Sunflower Reviews

Raaina - Mirrored In Her

Reviewer: 08_Umm_Waraqah

Review: Mirrored In Her

Client: june_berrin

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Mirrored in Her has a beautiful cover, a really beautiful one. Unfortunately, I don't think the cover suits the story (more to the point, its timeline). This cover gives me solid historical fiction vibes (you know, the 17th, 18th century periods), what with the character's dressing and the mirror itself (even the title sounds like something from the times of Shakespeare). Then I go to your blurb, and everything about it tells me your book is Dystopian or Post Apocalyptic (wait, aren't those two genres the same?). See, there's a clash: Shakespeare era cover, end of the world era story. Without further ado, I'll strongly advise you change the cover, find something that suits your story.

However, if you decide the to keep the cover (because what do I know? I'm not a cover expert or anything), don't keep the subtitle. I have absolutely no idea what it means. In fact, I'm sure it makes no sense. The whole point of subtitles is to act as a mini blurb, to hook the readers and evoke interest in them. If your subtitle doesn't make any sense, I say a lot of readers will expect your book to not make sense as well. I implore you to sit, think of the message you want to pass with the subtitle, find a better way to pass it across (reconstruct the sentence, use new words, blah blah). And if you can't come up with something really better, I suggest you ditch the subtitle completely (they are cool and all when done right, but they're not compulsory).

I did say your title sounds like it came from the era of Shakespeare. It does. But it could also have come from the times of Trump or somebody from the future could have put it in a time machine and sent it here. Bottom line, the title is timeless, and perhaps, not restricted to a certain genre. So I believe it's okay. You can keep it, as long as it ties to your story somehow.

SYNOPSIS—which is totally not the same as a blurb, but we'll pretend it is.

Normally, in this section, I usually go on and on about the many things wrong or right with a blurb before reconstructing or not reconstructing the whole blurb. This time around, I'll just wear my helmet, snap on my gloves, carry my tools, demolish your blurb and help you build it from the ground up. (Ah, I said demolish like your blurb was so bad it needed to be razed down, nah it isn't. Just needs a little revamping).

The human race has been divided into two kinds. The Extraordinaires, with powers derived from objects. The Ordinaires, who possess great strength in their bodies. Though living together, there is no love lost between them.

Estella, an Extraordinaires with powers gotten from mirrors, was born into an Ordinaires family that believes the Extraordinaires are arrogant, self-serving people, and a threat. However, Estella always thought her family's views stemmed from jealousy. Now that she's aware of the true history behind the bloodshed and hatred, she knows she thought wrong.

To the Extraordinaires, Estella is an unskilled weakling with inferior powers. To the Ordinaires, Estella is an outcast.

I did the best I could do with the information gotten from the original blurb. Still, this blurb still needs work. I think it's all history. There are no goals, no stakes, no explicit conflict. Oh, and I stopped where I stopped because I couldn't find a way to link your last sentence to the one before it (there probably is, but I couldn't find it). I wish I had practical tips to give you on how to write a good blurb. Unfortunately, regarding blurbs, I'm still a work in progress myself.