Mirror Girls

Description

A thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth, perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country and The Vanishing Half - now in paperback! Magnolia Heathwood, heiress to a decrepit cotton plantation in Jim Crow's Georgia, was raised to be the perfect southern belle. All her life she's prepared to carry on the family dynasty, but according to her cruel grandmother, she always falls short. When Magnolia finally learns the truth-that she is not white in this segregated land, but mixed race-her reflection vanishes from every mirror: a sign of a terrible curse. And life in Eureka, Georgia is getting stranger every day: The most popular girl in town launches an initiative to segregate the dead in the local cemetery, and white-passing Magnolia doesn't know how much longer she can bear to live a lie. Meanwhile, Charlie Yates, an aspiring Civil Rights organizer from Harlem, is speeding toward Eureka beside her dying grandmother. Nana's last wish is to be buried in the land they fled seventeen years ago, after the brutal murder of Charlie's parents, who were killed for loving across the color line. On a segregated train car, brave Charlie has never felt so powerless. Nana's told her plenty of stories about the cursed town they're headed for-but she's never told her that she left a twin sister, Magnolia, behind. The sisters reunite as teenagers in the deeply haunted town of Eureka, where ghosts linger centuries after their time, and dangers lurk behind every mirror. They couldn't be more different, but they will need each other: to put the hauntings of the past to rest, to break the mirrors' deadly curse-and to discover the meaning of sisterhood in a racially divided land.

Kelly McWilliams is the Golden Kite Award-nominated author of Agnes at the End of the World, Mirror Girls, and Your Plantation Prom is Not Okay. She's also written for outlets such as Time and Publisher's Weekly. Mirror Girls was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and Target Book Club Pick. She lives in Seattle with her family.

*"Mirror Girls is a spine-tingling, empowering look at justice and civil action that urges readers to be aware, to be true to themselves and to take action. As Magnolia observes, 'As twin sisters, white and Black, we are a symbol of coming victory. A promise of change.'"--BookPage, starred review "A moving story about sisterhood and perseverance in the face of a society that tells Black girls they are worthless."--Booklist "Steeped in atmosphere, equal parts ghost and sororal love story, McWilliams has written a pitch-perfect southern gothic thriller about race, family, and what it means to call a place home."--Christina Hammonds Reed, award-winning author of The Black Kids "[A] spooky Southern gothic ghost story. "--BCCB