Click. She takes one to be sure there's nothing in her teeth after eating pizza at Clementi's. And if she can't take a selfie, she checks her reflection in windows, spoons, car chrome—anything available, really. So when her mother gives her an exquisite full-length mirror that once belonged to her grandmother, Sukie is thrilled. So thrilled that she doesn't listen to her mother's “This mirror will be your best friend and worst enemy.” Because mirrors, as Sukie discovers, show not only the faraway truth but the truth close up. And finding out that close-up truth changes people. Often forever. Acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Delia Ephron crafts a powerful novel of truth, beauty, and the secrets about family and friends that lie beneath perfection.
312 pages, Hardcover
First published December 16, 2009
27 people are currently reading
590 people want to read
About the author
Delia Ephron
25 books592 followersBestselling author and screenwriter Delia Ephron's most recent novel is Siracusa. Her other novels include The Lion Is In and Hanging Up. She has written humor books for all ages, including How to Eat Like a Child and Do I Have to Say Hello?; and nonfiction, most recently Sister Mother Husband Dog (etc.). Her films include You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Hanging Up (based on her novel), and Michael. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. Her hit play Love, Loss, and What I Wore (co-written with Nora Ephron) ran for more than two years off-Broadway and has been performed all over the world. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
December 30, 2010
I thought this book sounded quirky and interesting. While the second half of the book is okay, the first half is pretty painful to get through. This book is definitely not a fantasy at all (for some reason I thought it was) and is more of an over-characterized commentary on teen social disorders. I listened to this on audio book and the audiobook was very well done.
Sukie is very, very absorbed in her appearance. She is constantly agonizing over her reflection and taking "selfies" with her camera phone (pictures of her self). She is so absorbed with herself that she doesn't have time for friends, she only has time to be perfect and...lonely. Sukie has a mom as obsessed with her appearance as Sukie is and a dad who is a player, constantly trying to charm women who aren't her mother. As her family disintegrates around her, Sukie is forced to take time to decide what really matters.
The first half of this book is a bit bizarre. Probably three-quarters of the text is about Sukie looking at herself, perfecting herself. She is a girl with serious issues, her perfection is more important to her than the people around her. Sukie is obviously intelligent, she is top of her class; but lacks emotional intelligence. Many times you feel like slapping her. At points I was pressed to decide if this was supposed to be a humorous book or if Sukie was just really that clueless.
Things change when her mother comes home from the spa with a facelift (she went to get rid of her hideous nose which looked just like Sukie's) and Sukie finds out that her lovable dad is really a scumbag. With no one to turn to Sukie turns to her Grandmother's mirror and her dog for support. The mirror was supposed to be a fantastic element I think, but nothing all that odd or magical ever happens with it. In a bizarre turn Sukie's family is dependent on the dog's opinion of everything to make decisions; this was supposed to be another fantastic element but kind of fell flat for me.
Also Sukie spends a lot of time caught in romance novel quality fantasies about her and the quarterback Bobo; that are entirely unrealistic but strange characterizations of how Sukie thinks the ideal relationship would work.
Sukie's parents are caricatures of real types of stereotypical characters. As a reader you absolutely want to smack Sukie's mom for being so selfish and for what she has done to Sukie's perception of herself.
The second half of the book is more about Sukie's rebellion and her quest to find happiness. It is pretty much your typical teen-trying-to-fit-in type of story. The story ended up a pretty up note. The writing style was fine, nothing spectacular.
Overall this was your run of the mill story about a teen trying to find her place in life. The characters are almost clownish in their extremes and you will find yourself hard-pressed to sympathize with Sukie for most of the book. The writing was average and the story okay. Teens who are into these types are stories might dig this book; but beware there isn't much of a fantasy element to this book. I personally won't be checking out any more of Ephron's books.
Sukie is very, very absorbed in her appearance. She is constantly agonizing over her reflection and taking "selfies" with her camera phone (pictures of her self). She is so absorbed with herself that she doesn't have time for friends, she only has time to be perfect and...lonely. Sukie has a mom as obsessed with her appearance as Sukie is and a dad who is a player, constantly trying to charm women who aren't her mother. As her family disintegrates around her, Sukie is forced to take time to decide what really matters.
The first half of this book is a bit bizarre. Probably three-quarters of the text is about Sukie looking at herself, perfecting herself. She is a girl with serious issues, her perfection is more important to her than the people around her. Sukie is obviously intelligent, she is top of her class; but lacks emotional intelligence. Many times you feel like slapping her. At points I was pressed to decide if this was supposed to be a humorous book or if Sukie was just really that clueless.
Things change when her mother comes home from the spa with a facelift (she went to get rid of her hideous nose which looked just like Sukie's) and Sukie finds out that her lovable dad is really a scumbag. With no one to turn to Sukie turns to her Grandmother's mirror and her dog for support. The mirror was supposed to be a fantastic element I think, but nothing all that odd or magical ever happens with it. In a bizarre turn Sukie's family is dependent on the dog's opinion of everything to make decisions; this was supposed to be another fantastic element but kind of fell flat for me.
Also Sukie spends a lot of time caught in romance novel quality fantasies about her and the quarterback Bobo; that are entirely unrealistic but strange characterizations of how Sukie thinks the ideal relationship would work.
Sukie's parents are caricatures of real types of stereotypical characters. As a reader you absolutely want to smack Sukie's mom for being so selfish and for what she has done to Sukie's perception of herself.
The second half of the book is more about Sukie's rebellion and her quest to find happiness. It is pretty much your typical teen-trying-to-fit-in type of story. The story ended up a pretty up note. The writing style was fine, nothing spectacular.
Overall this was your run of the mill story about a teen trying to find her place in life. The characters are almost clownish in their extremes and you will find yourself hard-pressed to sympathize with Sukie for most of the book. The writing was average and the story okay. Teens who are into these types are stories might dig this book; but beware there isn't much of a fantasy element to this book. I personally won't be checking out any more of Ephron's books.
May 27, 2010
Sukie Jamieson is obsessively self-conscious when it comes to her looks. An antique mirror that belonged to her grandmother is probably the last thing she needs, but the most wonderful gift she can imagine having—next to Bobo the quarterback at a nearby high school, that is. When she isn’t taking “selfies” (snapshots via cell-phone camera) of herself, she begins spending time in front of her mirror which, anyone who’s read or studied “The Lady of Shalott” can tell you, metaphorically and literally distorts reality. Sukie takes this to the next level and begins imagining a world beyond her own where Issa, the local pizza parlour waitress, is her best friend and Bobo, quite naturally, is the best boyfriend a girl could ever want.
The Girl With the Mermaid Hair started out kind of bizarre; Sukie has a quirky—and strong—voice and even quirkier habits. If she hadn’t explained what “selfies” were, I would have been very confused for the rest of the book. Suffice to say, I wasn’t sure what I’d just gotten myself into. She’s more lonely than she lets on when we realize her interactions with others are very limited, when they are there at all. The family dog, Señor, gets to hear Sukie’s voice more often than her classmates do. But this isn’t a novel about Sukie interacting with others. It’s a novel about Sukie and the world she creates by looking in the mirror. By the end, I was more impressed than I ever imagined I’d be.
At times Sukie’s extreme self-consciousness came across as incredibly neurotic. As someone who used to be a teenage girl, I can attest to the truthiness of Sukie’s dilemma and relate to her desire to measure up to not only her father’s standards, or some arbitrary academic scale, but ultimately, to her own impossible criteria. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have real friends, or whether her “ramp” nose is anything other than what a Google search tells her it is. What she does know we come to realize are illusions, the interpretations of a girl determined not to see the forest for the trees because the trees are so lovely up close and who said they were trees anyway?
Sukie is essentially caught up in a world of her own making. It’s this fantasy and the heavy emphasis on her grandmother’s mirror that made me draw connections between Tennyson’s poem and Sukie’s habits and dreams. She’s very clueless about the outside world. Her anxiety about being normal or an excellent student are quite without any outside perception, leaving her stranded in a tower she’s created out of her own misgivings and concerns. She interprets these shadows, the lingering affects of her father’s behavior, her mother’s superficial anxieties, these things that are burned into memory as distorted events taken out of context. Perhaps it’s that she doesn’t know to be more discerning. Perhaps she doesn’t know she can be. Whichever it is, Sukie has bound herself to a constant weaving and inventing, an almost frightening similarity to Briony from Ian McEwan’s Atonement, except without the dire literary drama and larger implications therein.
She jumps at these imagined scenarios and distorted realities as if they were real and tragically suffers the consequences. It’s when she throws caution to the wind, abandons tennis and academics, alienates her classmates, and spirals to her lowest point that her mirror invokes Tennyson, having “crack’d side to side” (Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott, line 115). As readers we have been looking in a mirror in a sense, too. Sukie and her family aren’t everything we initially thought. Her dad isn’t perfect, her mother’s outrageously obsessive and cruel (albeit pitifully), and Bobo would rather fondle her drunkenly than remember her name, let alone love her. It’s at this crucial point in the novel when Sukie’s imagined world begins to fall apart and she transforms into an entirely different character. Sukie realizes she doesn’t have to imagine her friends or live up to anyone’s expectations. The Sukie of the first half of the book is now much less selfish and privileged. She’s become a lonely girl who couldn’t possibly fathom her friends were in front of her the entire time.
Maybe it’s that I read more into The Girl With the Mermaid Hair than necessary, but I really enjoyed finding these literary allusions in Delia Ephron’s book. Not having read Madame Bovary, I can only rely on Ephron’s interpretation that Emma is a woman who lives for her fantasies. I’m inclined to believe her and thought the kinship Sukie felt with Flaubert’s protagonist was whimsical and endearing—a high school student trying to relate to material otherwise anachronistic to her teenage life.
Delia Ephron’s writing is strong in the sense that she’s created such a convincing voice for Sukie. I never once felt taken out of her mind or drawn away by a slip that could have threatened to reveal Ephron was really behind it all. I may have picked up on the more obvious hints Sukie didn’t recognize right away (her parents’ behavior, the strange text messages, her phone never ringing), but didn’t mind because I was committed to Sukie’s beliefs about her own life, however strange and orchestrated her narrations were. The Girl With the Mermaid Hair was a pleasant surprise.
The Girl With the Mermaid Hair started out kind of bizarre; Sukie has a quirky—and strong—voice and even quirkier habits. If she hadn’t explained what “selfies” were, I would have been very confused for the rest of the book. Suffice to say, I wasn’t sure what I’d just gotten myself into. She’s more lonely than she lets on when we realize her interactions with others are very limited, when they are there at all. The family dog, Señor, gets to hear Sukie’s voice more often than her classmates do. But this isn’t a novel about Sukie interacting with others. It’s a novel about Sukie and the world she creates by looking in the mirror. By the end, I was more impressed than I ever imagined I’d be.
At times Sukie’s extreme self-consciousness came across as incredibly neurotic. As someone who used to be a teenage girl, I can attest to the truthiness of Sukie’s dilemma and relate to her desire to measure up to not only her father’s standards, or some arbitrary academic scale, but ultimately, to her own impossible criteria. She doesn’t know what it’s like to have real friends, or whether her “ramp” nose is anything other than what a Google search tells her it is. What she does know we come to realize are illusions, the interpretations of a girl determined not to see the forest for the trees because the trees are so lovely up close and who said they were trees anyway?
Sukie is essentially caught up in a world of her own making. It’s this fantasy and the heavy emphasis on her grandmother’s mirror that made me draw connections between Tennyson’s poem and Sukie’s habits and dreams. She’s very clueless about the outside world. Her anxiety about being normal or an excellent student are quite without any outside perception, leaving her stranded in a tower she’s created out of her own misgivings and concerns. She interprets these shadows, the lingering affects of her father’s behavior, her mother’s superficial anxieties, these things that are burned into memory as distorted events taken out of context. Perhaps it’s that she doesn’t know to be more discerning. Perhaps she doesn’t know she can be. Whichever it is, Sukie has bound herself to a constant weaving and inventing, an almost frightening similarity to Briony from Ian McEwan’s Atonement, except without the dire literary drama and larger implications therein.
She jumps at these imagined scenarios and distorted realities as if they were real and tragically suffers the consequences. It’s when she throws caution to the wind, abandons tennis and academics, alienates her classmates, and spirals to her lowest point that her mirror invokes Tennyson, having “crack’d side to side” (Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott, line 115). As readers we have been looking in a mirror in a sense, too. Sukie and her family aren’t everything we initially thought. Her dad isn’t perfect, her mother’s outrageously obsessive and cruel (albeit pitifully), and Bobo would rather fondle her drunkenly than remember her name, let alone love her. It’s at this crucial point in the novel when Sukie’s imagined world begins to fall apart and she transforms into an entirely different character. Sukie realizes she doesn’t have to imagine her friends or live up to anyone’s expectations. The Sukie of the first half of the book is now much less selfish and privileged. She’s become a lonely girl who couldn’t possibly fathom her friends were in front of her the entire time.
Maybe it’s that I read more into The Girl With the Mermaid Hair than necessary, but I really enjoyed finding these literary allusions in Delia Ephron’s book. Not having read Madame Bovary, I can only rely on Ephron’s interpretation that Emma is a woman who lives for her fantasies. I’m inclined to believe her and thought the kinship Sukie felt with Flaubert’s protagonist was whimsical and endearing—a high school student trying to relate to material otherwise anachronistic to her teenage life.
Delia Ephron’s writing is strong in the sense that she’s created such a convincing voice for Sukie. I never once felt taken out of her mind or drawn away by a slip that could have threatened to reveal Ephron was really behind it all. I may have picked up on the more obvious hints Sukie didn’t recognize right away (her parents’ behavior, the strange text messages, her phone never ringing), but didn’t mind because I was committed to Sukie’s beliefs about her own life, however strange and orchestrated her narrations were. The Girl With the Mermaid Hair was a pleasant surprise.
January 22, 2010
I don't know how to say this nicely so I'm just going to say it honestly. I hated The Girl With The Mermaid Hair. I couldn't get into the story and I couldn't get past the main character's personality.
The Girl With The Mermaid Hair is the story of Sukie Jamieson. From the very beginning I knew I wasn't going to like Sukie. All she cared about was herself. She was obsessed with the way she looked and she was so full of herself. A major part of the book was Sukie talking about how gorgeous she was. One of my problems is that if I don't like a main character, I don't like the book. Obviously this caused a problem for this book.
I would go into the plot but I don't know what it was. There wasn't a whole lot going on in the book. At first I thought there might be some romance to the story but it didn't pan out. In the end Sukie did a little growing but not enough to redeem the book.
Overall, The Girl With The Mermaid Hair is one book I won't be recommending. I hate to write such a negative review but this was not a good book for me. If you are at all interested in it, check it out from the library but don't waste your money.
The Girl With The Mermaid Hair is the story of Sukie Jamieson. From the very beginning I knew I wasn't going to like Sukie. All she cared about was herself. She was obsessed with the way she looked and she was so full of herself. A major part of the book was Sukie talking about how gorgeous she was. One of my problems is that if I don't like a main character, I don't like the book. Obviously this caused a problem for this book.
I would go into the plot but I don't know what it was. There wasn't a whole lot going on in the book. At first I thought there might be some romance to the story but it didn't pan out. In the end Sukie did a little growing but not enough to redeem the book.
Overall, The Girl With The Mermaid Hair is one book I won't be recommending. I hate to write such a negative review but this was not a good book for me. If you are at all interested in it, check it out from the library but don't waste your money.
January 6, 2012
The Girl with the Mermaid Hair is about Sukie, a high school student who is extremely conceited. She is beautiful and uses every reflective surface and takes pictures of herself to ensure her hair and make-up are still perfect. She plays tennis with her dad and often hangs out at the courts with her brother. She does not have a single friend, but is delighted to meet an attractive boy from another school.
One day at the courts, Sukie’s dad is attacked by a man she does not recognize. After this, she begins to question how perfect her dad really is. When she sees her father on a date with a woman who isn’t her mother, she loses all trust in her father. She records what she saw in her journal and tries to deny what she saw, but is forced to accept the awful truth as her life spirals out of control. She makes her whole class hate her and the attractive boy she met turns out to be a jerk. Then her mom finds her journal and, after discovering the awful truth, kicks Sukie out of her home. However, her life quickly returns to normal-or as normal as it can get. Her mother invites her back home and she is once again on speaking terms with her father. She even makes some friends and forgets about the attractive boy. She is at peace in life and can live happily.
The story was dull, drawn-out, and included too many pointless details. The plot was so predictable that I felt like I was reading an elementary-level novel. There were no twists and no surprises. The characters were developed at a surface-level depth, and it was difficult to identify with the characters because they lacked believable personalities. The author also drew conclusions in the novel that didn’t make sense to me.It was a boring read and I would not recommend it to anyone.
One day at the courts, Sukie’s dad is attacked by a man she does not recognize. After this, she begins to question how perfect her dad really is. When she sees her father on a date with a woman who isn’t her mother, she loses all trust in her father. She records what she saw in her journal and tries to deny what she saw, but is forced to accept the awful truth as her life spirals out of control. She makes her whole class hate her and the attractive boy she met turns out to be a jerk. Then her mom finds her journal and, after discovering the awful truth, kicks Sukie out of her home. However, her life quickly returns to normal-or as normal as it can get. Her mother invites her back home and she is once again on speaking terms with her father. She even makes some friends and forgets about the attractive boy. She is at peace in life and can live happily.
The story was dull, drawn-out, and included too many pointless details. The plot was so predictable that I felt like I was reading an elementary-level novel. There were no twists and no surprises. The characters were developed at a surface-level depth, and it was difficult to identify with the characters because they lacked believable personalities. The author also drew conclusions in the novel that didn’t make sense to me.It was a boring read and I would not recommend it to anyone.
July 19, 2015
ok, maybe 1.5 stars, but that's pushing it. And only because the last few pages had a little bit of heart. Mostly because Sukie stopped being one of the biggest drama queens to ever live on the written page.
I originally picked this one up because the title was quirky; the description sounded fun and humorous.as I started to read, I started to question both those ideas. So then I thought maybe the author was going for tongue in cheek. hmmm. No. Maybe over-the-top fairy tale-ness mixed up with a coming of age story? Nope, not really. Mostly it was just painful. Sukie is one of the most selfish, self-obsessed, emotionally absent, characters I've suffered through. The rest of the characters, save maybe Frannie and Jenna, are almost as bad. Even the family dog, had me wanting to scream while throwing my ipod across the room (because at least the audio version has Sara Rue doing a fantastic job of reading this dreck).
The basic story was predictable and dull. The characters were as deep as a torn piece of cellophane. Sukie had a sudden, predictable epiphany in the last couple of chapters and it appears her heart grew two sizes that day, but by then it was too little too late. The story couldn't be saved.
I originally picked this one up because the title was quirky; the description sounded fun and humorous.as I started to read, I started to question both those ideas. So then I thought maybe the author was going for tongue in cheek. hmmm. No. Maybe over-the-top fairy tale-ness mixed up with a coming of age story? Nope, not really. Mostly it was just painful. Sukie is one of the most selfish, self-obsessed, emotionally absent, characters I've suffered through. The rest of the characters, save maybe Frannie and Jenna, are almost as bad. Even the family dog, had me wanting to scream while throwing my ipod across the room (because at least the audio version has Sara Rue doing a fantastic job of reading this dreck).
The basic story was predictable and dull. The characters were as deep as a torn piece of cellophane. Sukie had a sudden, predictable epiphany in the last couple of chapters and it appears her heart grew two sizes that day, but by then it was too little too late. The story couldn't be saved.
August 31, 2012
I loved the description of "mermaid hair." And that's about all I loved. The whole writing style was so vague and muddled that I felt like I was seeing everything underwater. I couldn't tell if there was supposed to be an element of fantasy or not -- if there was, it was massively out of place, and bugged like an erupting zit you can feel but not yet see -- and it didn't work at all, not the way "Frannie in Pieces" did. Pity, it seems like there might have been a decent story in there about body image, fractured families, and perhaps a psychological issue at play with the way she makes up friendships in her head, had the author wanted to tell something more realistic.
April 13, 2011
I'm glad that's over with. The entire time reading it, I just wanted it to be over. Obviously, I didn't like this one. It only got interesting toward the end, but it was too late. The writing was all over the place, hard to follow. I feel sympathy for all the characters, but I will forget them easily.
2 stars.
Moving on to (hopefully) a better book!
2 stars.
Moving on to (hopefully) a better book!
April 16, 2022
YA book and left to many ?s!
September 14, 2022
Like many mundane adolescent females, Susannah Danielle Jamieson, more commonly known as Sukie, is obsessed with her looks. With 20th-century technology on her side, she can even check her looks constantly via selfies, which allows her obsession to spiral almost out of control. When her mother gives her a family heirloom—a full-length antique mirror—Sukie is ecstatic. Now she can finally see herself in all her glory. Her glee is so encompassing, she ignores her mother’s warning that the mirror will be her best friend and worst enemy.
Sukie is an anomaly in the YA genre. She isn’t a mean girl, a shy recluse, a loner, a gifted but misunderstood artiste, a closeted bookworm, a sullen goth rebel (not at first, anyway). Instead, she coasts through her life, practicing expressions in her newly acquired antique and aloofness while she tosses her luxuriant hair. She wants to be seen as special simply because she’s beautiful but is unsure of her looks and silently laments her inability to come up with original, witty bon mots. She’s set her sights on the star quarterback and believes he’s “into” her. But they’ve never had a date, a lengthy conversation or even kissed.
Her self-obsession grows with her growing uncertainty about what she wants to do with her life and her uneasy belief that her mirror is trying to tell her something.
The flat pane of glass becomes almost another character in this story. It is, like Sukie herself, lovely. However, its appearance is sporadically unreliable. One moment it gives her skin an appealing glow; the next, her ass appears to broaden to the size of a bus.
Sukie is uncertain what’s actually occurring, a state of mind shared by the reader. Is the mirror a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray, reflecting Sukie’s shallowness and become more shattered and crazed as her mood fluctuates? Is she subconsciously influencing it, like a rich girl version of Carrie White? Maybe she’s simply going out of her mind.
The more Sukie turns to the mirror, the more her mother’s ominous warnings about it ring in our heads. As her comfortable world starts crumbling around her, Sukie realizes the mirror can offer no solace. Her parents are acting oddly; after an unpleasant revelation about her father, Sukie’s grades start to suffer; she begins committing self-harm and her loneliness becomes so great, she yearns for a friend but hasn’t the first clue how to gain one.
Sukie and the mirror’s fates are intertwined. As the novel comes to a close, the shattered glass almost acts as a bonding experience as Sukie questions her newfound cronies about antics they’ve had with their mirrors. Have you ever practiced expressions in your mirror? Have you sung or danced in front of it? Have you had long conversations with imaginary people in it? Have you ever obsessed over a tiny personal flaw on your person until it seemed to swell out of all proportion?
If you’ve ever fixated over your personal appearance as Sukie does, this novel is the perfect encapsulation of that warped fascination.
Sukie is an anomaly in the YA genre. She isn’t a mean girl, a shy recluse, a loner, a gifted but misunderstood artiste, a closeted bookworm, a sullen goth rebel (not at first, anyway). Instead, she coasts through her life, practicing expressions in her newly acquired antique and aloofness while she tosses her luxuriant hair. She wants to be seen as special simply because she’s beautiful but is unsure of her looks and silently laments her inability to come up with original, witty bon mots. She’s set her sights on the star quarterback and believes he’s “into” her. But they’ve never had a date, a lengthy conversation or even kissed.
Her self-obsession grows with her growing uncertainty about what she wants to do with her life and her uneasy belief that her mirror is trying to tell her something.
The flat pane of glass becomes almost another character in this story. It is, like Sukie herself, lovely. However, its appearance is sporadically unreliable. One moment it gives her skin an appealing glow; the next, her ass appears to broaden to the size of a bus.
Sukie is uncertain what’s actually occurring, a state of mind shared by the reader. Is the mirror a kind of portrait of Dorian Gray, reflecting Sukie’s shallowness and become more shattered and crazed as her mood fluctuates? Is she subconsciously influencing it, like a rich girl version of Carrie White? Maybe she’s simply going out of her mind.
The more Sukie turns to the mirror, the more her mother’s ominous warnings about it ring in our heads. As her comfortable world starts crumbling around her, Sukie realizes the mirror can offer no solace. Her parents are acting oddly; after an unpleasant revelation about her father, Sukie’s grades start to suffer; she begins committing self-harm and her loneliness becomes so great, she yearns for a friend but hasn’t the first clue how to gain one.
Sukie and the mirror’s fates are intertwined. As the novel comes to a close, the shattered glass almost acts as a bonding experience as Sukie questions her newfound cronies about antics they’ve had with their mirrors. Have you ever practiced expressions in your mirror? Have you sung or danced in front of it? Have you had long conversations with imaginary people in it? Have you ever obsessed over a tiny personal flaw on your person until it seemed to swell out of all proportion?
If you’ve ever fixated over your personal appearance as Sukie does, this novel is the perfect encapsulation of that warped fascination.
February 2, 2010
Sukie is the full package--brains, looks, talent, money. But in her constant struggle to be perceived as perfect (a feat achieved by constantly taking "selfies' on her cellphone and practicing expressions in the mirror), she isolates herself from her classmates. When her mother comes home from a "spa weekend" with a new face, she looses confidence in her signature nose that is no longer good enough for her mother. Then she discovers a flaw in her father so devastating that she can no longer see him in the same idealistic light. As her world starts to crumble, she looks to her journal, mirror and faithful dog for support but ultimately realizes that confiding in a friend can be the best feeling in the world.
I was disappointed with this book. Sukie has been raised by outwardly "perfect" parents who have coached her in the art of perfection, causing her to become extremely obsessed with her appearance to an obnoxious extent. She is an unlikable protagonist from the start. As the book continues, she becomes more bearable as she starts to reveal her internal struggles and as her family begins to fall apart, but she never becomes truly likable or relatable until the end. I’m not sure that most readers would hold out that long. Still, it is a unique book in that Delia Ephron’s character is so brutally honest. In some ways this was refreshing and compelling. Sukie is so unabashedly conceited that it is a look into our deepest fears and most private behaviors/thoughts.
Also - the book is full of cultural references (facebook, texting, ringtones, skinny jeans, Hunters rain boots, etc) and teens will appreciate reading an "up-to-date" novel that reflects their current trends.
I was disappointed with this book. Sukie has been raised by outwardly "perfect" parents who have coached her in the art of perfection, causing her to become extremely obsessed with her appearance to an obnoxious extent. She is an unlikable protagonist from the start. As the book continues, she becomes more bearable as she starts to reveal her internal struggles and as her family begins to fall apart, but she never becomes truly likable or relatable until the end. I’m not sure that most readers would hold out that long. Still, it is a unique book in that Delia Ephron’s character is so brutally honest. In some ways this was refreshing and compelling. Sukie is so unabashedly conceited that it is a look into our deepest fears and most private behaviors/thoughts.
Also - the book is full of cultural references (facebook, texting, ringtones, skinny jeans, Hunters rain boots, etc) and teens will appreciate reading an "up-to-date" novel that reflects their current trends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2014
Sukie is obsessed with her looks – she is constantly looking at her reflection in mirrors, and if one isn’t available, she takes a selfie. When she inherits her grandmother’s old full length mirror, she becomes obsessed with looking at herself in it, as she critiques each and every little fault she sees.
I really didn’t like this book. The only reason I continued reading was because I had some hope that it would get better. It didn’t.
The plot was extremely weak. The book jacket led me to believe that when she got the mirror it would be a significant, life-changing event, but it wasn’t. I continued reading, hoping that something would happen that would present a significant problem so the book could conclude with its being solved. There were problems in Sukie’s life, but none of them were portrayed interestingly enough to have a book written about them. I was bored with what I was reading.
Another problem was the main character. Sukie could be annoying at times, but I think it would have been alright if the book had been written from her point of view instead of third-person. Perhaps I could have understood her better if I could have seen things from her perspective.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book.
I really didn’t like this book. The only reason I continued reading was because I had some hope that it would get better. It didn’t.
The plot was extremely weak. The book jacket led me to believe that when she got the mirror it would be a significant, life-changing event, but it wasn’t. I continued reading, hoping that something would happen that would present a significant problem so the book could conclude with its being solved. There were problems in Sukie’s life, but none of them were portrayed interestingly enough to have a book written about them. I was bored with what I was reading.
Another problem was the main character. Sukie could be annoying at times, but I think it would have been alright if the book had been written from her point of view instead of third-person. Perhaps I could have understood her better if I could have seen things from her perspective.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book.
July 20, 2010
This one really seemed like a precautionary tale: how not to treat your child so that their self-esteem isn't in the negative number region.
Sukie has a preoccupation with her appearances, down to the most minute detail. She's able to focus on her stunning looks and maintain an A average in her private school, don't you wish you were her? Because the truth is Sukie's hiding something and hiding it so well she doesn't even realize it. Will she be able to save herself when it starts cracking into little pieces….
Ephron certainly has a way with words and I appreciated the journey she conveyed with Sukie's inner struggles. However I'm not one for preachy stories about how beauty is on the inside or by being nice you'll make friends, etc. The parallels she draws between her mother's obsession with her ideals of beauty to Sukie's felt overwrought. Plus the dog was just weird….
Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this one outright, but if you're in the market for studies in self-esteem (or lack thereof), depression, anxiety, and denial then look no further, you have arrived.
Sukie has a preoccupation with her appearances, down to the most minute detail. She's able to focus on her stunning looks and maintain an A average in her private school, don't you wish you were her? Because the truth is Sukie's hiding something and hiding it so well she doesn't even realize it. Will she be able to save herself when it starts cracking into little pieces….
Ephron certainly has a way with words and I appreciated the journey she conveyed with Sukie's inner struggles. However I'm not one for preachy stories about how beauty is on the inside or by being nice you'll make friends, etc. The parallels she draws between her mother's obsession with her ideals of beauty to Sukie's felt overwrought. Plus the dog was just weird….
Anyway, I wouldn't recommend this one outright, but if you're in the market for studies in self-esteem (or lack thereof), depression, anxiety, and denial then look no further, you have arrived.
May 28, 2010
Sukie is an incredible character. When you first encounter her, you feel that she truly has a great life: she has a beautiful, brand-new house with her own bathroom (what teenager wouldn't kill for that?!) a lovely mother, a super-cool, fun father and so much more. She is a straight-A student, and drop-dead gorgeous with killer hair. However, like most things and people that appear perfect on the surface, we gradually are let into Sukie's real, inner world, where things are rapidly going downhill. Ephron addresses so many of the issues that teens the world over experience: feeling isolated even when surrounded by one's peers, anger and guilt, budding love. It's all done in a very sensitive way that feels so real and you find yourself absolutely falling in love with Sukie, wanting to take care of her and nurture her back to happiness. I found myself thinking about Sukie and what was going to happen to her when I wasn't reading often. Don't miss this book.
August 22, 2014
At first I was drawn in by the interesting opening and the writing style. Ephron doesn't seem to give you much detail yet somehow you get to know these characters deeply. I'm still trying to figure out how she did that...
The story examines the inner life of a very driven young girl who is not what everyone thinks. No, there's no magic or powers — Sukie is just a normal girl. But we watch her world unfold to show that her relationships aren't what they seem, her family isn't what it looks like, and her sense of self is the opposite of what her peers perceive.
I don't want to give anything away. I'll just finish by saying this is a very good YA drama.
The story examines the inner life of a very driven young girl who is not what everyone thinks. No, there's no magic or powers — Sukie is just a normal girl. But we watch her world unfold to show that her relationships aren't what they seem, her family isn't what it looks like, and her sense of self is the opposite of what her peers perceive.
I don't want to give anything away. I'll just finish by saying this is a very good YA drama.
October 20, 2014
"The Girl With The Mermaid Hair" is a great story about family problems, pressuring parents, insecurity, and daily teenage drama. It wasn't super appealing to me, but I would recommend it to anyone that loves stories with morals.
February 28, 2010
A middle-grade age group book of loss and identity, friendship, etc. Not my cup o' tea.
May 23, 2014
The main character was so damn annoying I wanted to punch myself in the face
April 6, 2019
Ephron's author bio says she's a screenwriter, and The Girl with the Mermaid Hair reads a bit like a screenplay. Most of the action is in the dialog, while the narrative text feels like stage directions: brief, simple, and largely lacking in emotional content.
I thought at first this would be a magic-mirror kind of story, but it isn't. It's more a teen-psychology-drama story. Sukie is a bit of a mental mess, with some justification, since neither of her parents seem all that healthy. The plot meanders (or maybe just saunters), never leading to anything, until all at once Ephron realizes she has to wrap things up and packs a whole lot of character development into the last thirty pages.
I think this book was inspired by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but that novel hinged on the fact that the narrator was slowly uncovering the hidden world around him. Nothing like that happens here. Sukie has no sense of self and no purpose, and so the book lacks both those traits, as well.
There are one or two interesting scenes--the tennis club, the college night--but they don't make up for a fairly dull narrative.
Normally I only give one star for books I can't finish. This one is better than that, but only just.
I thought at first this would be a magic-mirror kind of story, but it isn't. It's more a teen-psychology-drama story. Sukie is a bit of a mental mess, with some justification, since neither of her parents seem all that healthy. The plot meanders (or maybe just saunters), never leading to anything, until all at once Ephron realizes she has to wrap things up and packs a whole lot of character development into the last thirty pages.
I think this book was inspired by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, but that novel hinged on the fact that the narrator was slowly uncovering the hidden world around him. Nothing like that happens here. Sukie has no sense of self and no purpose, and so the book lacks both those traits, as well.
There are one or two interesting scenes--the tennis club, the college night--but they don't make up for a fairly dull narrative.
Normally I only give one star for books I can't finish. This one is better than that, but only just.
June 18, 2020
Rounded up from 2.5 because Ephron deserves some extra credit for her descriptive ability. This is a short book and not overly wordy; Ephron used her writing time well, crafting a perfectly clear picture without unnecessary wordiness.
That said, story itself is rather ho-hum. The protagonist/POV is a friendless mean girl who is the way she is because her parents are awful. One of them is overtly awful while the other's awfulness is more subtle. There will be no bonus points for guessing the genders that apply there as that's a gimme. That she will face some sort of crisis that makes her reassess herself and will be eventually redeemed is also a gimme, but that trope doesn't have to be a bad one - here it's just plain boring.
Sukie is superficial to an extreme and as a result, so is her life. So is her story. Ephron manages to insert just a little bit of coy commentary on the way that so many of the socially unpopular qualities assigned to girls are the ones that society forced into them in the first place, but this messaging is just as superficial as everything else. There's just no there there and that makes it hard to care about sketched out trope of a story tromping to an obvious conclusion. I finished for two reasons: it's a quick read and I do like Ephron's style.
That said, story itself is rather ho-hum. The protagonist/POV is a friendless mean girl who is the way she is because her parents are awful. One of them is overtly awful while the other's awfulness is more subtle. There will be no bonus points for guessing the genders that apply there as that's a gimme. That she will face some sort of crisis that makes her reassess herself and will be eventually redeemed is also a gimme, but that trope doesn't have to be a bad one - here it's just plain boring.
Sukie is superficial to an extreme and as a result, so is her life. So is her story. Ephron manages to insert just a little bit of coy commentary on the way that so many of the socially unpopular qualities assigned to girls are the ones that society forced into them in the first place, but this messaging is just as superficial as everything else. There's just no there there and that makes it hard to care about sketched out trope of a story tromping to an obvious conclusion. I finished for two reasons: it's a quick read and I do like Ephron's style.
October 25, 2022
Oh my goodness, why did I keep reading that?! It's a good thing it was an audiobook, because I would have stopped reading within the first 50 pages. It was horrible. I realize the author was working to put in some meaningful messages like respecting yourself and relying on others, etc., but it was so cringy to read! Sukie is beyond obsessed with herself and her parents don't care that she's hanging out with the quarterback, supposedly on her own. Sukie has serious issues, worrying about being physically perfect more than about the people she interacts with and the relationships she holds (unless it's with boys). Things change drastically when her mom gets a facelift and she finds out her dad is cheating on her mom, causing Sukie to completely give up at school and with socializing. In my opinion, it took WAY too long for the school to call her parents, but it worked for the storyline, I'm sure. I was hoping there was going to be something magical or fantastical with the mirror, but nope, just a broken mirror. Ultimately, this story fell flat and I am glad I listened instead of read it because it would have been a waste of time.
July 18, 2025
Suki has a vain, image focused mother and a dude-bro for a father. She was doomed from the start.
I did not like this book. Suki’s POV is obsessed with her image and imagining her life as a cool girl with a boyfriend from another school. She has a vivid imagination and strict expectations for how others will perceive her. Clearly, having any expectations for controlling others is doomed to create disappointment and Suki is often disappointed by reality to the point of a terrible mental health spiral for most of the book.
This could have been a great opportunity to explore how a teen girl can overcome her vanity and realize the value of having friends. But I don’t know if Suki ever realized that for herself. Even though her life seems to change for the better by the end, I don’t know if she ever did anything to incite this change or if it just happened for her.
I may have missed something since I was not enjoying the book by that point and just wanted to see how it ended.
I did not like this book. Suki’s POV is obsessed with her image and imagining her life as a cool girl with a boyfriend from another school. She has a vivid imagination and strict expectations for how others will perceive her. Clearly, having any expectations for controlling others is doomed to create disappointment and Suki is often disappointed by reality to the point of a terrible mental health spiral for most of the book.
This could have been a great opportunity to explore how a teen girl can overcome her vanity and realize the value of having friends. But I don’t know if Suki ever realized that for herself. Even though her life seems to change for the better by the end, I don’t know if she ever did anything to incite this change or if it just happened for her.
I may have missed something since I was not enjoying the book by that point and just wanted to see how it ended.
February 5, 2018
Okay so the main character is shallow, but that didn't really bother me. The story did not go how I would think, given its name, thought it'd be more magical, but it wasn't.
I think the reason I gave it this rating is that it just came at the right time to me, with her Mom being a big bitch, kicking her out, and never saying sorry to her daughter. All that stuff hit close to me, otherwise I don't see to many people liking this book.
I think the reason I gave it this rating is that it just came at the right time to me, with her Mom being a big bitch, kicking her out, and never saying sorry to her daughter. All that stuff hit close to me, otherwise I don't see to many people liking this book.
December 6, 2017
I had to give up on this book. It was just so terrible. There wasn’t really a plot I could find and I hated the main character and all her friends. She was so conceited and only talked about how amazing she looked while judging others as the same time. I couldn’t listen anymore to how self centered she was anymore so I had to DNF this one. Don’t waste your time with this book.
April 18, 2020
This book was okay. I understand that it’s a mental health book so maybe the characters aren’t meant to be likable. Which is fine, but I just couldn’t connect with the main character and that made it difficult to get the message behind the book. I appreciate the author’s intent though. And I do get in theme about the hair and the title.
September 18, 2018
I marked this one as read, but I couldn't finish it. Simply awful.
April 4, 2019
What an unfortunately realistic portrayal of modern kids' lives. My childhood resembles Suki's more than I can ever type here.
May 11, 2021
Not very interesting story of a friendless teenage girl obsessed by her grandmother's mirror.
April 28, 2022
“Perfect” teen struggles with dysfunctional parents and painful social life.
June 23, 2023
Brilliant story
I absolutely loved this book. Delia gets right inside the head of a teenager with their thoughts and worries. A real page Turner.
I absolutely loved this book. Delia gets right inside the head of a teenager with their thoughts and worries. A real page Turner.
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