Hello, everyone! Today I am reviewing The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow, which is a debut ya fantasy that was published on August 8, 2024. I was instantly drawn to the cover and premise of this story. Did it live up to my expectations? Read on to find out!

Princess Ying Yue believed in love … once upon a time.

Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial palace: whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.

Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world.

This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of.

But there is darkness in this new world, too.

It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they discovered what their role was, it was already too late.

***Thank you to Delacorte Press and Nicole Banholzer PR for providing a copy of the book. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I was so excited to read The Girl with No Reflection. It had an interesting premise, and the beginning had me hooked. Ying’s anxiety over her arranged marriage and the creepy introduction of the reflections and the mirror realm were both compelling. Unfortunately, I lost interest in the story pretty quickly once it got going. The plot just did not work for me, and I did not like any of the characters.

First things first… The plot of The Girl with No Reflection was all over the place. It had so many twists and turns. Most of them were incredibly predictable, and many of them felt forced into the story for dramatic effect. Some twists even felt a bit contradictory and left me scratching my head in confusion. I was often bored despite there being so much going on, and skimming became my best friend while trying to finish this incredibly bloated story. I did push through to the end in the hope of getting a satisfying resolution. However, the way Ying eventually closed off the mirror world was absolutely nonsensical.

The shallow world-building in The Girl with No Reflection definitely didn’t help matters. So many of the ideas just seemed half-baked. For example, there was a prophecy at the heart of the story. However, it lacked any real background about its origins or any explanation about why Ying might have ended up being the one to fulfill it other than some vague ties to her family. There were so many other things about the world that left me with a ton of questions. It just annoyed me. I did enjoy the variety of magical creatures in this book, though. They were ferocious and interesting, even if the rules about some of them didn’t really make sense to me.

I also had a hard time with the use of language in The Girl with No Reflection. Some of it just seemed out of place. There was random cursing that didn’t feel organic to the world. It repeatedly took me out of the story. I don’t usually have a problem with cursing in books, but something just felt off about it in this story. The use of certain non-English words also seemed really haphazard, and they weren’t integrated into the text well.

The characters in The Girl with No Reflection were what really kept me from loving this book. I can forgive a lot if the characters are great, but that wasn’t the case here. Ying was naive, rash, and extremely short-sighted. She made stupid decision after stupid decision and was, quite frankly, insufferable. The love triangle romance was horrible, and the speed of Ying’s changing affections made her seem extremely flighty. I didn’t buy into the final pairing at all. Even all of the banter couldn’t make me enjoy it. It didn’t help that the repetitiveness of Ying’s inner narrative became painful to read by the end. Once again, thank goodness for skimming.

Overall, I just did not love reading The Girl with No Reflection. The plot was a bit too all over the place with a rather underwhelming resolution. The main character was insufferable, and everyone else always seemed to be able to get one over on her. It also seemed like the story couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be. Many different tropes and story elements got mashed together while giving them little background, and some language and depictions made the story feel quite adult alongside others that were very juvenile. It just didn’t work for me. Therefore, I rate The Girl with No Reflection 2.75 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My review of The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow. Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it more than I did? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!