Lonely Castle in the Mirror follows the story of Kokoro, a girl in Junior High at Fukushima No. 5 School, Tokyo. Because of the bullying Kokoro experiences at school, she is unable to attend her classes and instead spends her days at home, watching television and feeling guilty about not being able to do better. One day, the mirror in her room begins to shine, and she finds it opening up to a world beyond – the castle. There she meets a mysterious girl in a wolf mask, as well as six children: Ureshino, Masamune, Rion, Subaru, Fuka and Aki. The children are instructed to solve the mystery of the castle before it closes on the 30th of March the next year. Each child is presented the opportunity to look for a key that can grant him or her one wish, but the catch: the wish will only work for one child and, if the wish is granted, there will be consequences for all the children.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is an endearing read that had me wiping away tears as the story came to a close. While it took a while to decipher the story mystery, once one reaches the final chapters the story comes together so well and all the hidden pieces puzzle together perfectly. This book was insightful and, as a book aimed at a young adult audience, had some great lessons to teach to children who struggle with bullying.
The book had a few major positive points, while also having a few negatives:
The main character, Kokoro, was sweet and relatable. Her journey was well-written, and her growth from a shy, lonely girl, to one with confidence and a future to look forward to, left a wonderful positive message for other young people who might be in similar situations. Her journey, along with Aki’s journey, encourages children to push past the things they can’t control as children, letting them understand that it’s safe to grow up—they can take charge of their lives and push past their troubles (page 354).
While the other characters in this story weren’t super deep, I did find each of their stories very compelling. I’d have liked to see a little more of each character’s backstory. Because the characters weren’t deeply developed, I tended to confuse them – especially the boys—with one another. The boy who stood out most was Rion; let me just say his story is intense. I loved learning about him and how his story was interwoven with the stories of the other children.
Furthermore, I liked that the book broke down the children’s names into the language characters to give more insight into their Japanese meanings:
“I’m Rion,” the handsome boy said next. “People tell me it sounds like a foreign name, but I’m Japanese. It’s written with the ri in rika, science, and the on that means sound…”
Page 37
How the relationships were explained with the additional ‘chan’, ‘senpai’ and so on, was very interesting. It’s the first time I’ve read a book where this was explained so well. These additions were also used as a clever device to demonstrate how the characters feel about each other, considering themselves either familiar/unfamiliar or inferior/superior to their peers, like on page 59:
“Hi, Aki-senpai,” she said.
Page 59
At which Masamune burst out laughing.
“Jeez, this isn’t some school club, what’s with the senpai?”
“OK, OK—so what should I call her?”
“I don’t mind what you call me—just plain Aki, or Aki-chan—it’s all good. I find it kind of endearing that you’re so polite, Kokoro.”
The worldbuilding and overall concept of the story were so original and well thought out. While I wish the atmosphere was a bit more developed—it didn’t always feel like the castle was that different to everyday life—I did like that the characters made the castle their own little safe space and ‘forged’ their environment to suit their individual needs.
One last thing that was a bit strange was the perspective shift at the end of the book. Lonely Castle in the Mirror is written from Kokoro’s perspective, but then it switches to one of the other characters at the end. While the ‘reveal’ really connected the story well, it might have been more useful to introduce the other character’s perspective here and there earlier on in the story so that this didn’t feel so unexpected.
This was a 3.8 star for me. Overall, I really enjoyed it and feel this story is worth a read. In general, I just wanted a bit more: more character, more atmosphere, more magic. I also wish I could have read the book in its original Japanese (I’ll get there one day!) because the translation, especially at the beginning, made the prose feel a little stiff. I think this took away from the magical feeling of the story. Because of this, I struggled to get into the story at first, but it was worth it once I pushed on.
If you enjoy sweet books by Japanese authors, you can check out The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. It was my favourite book of 2022 and I really wish I could read it again for the first time!
Maan Atelier 