Book: Mirrorwoven by Bori Cser
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 5/5
Thanks to @librofm and Macmillan Audio @macmillan.audio for giving me access to the ALC, this review and opinions are my own.
From the second Sarah Ovens started speaking I knew I was going to adore this book. And I was right! It's the sweet, funny, soulful sapphic YA romantasy I didn't know I needed (and you need it too). I can't believe this is Bori Cser's debut! I was all set to start searching for her other work until I read the Acknowledgements (always read the acknowledgements class)! So, alas for me, I guess I'll have to wait for whatever she comes up with next, because I'm pretty sure she's captured me for life.
I was an orchestra kid so I'm always going to be hot for Venice/fantasy Venice as a setting, and Salato fit perfectly within that fascination! Whenever you start describing a city with canals and gondole I start getting excited, and it was as Cser started rolling out the pattern of fairly complex (to an outsider) Venetian politics that I was fully just hooked. I love how she made the setting special, like adding setting-specific elements to the marriage of the sea that had a real impact on the story itself.
Del is the perfect YA fantasy protagonist - she's headstrong and self-assured on the surface while still nursing internal doubts tied to the traumatic experiences she's running away from, she's funny and a good friend (and has the presence of mind to realize when she isn't) - and a damned good lutenist, which again as an orchestra kid (violin) I have the greatest respect for. Who wouldn't want to be a devestatingly talented musician with the charisma to easily talk your way into a job as entertainment while waiting for your Big Break to come, especially when that Big Break comes in the form of a mysterious hottie?
Her relationships with Nasca and with Clara are delightful and so different, although from the get-go I was Team Clara. Nasca is alluring, enticing, a rich-bitch and a little dangerous; Clara is soft and kind and the way Del was exasperated by her made for the cutest sapphic romance. Going from "where did they FIND this girl???" to "oh no I'm in love with her" absolutely slayed me. I love a sapphic love-ish triangle-ish, the power politics of it feel totally different to me from a hetero triangle.
I absolutely loved Minnow and the whole Aster family, the little family of immigrants who take Del in unquestioningly and give her her first home in Salato brought a level of love to the book that puts Mirrorwoven in the category of books where the "found family" trope goes a step further into "found home". Thaddeus was exactly who Del needed him to be, at all moments.
This book made me laugh. It made me cry. I sat through all ten hours totally engrossed (ok it was three hours one night and then I immediately put it on when I woke up the next day to listen all the way through) because this book really is just that good. It gave me almost YA-Kushiel's Legacy vibes, if that makes sense at all - courtly intrigue, charismatic female main characters, a fantasy analogue to a familiar historical setting/time, sapphic romance, dangerous secrets and strange magic, and a main character who is capable of doing the hard things when they need to get done. I feel like it would make an incredible graphic novel, as well? Or animated show, maybe? Either way, I'm not ready to be done with Mirrorwoven and as soon as it comes out you'd better believe I'm snatching a copy of the book so I can revisit it with my eyeballs!
Rule One: Stay away from royalty. That’s obvious. Rule Two: Don’t fall in love. Not only is true love’s kiss the only thing guaranteed to unravel my new, mirrorwoven face, none of this would’ve happened if Adeleine hadn’t fallen in love.
— Page 23