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asianamlitfansWritten by Stephen Hong Sohn
Edited by Lina Jiang
So, Aditi Khorana’s Mirror in the Sky (Razorbill, 2016) was one of those titles I meant to read a while ago but haven’t gotten back to. This year I’ve really been trying to review authors that haven’t necessarily been covered here at AALF, so here I am! The premise of this particular title really struck me, as it involves a kind of mirror Earth that we become aware of. The story is told through the first person perspective of Tara Krishnan, a high school student, of biracial ancestry. Her mother is white, while her father Sudeep, is of South Asian (Indian) descent). Tara lives in Connecticut and attends a very homogenous boarding school in which Tara is one of the few POC students. When news breaks about the mirror Earth, which is soon designated as Terra Nova, this moment serves to push characters into different philosophical directions. Tara’s mother, for instance, wants to join a commune out in California to explore what her life could be like beyond her caretaking duties as wife and mother. Indeed, the emergence of Terra Nova pushes Tara’s Mom to wonder what her life might have been like if her own parents had survived. As we come to discover, Tara’s Mom still finds herself thinking about the fact that her parents died when she was just a young child. The emergence of Terra Nova pushes her to make decisions that focus more on her own interests rather than those of her husband or child. Tara’s own quandaries primarily revolve around her sense of outsidership at the high school. She has a major crush on Nick Osterman, while she finds herself having to navigate the fact that she’s just been allowed entrance into the popular set (which includes a group of three girls: Halle, Alexa, and Veronica). Khorana’s novel works best when it really pushes the science fictional angle. That is, the existential questions that make characters wonder about their futures and what possible paths they might have took are the most compelling parts of this text. At the same time, Khorana’s plot leans a little bit too heavily into the high school social drama, especially as the novel ends.
I will provide the requisite spoiler warning at this point, so do not read further unless you want to find out some plot details about the end. Tara’s primary concern seems to be about fitting in but there’s a way in which her own struggles seem a little bit shortsighted, especially given both the larger familial dynamics that have made her parents’ relationship so unstable as well as the larger global crises arising out of Terra Nova. As the novel hurtles toward the inevitable break down of Tara’s new social clique, I kept wondering more about Terra Nova. A hastily constructed conclusion gives us some sense of what is going on with Terra Nova, but this section does not seem fully integrated into the main storyline. A promising premise with some great writing but the parts don’t fully cohere (at least for me).
Buy the Book Here
Edited by Lina Jiang
So, Aditi Khorana’s Mirror in the Sky (Razorbill, 2016) was one of those titles I meant to read a while ago but haven’t gotten back to. This year I’ve really been trying to review authors that haven’t necessarily been covered here at AALF, so here I am! The premise of this particular title really struck me, as it involves a kind of mirror Earth that we become aware of. The story is told through the first person perspective of Tara Krishnan, a high school student, of biracial ancestry. Her mother is white, while her father Sudeep, is of South Asian (Indian) descent). Tara lives in Connecticut and attends a very homogenous boarding school in which Tara is one of the few POC students. When news breaks about the mirror Earth, which is soon designated as Terra Nova, this moment serves to push characters into different philosophical directions. Tara’s mother, for instance, wants to join a commune out in California to explore what her life could be like beyond her caretaking duties as wife and mother. Indeed, the emergence of Terra Nova pushes Tara’s Mom to wonder what her life might have been like if her own parents had survived. As we come to discover, Tara’s Mom still finds herself thinking about the fact that her parents died when she was just a young child. The emergence of Terra Nova pushes her to make decisions that focus more on her own interests rather than those of her husband or child. Tara’s own quandaries primarily revolve around her sense of outsidership at the high school. She has a major crush on Nick Osterman, while she finds herself having to navigate the fact that she’s just been allowed entrance into the popular set (which includes a group of three girls: Halle, Alexa, and Veronica). Khorana’s novel works best when it really pushes the science fictional angle. That is, the existential questions that make characters wonder about their futures and what possible paths they might have took are the most compelling parts of this text. At the same time, Khorana’s plot leans a little bit too heavily into the high school social drama, especially as the novel ends.
I will provide the requisite spoiler warning at this point, so do not read further unless you want to find out some plot details about the end. Tara’s primary concern seems to be about fitting in but there’s a way in which her own struggles seem a little bit shortsighted, especially given both the larger familial dynamics that have made her parents’ relationship so unstable as well as the larger global crises arising out of Terra Nova. As the novel hurtles toward the inevitable break down of Tara’s new social clique, I kept wondering more about Terra Nova. A hastily constructed conclusion gives us some sense of what is going on with Terra Nova, but this section does not seem fully integrated into the main storyline. A promising premise with some great writing but the parts don’t fully cohere (at least for me).
Buy the Book Here
