Praise for The Mirror Season:
"McLemore whips up a magical realist tale as spellbinding as the pan dulce creations described within this novel’s pages...With haunting prose and sharp insight, McLemore expertly combines the piquant with the sweet." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Aching, vivid narrative...The poetic and vulnerable prose illuminates the need for more open conversation about sexuality, consent, and abuse without the limits of the gender binary...Piercing magic." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"An unforgettable story of trauma and healing, told in achingly beautiful prose with great tenderness and care." —Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
"A powerful, harrowing, and important story about trauma, identity, taking back power and the redemptive nature of healing. These characters will stay with me forever. An absolute must read." —Aisha Saeed, New York Times-bestselling author of Amal Unbound and Yes No Maybe So
Praise for Dark and Deepest Red:
"McLemore weaves another magic spell ... This novel will leave an indelible mark on readers' hearts."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"McLemore fashions another gorgeous novel...McLemore’s well-choreographed story will dance on in readers’ minds." —Booklist, starred review
“One of the most beautiful books I’ve read in years. McLemore is a master." —Susan Dennard, New York Times–bestselling author of the Witchlands series
★ 01/25/2021
Folding in elements of Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” McLemore (Dark and Deepest Red) whips up a magical realist tale as spellbinding as the pan dulce creations described within this novel’s pages. Known as the pastry witch of San Juan Capistrano, queer Mexican American teen Graciela “Ciela” Cristales works at her family’s pastelería and has inherited her late bisabuela’s ability to “know what bread or sweet would leaven the heart of anyone she met.” After Ciela and a visiting “boy in plaid flannel” are both sexually assaulted at the same party, however, her gift disappears—and a strange season begins in which trees vanish overnight and objects suddenly turn into magical mirrored glass. But when the boy from that night, Lock Thomas, unexpectedly enrolls at Ciela’s high school several months later, with no memory of his assault, Ciela must decide whether to reveal what she knows or keep the truth to herself. With haunting prose and sharp insight, McLemore expertly combines the piquant with the sweet (“I dream of pale fingers pulling me apart like sugar dough”), exposing the fragility and complexity of Ciela and Lock’s hearts post-assault with due consideration and care. Ages 13–up. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary. (Mar.)
★ 05/01/2021
Gr 8 Up—In this novel inspired by their own experience, McLemore employs the device of magical realism as smoothly and artistically as protagonist Ciela creates pan dulce in her aunt's panadería. This first-person narrative opens like a fairy tale, recounting how her great-grandmother passed the gift of matching specific Mexican sweet bread to each client's needs. This ushers readers into the spring night of Ciela's junior year when she deposits an unknown white boy at the ER. Both of them were sexually assaulted, something that she cannot think about, much less talk about, so she mentally ascribes her own narrative to avoid splintering. Afterward, she begins to notice the metamorphosis of beautiful things in her life, like flowers and leaves, into glass shards, the largest of which is wedged in her heart. This is also when she realizes that her gift is missing. The story unfolds like a puzzle being slowly pieced together through rich, symbolic descriptions strengthened by equally symbolic Spanish translanguaging. Readers feel the agony of injustices committed on queer brown people, and powerless white people, and will be compelled to read deeply until the book's end, and then flip back to absorb more details. VERDICT A masterpiece intertwining painful teen realities involving injustices based on race, ethnicity, class, and gender with trauma and healing within loving, supportive families.—Ruth Quiroa, National Louis Univ., Lisle, IL
This audiobook abounds with magical realism. Latina Ciela makes the perfect pan dulce. One could even say it’s magical. But when she and a boy discover that both of them were sexually assaulted at a party, Ciela’s magical talents dim. Bit by bit, narrator Jennifer Jill Araya reveals what happened. And in the wake of feelings of rawness and vulnerability comes the discovery of personal power. The trauma, gender and racial differences, and inequity in this story are balanced by its beautiful prose and fairy-tale elements, inspired by “The Snow Queen.” Araya does justice to all of these elements and blends them with gentle transitions. The audio includes an author’s note about the background of the story. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
This audiobook abounds with magical realism. Latina Ciela makes the perfect pan dulce. One could even say it’s magical. But when she and a boy discover that both of them were sexually assaulted at a party, Ciela’s magical talents dim. Bit by bit, narrator Jennifer Jill Araya reveals what happened. And in the wake of feelings of rawness and vulnerability comes the discovery of personal power. The trauma, gender and racial differences, and inequity in this story are balanced by its beautiful prose and fairy-tale elements, inspired by “The Snow Queen.” Araya does justice to all of these elements and blends them with gentle transitions. The audio includes an author’s note about the background of the story. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
★ 2020-12-25
In the aftermath of an assault at a party, the lives of two teens intertwine as they struggle to find healing, lost magic, and ways to move forward.
Like her bisabuela before her, Ciela Cristales speaks “the language of flour and sugar.” In her family’s pastelería, she is La Bruja de los Pasteles, who can sense exactly which pastry someone wants before they know themselves, which flavors will give them courage or help open their heart to love. Although her abuela warned her that such gifts could be lost, she did not know this was true until a shard of glass buries itself deep in her heart along with the sharp, mirrored truth of what happened to her and a boy she’d just met at a party she wishes she could forget. McLemore reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” or “La Reina de las Nieves,” in the weaving of an aching, vivid narrative about two young adults, a White boy and a queer, Mexican American girl, who are grappling with trauma from sexual assault. The poetic and vulnerable prose illuminates the need for more open conversation about sexuality, consent, and abuse without the limits of the gender binary. Balancing raw honesty and hope, McLemore does not shy away from depicting discomfort and injustice, but they also surround Ciela with a loving and affirming community of characters crafted with tender detail in this contemporary novel brushed with fairy tale.
Piercing magic. (author's note) (Magical realism. 14-18)
