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Jul. 15th, 2024 10:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI picked up Lonely Castle in the Mirror last month, I think on halfjig's recommendation, which I'm very glad of -- I found about 80% of the book extremely compelling and the ending a bit disappointing, but despite that I've been thinking about it a fair bit.
Kokoro, the protagonist of the book, is a middle school girl who after a traumatic bullying experience finds herself unable to go back to school. Even when her mom locates what seems to be a warm and welcoming alternative school environment, she can't seem to find it in herself to go -- especially when her bedroom mirror starts lighting up every day between 9 AM and 5 PM to bring her to what appears to be a castle in another world, populated with six other middle-school-age-ish kids.
The castle seems to be run by an small girl with a wolf mask and some form of magic powers, who gives them a clear set of rules. Somewhere in the castle, there's a key; whoever finds that key can have One Wish Granted. As soon as anyone finds the key and makes a wish, nobody can come back to the castle, and nobody will remember their time there. Otherwise they have until the end of the school year, when ditto ditto. And, also, if anyone tries to stay in the castle beyond 5 PM, all the kids will be devoured.
This immediately seems like the setup for an intense competition environment as everyone races to try to be the first to find the key and have a wish granted. In fact, nobody seems in a rush to solve the problems of the castle at all. The kids all immediately recognize the implications of the fact that they're all having bedroom mirror portal fantasy time During School Hours, and spend a lot of time carefully maneuvering around each other in order to try and make friends without disturbing the silent pact that's grown up among them to Not Make It Weird. One kid brings his old video game system, another passionately professes his love to all three girls in the cohort in turn. Kokoro's tangle of shame and competitiveness and solidarity as she attempts to get a handle on these newly-discovered peers is really thoughtfully and delicately drawn, and these early chapters are probably my favorites in the book.
But eventually, of course, the balance starts shifting, and inevitably the kids start trying to figure out how far they can push the rules of the castle, and whether they can meet up in the real world.
Now I admit I spent the whole book shouting 'nobody has asked what date anybody is from!' so I was expecting the reveal at the end, but I admit I was also expecting it to hit a bit more bittersweet and for the castle to end up being creepier/exacting more of a price ... between that and the way everything linked up so neatly with the guidance counselor and the dead cancer sister, the ending felt like an after school special about Teen Mental Health, which is honestly too bad because I liked the setup and the early parts and the overall distinct messiness of the kids and their tentative connections to each other so much! I'm glad that Things Got Better For the Youth but I'm afraid that Things Got So Much Better For The Youth it makes the earlier complexity of their various inner struggles feel simplistic in retrospect, and that's a shame.
halfjig's recommendation, which I'm very glad of -- I found about 80% of the book extremely compelling and the ending a bit disappointing, but despite that I've been thinking about it a fair bit. Kokoro, the protagonist of the book, is a middle school girl who after a traumatic bullying experience finds herself unable to go back to school. Even when her mom locates what seems to be a warm and welcoming alternative school environment, she can't seem to find it in herself to go -- especially when her bedroom mirror starts lighting up every day between 9 AM and 5 PM to bring her to what appears to be a castle in another world, populated with six other middle-school-age-ish kids.
The castle seems to be run by an small girl with a wolf mask and some form of magic powers, who gives them a clear set of rules. Somewhere in the castle, there's a key; whoever finds that key can have One Wish Granted. As soon as anyone finds the key and makes a wish, nobody can come back to the castle, and nobody will remember their time there. Otherwise they have until the end of the school year, when ditto ditto. And, also, if anyone tries to stay in the castle beyond 5 PM, all the kids will be devoured.
This immediately seems like the setup for an intense competition environment as everyone races to try to be the first to find the key and have a wish granted. In fact, nobody seems in a rush to solve the problems of the castle at all. The kids all immediately recognize the implications of the fact that they're all having bedroom mirror portal fantasy time During School Hours, and spend a lot of time carefully maneuvering around each other in order to try and make friends without disturbing the silent pact that's grown up among them to Not Make It Weird. One kid brings his old video game system, another passionately professes his love to all three girls in the cohort in turn. Kokoro's tangle of shame and competitiveness and solidarity as she attempts to get a handle on these newly-discovered peers is really thoughtfully and delicately drawn, and these early chapters are probably my favorites in the book.
But eventually, of course, the balance starts shifting, and inevitably the kids start trying to figure out how far they can push the rules of the castle, and whether they can meet up in the real world.
Now I admit I spent the whole book shouting 'nobody has asked what date anybody is from!' so I was expecting the reveal at the end, but I admit I was also expecting it to hit a bit more bittersweet and for the castle to end up being creepier/exacting more of a price ... between that and the way everything linked up so neatly with the guidance counselor and the dead cancer sister, the ending felt like an after school special about Teen Mental Health, which is honestly too bad because I liked the setup and the early parts and the overall distinct messiness of the kids and their tentative connections to each other so much! I'm glad that Things Got Better For the Youth but I'm afraid that Things Got So Much Better For The Youth it makes the earlier complexity of their various inner struggles feel simplistic in retrospect, and that's a shame.
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