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Breaking The Mirror (2000)

by Nilah E. Rose(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Fiction Press

review 1: Interesting premise that the author basically did nothing with. The new friends Jayden (ugh, so over that name) makes by accident are great characters, but they serve no purpose. And why are three 19 year olds suddenly befriending a withdrawn, silent, 16 year old? Due to the abuse he’s suffered, he has no social skills, so I never really understood why they picked him up at all. Jayden has no character arc, he starts emotionally closed off and basically ends that way. He never grows as a person, Seaton, Spencer, and the cops are the ones who save his damsel-in-distress ass. He never figures out how to interact with his new friends, and finishes just as baffled about why they’re hanging out with him. The early tie in Rose gives us to the title (which was great) made me ... morethink that Jayden was the one who was going to break out the box he’d been shut in - but he never really does.And don’t get me started on the cop out ending, although it's more like Rose just got bored and couldn’t think of anything else to say, her author’s note at the end doesn’t solve this. The last chapter needs at least a little bit more resolution to tie things up. And Yuck, I’m sorry, but Seaton is a total creeper. He’s an adult, an ex-cop (for which there was a totally WTF explanation for why he quit - he was hiding from his daddy because they had a disagreement???? Srsly?), he witnessed the physical abuse Jayden suffered, and a) Did nothing even after he realized the abuse was going on, b) Asks Jayden to move in with him when he has inappropriate feelings for the kid, c) FUCKING ACTS on those feelings: after Jayden admits to being sexually abused Seaton KISSES him. That is not a love interest, that is just another SICK FUCK taking advantage of Jayden in my book. And Seaton KNOWS all this, and admits it in the last real chapter. If Seaton had waited at least a year until Jayden was 18, and maybe not so fucked up anymore, I wouldn’t have had such a problem with it. Rose tells us in one of her author’s notes that since Seaton is only seven years older than Jayden, it’s not legally wrong for them to hook up - but I still think it’s ethically wrong for someone in a position of power to make or accept sexual advances from a kid who is that fucked up.And Spencer, the high school teacher, was not much better. He made the hair on the back of my neck stand up - I was sure he was another Charlie. He was just a little too interested in Jayden, and his explanation for why he didn’t go to the authorities after he suspected Jayden was being abused - that HE wanted to be the one to save Jayden - was again way creepy. And what was with his arguments with Seaton? There was no explanation for their mutual animosity and weird bitchy catfights. The writing overall was a little juvenile, lots of grammar/spelling problems, but the emotional mood of the MC was very well done. I kept reading this because Jayden’s damage is heartbreakingly real, and I had to know how he would deal with it. I just wish she’d done more with Jayden’s pain, that he could have at least started down the path of recovery, instead of just getting hung up on the next creepy adult who wanted to fuck him over. The therapy sessions were a throw-away; Jayden goes, maybe because Rose knows that someone going through that kind of situation would need therapy, but then he never actually talks to his therapist, making it a useless experience for him, and one that’s abandoned by the end of the story. I was really hoping when she asked Jayden about his feelings for Seaton that Jayden would SAY something, and then she could be the voice of reason about that fucked up situation.
review 2: The poor boy! He really gets some unbelievable abuse. It really does stretch credulity, how much the father beats the boy. But the characters are really well written. Seaton is the perfect Mr.. Darcy, just so cold, but a good guy. And I love the way Jayden is written. He is so suspicious and withdrawn, doesn't like nice people(that is why he can like Seaton). It is just a wild ride, so angsty, there is not a moment's rest, and Jayden's mind never stops thinking, it is really teenage angst to the max. And everything ends happily ever after. As an aside, it reminded me of Oliver Twist, The Little Princess, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, all situations where a child is in a horrible situation and needs to be rescued and gets rescued! (But of course there was no slash in those stories - that we know of). less

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