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Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth’s curse—with the help of Elizabeth’s old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B—before she becomes the inn’s next victim.
Spectrophobia. I’ve always had a slight (irrational) fear of mirrors since one of my friends completely spooked me out with the legend of Bloody Mary in the fifth grade. There’s just something about mirrors. The reflection of life, but not quite — slightly distorted and uncannily the same. And is it merely a reflection? Or a window to another world, another reality? It all comes down to that slight niggling worry that maybe the person looking back at you in the mirror isn’t a reflection at all.
Yeah. Like I said… spectrophobia. And if you’d guess that perhaps I’ve been a little more uneasy around mirrors than usual since reading The Looking Glass — following Alice Montgomery’s story in and out of mirrors — you’d be right on the money. Jessica Arnold, I’m 31 years old, and last night I slept with the covers bunched high around my face and my back firmly to the mirror. Thank you.
*shivers*
So, if you’re wondering, Dear Reader, if this book delivers on the creepy, my answer is definitely yes. (x2 if you already have a thing about mirrors.) From the time our heroine Alice discovers she’s stuck in a mirror-version of the hotel she and her family were staying at right up until the conclusion of the novel, Arnold does an excellent job of gradually building the suspense, that sense of wrongness — Alice’s growing panic, urgency, fear and anger. The vivid descriptions of the hotel, the decor (both past and present), the weirdness, the mirrors, the antagonistic forces and ominous vibes are wonderfully unsettling. And the entries in Elizabeth Blackwell’s journal provide for a chillingly macabre (and satisfyingly rich, if I may say) backstory. In those regards, this novel is very well done.
I also thought it interesting that while the influence of Carroll’s Alice and his Through The Looking Glass are readily apparent from the blurb and title, Arnold also works in some Hamlet as well. Though it may seem a strange literary mash-up, it’s really neat to see how all the details and themes Arnold incorporated from both works mesh together to create this captivating (and creepy) ghost story.
So why the 3½ stars? Simply this:
1. A slightly disconnected feeling from Alice’s character.
2. Her relationship with Tony was a little too much a little too soon.
3. There were times when the flow of action confused me.
Overall though, Jessica Arnold’s The Looking Glass is a wonderfully creepy, imaginative, and entertaining story about darkness, madness, power and reflection.
Title: The Looking Glass
Published: April 15th 2014 by Month9Books, LLC.
Format: 324 pages; Paperback; ebook
Website: www.iamjessicaarnold.com
Source: review copy via blog tour
My rating: 
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this looks and sounds very interesting! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for stopping by, Erin!
This sounds like such a great read, thanks you for the review and giveaway
So want to read this!!!! 😀
I have this one on my tbr. I think the cover is rather intriguing, although I don’t know if it fits the book now that I’ve read your review. Sounds like an interesting book.
It actually does fit very well.
There’s much ado about a swimming pool and some interesting sequences of floating/falling in this book that make the cover relevant to the story.
Bloody Mary and Candy Man are the reasons I have my own small fear of mirrors. I’m alright as long as the lights are on, but I have to keep my eyes closed if the lights are off. Yeah, I have issues. But I still recognize a good sounding book when I hear it, and that beautiful cover doesn’t hurt either! Thanks so much for the great review, and the giveaway!
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wow, looks amazing, thanks for the chance.
This book looks really good, thanks for the chance to win and *fingers crossed*