What Was That Book?

[ceebeegee]

Can I just say how much I love the internet sometimes? Not only can you research things near-instantly, you can also act on the results just as fast. There's a fantastic LJ community called whatwasthatbook? You're trying to remember a book you've read, you post what details you recall, and usually someone can give you the title. AWESOME. Yesterday I posted about a book I read about 15 years ago, this really creepy book about a boy child movie star who'd been murdered in the '30s, and somehow lived in this mirror. There was an Alice Through the Looking Glass theme in it, as I recalled. I vividly remember when the main character first "entered" the world of the mirror. (I've always thought mirrors were fascinating--it's weird how even when your arm or whatever is out of frame, the mirror still reflects it. Weird!) Some kind soul posted the title and author: Mirror by a British writer named Graham Masterton. BAM! I went onto Amazon and ordered it, stat.

A few months ago I was trying to remember another book I read back in middle school--all I remembered was that it took place in a girls boarding school and two girls were roommates and best friends. Then a new student came in and said something like "I'll break that up" and I remembered a strong hint of lesbianism. (I read this book in the 8th grade.) I posted the details--unfortunately no one could help me but I did several different searches on Google Books and finally came up with it--The Last of Eden by Stephanie Tolan. Also bought that one, off of eBay. The edition I received had another illustration on the back, showing a couple of girls on the campus of the school. I don't know if it was the times or if they were specifically trying to suggest lesbianism, but EVERYONE was rocking the femullet! It's odd, because no one on the front cover had one. At any rate, I reread it--I guess I was perhaps a little too innocent when I first read it, because the book doesn't just have a "hint" of lesbianism, it is specifically ABOUT that, although I think they only use the actual word once or twice. Anyway, a very interesting YA novel, kind of an obverse version of A Separate Peace (which, sadly is becoming somewhat obsolete, due to its--according to this writer--obliviousness to its own homosexuality. It's been a long time since I've read A Separate Peace but I'm not sure I agree that it's necessarily gay--I mean, can't boys be friends at boarding school?). I guess the early '80s was the time for The Dark Side of Girls Boarding Schools (see: The Facts of Life, especially the first season).

Also inspired by whatwasthatbook, through Google Books (and this one took me a long time to track down, I did multiple searches with different keyword combinations and looked through many pages of results), I found a book I'd read in the '90s, a very strange sort of political fantasy called A Mirror for Princes by Tom de Haan. This was about the son of a king--he was the third or fourth son, so way down the line and figured he had nothing to worry about. Through a series of accidents, poisonings etc., guess what, he DOES end up being king, and he somehow gets involved with his sister, while his Machiavellian wife starts throwing around her weight. Very, very interesting book--not escapist fantasy at all but extremely bleak. Think "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. I also discovered that "mirrors for princes" are a literary genre.

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If you like fantasy books involving mirrors try The Mirror of her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson