By Stephanie Hart
And Then Press, $12.00, 223 pages
Don’t be confused by the title of the book. In theaters everywhere a movie of the same name is playing. Rest assured, author Stephanie Hart’s moving book is far from a fairy tale. Mirror Mirror: A Collection of Memoirs and Stories follows one woman’s life journey. The collection is a series of short vignettes split into chapters that explore childhood, boarding school and high school years. Hart focuses on her family history and comes to terms with what she has learned throughout her life. Some of the stories are humorous (like shopping trips with her mom) but overall, the tone is very somber. Hart lived through verbal abuse, a strained mother/daughter relationship, divorce and the eventual loss of both her parents. Yet she successfully shares her very personal experiences in a way that makes them universal. Readers will relate to Hart and recognize parts of themselves in her words. By the end of the book, Hart shares her revelations about love, loss, heartache, death, tolerance and aging. She should be proud of her work and the potential it has to encourage readers to hold up a mirror to their own past and start living their future.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Franklin
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