{Review +Giveaway} The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold

Posted April 14, 2014 by Michelle @ Book Briefs in Giveaways, Reviews, Young Adult / 19 Comments

{Review +Giveaway} The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold

{Review +Giveaway} The Looking Glass by Jessica ArnoldThe Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold
Pages: 324
Published by Month 9 Books on April 15, 2014
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Legends, Myths, Fables, supernatural, Young Adult
Source: eARC from Publisher
three-half-stars

Find the diary, break the curse, step through The Looking Glass!

Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth’s curse—with the help of Elizabeth's old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B—before she becomes the inn's next victim.

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YA ReviewMy Thoughts

The Looking Glass is a really interesting take on a re-telling. The girls name is Alice, and she ends up on the other side of a mirror, but that is about where the similarities stop. Jessica Arnold has created a completely new, creepy, intriguing and utterly fascinating world in her spooky hotel. I loved watching Alice explore it, both through the diary she finds and through running from room to room. I felt Alice’s pressure the whole book, just hanging there in the air. I felt like I had to keep reading because if I didn’t then Alice would run out of time to figure out whatever she needed to figure out to get out of that house and back to the real hotel. I loved that she was transported to basically an alternate mirror world of the hotel where she was vacationing with her family.

I will admit that I was kind of confused when I started reading the book, but this is the kind of book where you just go with it. Alice is just as confused as the reader, if not more, and you are trapped in her world. You only get to know what she knows, and there is something cool and exciting about that kind of writing. I thought Jessica Arnold did a wonderful job with the detail in this book. The hotel sprung to life before my eyes while I was reading. The little girl that no one in the real hotel could see never failed to give me goosebumps and shivers. I felt like the book was a little slow at the start but it was probably just for setting the scene purposes. As the book got going it did start to pick up momentum.

I loved watching Alice try to figure out what was happening to her and just how she could fix it. And at the same time we got to learn the story of the hotel and of Elizabeth. It was a cool dual storyline going on. Reading The Looking Glass was a real experience for me. I could easily see this book translating into a movie. It would be creepy and intense and pretty awesome. The Looking Glass was really unique. I haven’t read a re-telling quite like this one.

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About Jessica Arnold

Jessica Arnold writes YA, codes ebooks, and is currently a graduate student in publishing at Emerson College in Boston. She spends most of her time in class or work or slogging through the homework swamp. If she has a spare moment, she’s always up for a round of Boggle. Given the opportunity, Jessica will pontificate at length on the virtues of the serial comma, when and where to use an en dash, and why the semicolon is the best punctuation mark pretty much ever.

GiveawayTo enter, fill out the rafflecopter below.

(OPEN INT.) – Winner will be drawn May 9, 2014

·        Four (4) winners will receive an ebook copy of The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold (INT)

·        One (1) winner will receive an ebook copy of The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold AND a $10 Amazon Gift Card or B&N Gift Card – Winner’s Choice (INT)

Note: this giveaway is not sponsored by Book Briefs. All of the terms and conditions of the giveaway should be contained in the rafflecopter below

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About Jessica Arnold

Jessica Arnold writes YA, codes ebooks, and is currently a graduate student in publishing at Emerson College in Boston. She spends most of her time in class or work or slogging through the homework swamp. If she has a spare moment, she’s always up for a round of Boggle. Given the opportunity, Jessica will pontificate at length on the virtues of the serial comma, when and where to use an en dash, and why the semicolon is the best punctuation mark pretty much ever.

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19 responses to “{Review +Giveaway} The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold

  1. I love retellings when they are done right and it sounds like this one is. I also love when you get to experience the story as the character is experiencing it and you make this one sound like it was a vivid journey. I will definitely check this book out. Thanks for sharing and the chance to win!

  2. The getting to know more as the character learns thing tends to work well for me. I like seeing how quickly I can figure out things as opposed to the character.

    Doesn’t that cover just beg to be stared at and examined? Good use of color.

  3. Mary Preston

    I like the sound of this. I would be so frightened if this happened to be. Great review thank you.

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