Lonely Castle in the Mirror Review

 I am not even sure where I came across this book, but the title and the overall plot looked interesting enough to download it on my kindle. Additionally, I have been on a mission to read a bit more books outside of my usual genres and cannons, so a contemporary novel by a well renowned Japanese author seemed like a very good idea for that. However, I believe that I was simply not the right audience for ‘Lonely Castle in The Mirror’. It is far from a bad book, but at times I found it quite childish and not mature enough to be dealing with the themes it has tackled.

I do have to put a disclaimer here that I am thirty years old, while the characters in the novel are much much younger than that, as they are all pre teens. In that sense, it is logical that I would not relate entirely to them and their problems and I could imagine that somebody much younger would appreciate this book more than I did. Also, I have read this in English translation, so I am leaving the option that some of the awkwardness of the writing could have stemmed from the nature of Japanese language vs English.

The story follows seven young people, with Kokoro as the main character, who are all recluses, struggling with going to school and having any kind of social life. One day, they all discover the entrance to the castle through their bedroom mirrors. They are awaited by an enigmatic figure, Wolf-Queen who explains the rules of the castles to them. They are free to stay in the castle until 5pm and do whatever they want while they are there, the castle will stay open for them for one school year and if one of them finds a hidden key, they will have one of their wishes come true. Later on, she adds a rule that if the wish does come true, they will forget all about the castle, but if they do not they will still remember it. This sounded like a very interesting premise that could have been expanded into a lovely metaphor for young people who are struggling finding each other and through that themselves, but I am afraid that not enough was done with the concept in this novel.

The castle was very hard to imagine, and to the end I was not quite sure if this was a modern, contemporary castle or something out of a fairy-tale. Yet, some of the other details were described in detail- the author mentioned that the castle does not have running water, but does have electricity several times. Beyond that, we do not really learn a lot about the environment these kids spend most of their time in. Fairy tales are mentioned somewhat frequently and do play a big part in the big resolution at the end, and I wish that more of that was translated into the environment, but that simply did not happen.

Speaking of the kids, I found them all so incredibly flat and their characterization lazy. There were seven of them and it took me a long time to start differentiating them. To be honest, until the end of the novel, I was not even sure who was who and what their story was. This was especially true for boys. If you quizzed me on their names, I am afraid I would fail that quiz. They are their individual people, sure, but they were so similar and none of them unfortunately did not add enough to the overall story that made me want to really make an effort to understand them all. At the end we do get a glimpse into their home life, but it was too late for me to really connect with any of these kids.

For a novel that is all about friendships and finding connections, theirs was flimsy at best. The relationships felt arbitrary as they were all brought into this castle and not enough attention was paid to developing this aspect of their stories. They will occasionally play video games and bond over that, or the girls will sit and chat to each other, but that was simply not enough for me to believe that these are life changing friendships. I understand this was a slower, more introspective book so the kids do not go around looking for the key, especially as they believe that they have enough time to do so, but I did find it frustrating that none of them asked enough questions to the ever elusive Wolf-Queen. Instead, they kind of just hang out in the castle, instead of going to school and participating in their real life. This is a wonderful escape for clearly very troubled kids, but I wish there was more development of their characters and the relationships throughout the novel then.

Another big issue with the novel was the pacing. For the majority of the book, the seven kids do not really do much of anything, only to maybe kind of search for the key towards the end of the novel, but give that up quite quickly as well. I simply could not connect with this passive group of kids who wasted months of what is a fantastical opportunity just because?? I don’t even understand why. This makes the novel very uneven and I found it hard to read because of that. Author will also frequently stop the narration to comment on how the main character is feeling or what she is thinking, even though we just heard it from the character’s mouth. This too slowed down the story too much and made me believe that even if the author is perhaps writing for a younger audience, she does not have a lot of trust in their ability to read and comprehend the written word.

The final plot twist was unsatisfactory. I will admit I did not see it coming, and it does make sense in the context of the story, but it does not add much to the story. Throughout the story, the author is desperate for us to understand her characters and what they are going through, but none of it is truly resolved satisfactorily at the end. Too many questions are left unanswered at the end in a way that would leave me wanting more have I enjoyed this book more than I actually did.

Overall, I rated this ⅖ because I simply found too many issues and elements that I did not like in this book.