Title: Mirror Mirror
Author: Cara Delevingne
Genre: Fiction/ Young Adult
Source: Bookshop
Rating: 2/5

Favourite Quote: “I close the door softly behind me, and stare out of my window, waiting for the sun to come up. There’s something about this time of day that’s comforting. Everything dark, everything quiet. Rows of houses with dark windows make me think of all those dreams out there, filling up the final hours of night sky. Different people in their different houses, where none of this is happening to them. I don’t know why but somehow that makes me feel better, like if all of this is small enough to hurt just me, then it can’t really be that bad.”

I’m going to admit that I brought this book based on the author’s name associated with it, not so much as the actual story plot. I was curious to see what Cara Delevingne had taken the time to invest her time in and written.

Our story begins with Red, our outsider protagonist and her friends, Leo, Rose and Naomi. Straight away you knew that this little group of misfits had a great connecting bond between them even with their own quirky differences. Red, a ginger lesbian who keeps to herself and isn’t comfortable in her own skin, Naomi, an eccentric girl who’s obsession with anime draws her to dress in crazy Japanese outfits, Leo, an antisocial delinquent who’s presence makes you feel uncomfortable and Rose, a popular beauty queen who grabs the full attention of any room she walks into.

The author takes you through the last year of their friendship back when they all barely knew each other until their teacher Mr. Smith started a class music project that bound them together to form a band. Red on drums, Naomi on bass, Leo on guitar and Rose as the singer. Little did the suspect how incredible they would sound together. When Naomi said that they should carry on being in a band after their project was finished, they didn’t hesitate to agree and created Mirror, Mirror.

‘Apart we were chaotic, spinning and lost, waiting for this part of our lives to be done so we could really live, so we could be free. And then there was Mirror, Mirror, named by Rose because she said that together we were the fucking fairest of them all. And with Mirror, Mirror there was us; together and stronger.’

Over the last year they have become the most unlikely best of friends who play, laugh, dance and have fun whether it’s at school, at the park they’ve claimed as their own, or in London in some dark underground club that they should have been denied access too. So when Naomi suddenly disappears without a word with the police calling it a runaway, it changes everything for them. Red, Rose and Leo know that Naomi wouldn’t just runaway and believe something terrible happened to her. Determined to discover the truth, they spend the entire summer looking for her with no luck.

When Naomi is discovered fighting for her life after being dragged out of the river 8 weeks later, everyone is relived that she’s alive but whilst she is in a coma, no one knows what happened to her to put her in this state. Red suspects that there was another person in the picture, especially when she discovered a tattoo on Naomi’s wrist, something that she knew she would never do. Unfortunately Rose isn’t taking the whole thing very well and disappears into alcohol whilst Leo is confronting his own demons at home. Red joins up with Naomi’s computer wizz sister Ashira to find out what really happened.

‘I look at Ash and find her staring right at me, eyes glittering with all the anger she is shutting in. And I know how she feels. These people that don’t know Nai, they are ready to think the worst of her. Like she’s nothing; trash that brought it all on her herself. They don’t know the sweet, funny, talented girl we do. They aren’t seeing her at all.’

It’s a good storyline with a nice twist at the end. The characters are portrayed really well and you feel you know the characters and their emotions unreservedly. Cara joins four unlikely individuals together into a nice little bow, each with their own problems and oddities. It isn’t a typical highschool story which is a refreshing take but the story still wasn’t for me.

Goodreads Review:
Friend. Lover. Victim. Traitor.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
Sixteen-year-old friends Red, Leo, Rose, and Naomi are misfits; still figuring out who they are and who they want to be. Life isn’t perfect, but music brings them together, and they are excited about what the future holds for their band, Mirror, Mirror. That is until Naomi vanishes before being pulled unconscious out of the river.
She’s left fighting for her life in a coma. The police claim it was a failed suicide attempt, but her friends aren’t convinced. Will Naomi ever wake up? What – or perhaps who – led her to that hospital bed? And how did Red, the self-styled protector of the group, fail to spot the warning signs?
While Rose turns to wild partying and Leo is shrouded by black moods, Red sets out to uncover the truth. It’s a journey that will cause Red’s world to crack, exposing the group’s darkest secrets. Nothing will ever be the same again, because once a mirror is shattered, it can’t be fixed.