Book Review: Dreams and Curses Meet in The Mirror’s “Fractured Path”

Fractured Path by J.C. Cervantes is the third book in The Mirror series by Disney Publishing. The series puts a new, unique and spooky spin on the young adult fantasy genre. It comprises four books and follows one family―and the curse that plagues it―over several generations.

Fractured Path follows Broken Wish by Julie C. Dao (book one) and Shattered Midnight by Dhonielle Clayton (book two). In Fractured Path, Cervantes weaves dreams and curses together in sunny San Francisco in the 1960s, where a startling and mysterious journey unfolds.

Where is Fractured Path about?

The 1960s are bursting with music, movement and love in San Francisco, perfect for a budding artist like Blake. Unfortunately, the art world is not welcoming to people of her gender or her multi-racial heritage, making it tough to land an internship that could put her on the map. That, plus the fact that Blake’s family has been notoriously riddled with bad luck, makes her feel like she can’t catch a break. Things only get worse when Blake starts to have ominous, confusing visions that grow stronger and more frequent, prompting Blake’s aunt and uncle to tell her about a long-lost family heirloom that could be the key to everything.

Fueled by the ambiguous clues in her visions, Blake sets out on a journey through the city to retrieve her ancestors’ legendary mirror. But Blake is not the only one looking for it. Soon she must attempt to unleash her own dormant powers . . . or else risk all she holds dear.

Magic can be complicated and scary – especially when shrouded by secrets

Descendants, broken promises, tragedy and old magic generally sums up Fractured Path. While these are the main themes of the story that steer the reader deeper into the unsettling mists of this bewitching new series, it is the new spin Cervantes puts on magic and what flows from it that makes book three particularly intriguing.

Protagonist Blake is tasked with the near-impossible as she seeks to balance the beauty of magic with its burdens. The reader experiences the beauty of magic in a sweet and whimsical way: Blake’s magic initially consists of an ability to draw memory from objects, while Aunt Remi can send messages on the wind. I loved being introduced to such unique, seemingly simple abilities and how they are used, especially in the early chapters.

This fun magic is countered by old magic which is shown in a very different, more sinister, light. Ultimately Blake has a lot to learn more before she can properly harness it, and thus begins the tricky and temperamental journey of taming the magic beast. Not to mention this old magic is likely the reason her family is cursed and prone to tragedy, and there are mysterious forces at work tracking it for their own ominous purposes. Fear is also explored in Fractured Path in a captivating way, essentially as being the instigator for “protection”. Some of my favorite lines from the book include “In binding her magic, she will be shielded from any powerful magic in her path. She will not recognize it. Instead she will fear it” and “but this fear hasn’t protected me… [i]t has only tangled the truth.”

I found Blake to be a complicated and, at times, hard-to-love protagonist. With magic (and, let’s face it, family) comes secrets, and it is in keeping those secrets that problems can arise. With how earnest her aunt and uncle are to help her, and given their awareness and understanding of magic too, it was a struggle for me to really side with Blake when I thought she was being unfair to them to their detriment. But of course, they have their secrets too, which makes such multifaceted characters interesting and worth chewing on.

All books in the series to date do a good job of addressing gender and racial disparities. It is inspiring to see great stories bringing these issues to the fore in significant and clever ways. While The Mirror is premised on fantasy, the disparities flagged are raw and real (and have been since the 1800s in which the first book is set). Dao, Clayton and Cervantes use their talents not only to raise awareness but to educate intelligently and thoughtfully. Young readers and adults alike can learn and benefit a lot from such storytelling.

I read a hard copy version of Fractured Path which includes family trees on the inside of the cover. These trees are helpful in reorienting fans of the series with Agnes’s and Mathilda’s family – the characters that readers met in book one, Broken Wish. They also gave me pause to wonder which characters readers might be introduced to in book four.

Another aspect I love about The Mirror is the time – and geography – travel between the stories. Readers are transported to:

  • 1800s Germany (in Broken Wish, book one)
  • 1920s New Orleans (in Shattered Midnight, book two), and
  • 1960s San Francisco (in Fractured Path, book three).

Each different period brings with it new context and characters, and Shattered Midnight and Fractured Path build on the trials, tribulations and lessons learned from prior books in the series. There is a lot of unpacking to do, and this series strikes me as one in which every time you read it, you may pick up on something new.

Fractured Path continues the pursuit of magic while grappling with family secrets, broken promises and tragedy. It mixes the supernatural with the historical and wedges its characters into a reality near enough to our own from which we should aim to learn, improve, and grow.

The Mirror: Fractured Path was released on July 19th, 2022.

 

Jess Salafia Ward
Jess Salafia Ward is an Aussie, an attorney and a die-hard Disney fan. She grew up in a city not too far from P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney; and she still enjoys dancing around in Snow White pajamas and serenading her family members with Sleeping Beauty’s “Once Upon A Dream” (though, unlike Princess Aurora, she is not blessed with the gift of song). Jess is an Elvis-lover like Lilo, and when she doesn't have her nose stuck in a book, she delights in sharing with fellow fans all things Disney, books, movies and history.