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The Mirror by Natalia Lincoln, Evi Numen, and Tim Hatcher
01/05/2008 . Source: Sue Davies 
pub: Space & Time Books. 335 page enlarged paperback. Price: $19.99 (US) ISBN: 978-0-917053-15-3. Buy The Mirror in the USA - or Buy The Mirror in the UK  check out website: www.cith.org/s&t_books.html
A modern story of a young girl in the city desperately seeking her identity becomes tragedy when she meets a vampire. There is nothing romantic about this meeting as this vampire, Miercurea, has been undead for a long time. His victims are legion and his home a charnel house. During the pursuit, they encounter a mirror in which they are both reflected. This first sight of what he has become disturbs him and he seeks to eliminate the girl and the mirror.
Then the story changes and becomes an ancient tale of a young girl and a quest. Eva has suffered the terrible loss of her family. Blindly, she knows she needs to get away from her castle and seek safety and dresses as her murdered brother. Escaping the all-conquering soldiers, Eva enters a forest and discovers an enchanted house.
The mysterious frescoes of strange long-limbed people which line its walls leads her deeper into the house to a mirror which speaks to her. It's not Snow White and the mirror doesn't seek to flatter. It does seek a part of itself and needs Eva to find it. What she finds is love but disaster awaits her in the house of Mereg.
Interspersed with the ancient story, there is a story of Mari, the vampire's victim. Finding herself alive and yet changed, she fights her nature to discover his weakness even as Miercurea pursues her, determined to finally swallow her soul.
It's a page-turning tale but the style is curious with the modern New York story contrasted with the myth-like historical tale. The central mythological story sometimes drags and the introduction of the creators of the mirror feels like it belongs in another genre altogether. It's a complex mix and the swapping from modern to the past and I found the content jarring. The central conceit about how the mirror and the undead were created is an odd one and the ending is also quite strange and unsatisfactory. It's yet another twist in the tales of vampires but there are so many out there it is in great danger of being an over-used and tired format.
Sue Davies
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