I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the MIRROR GIRLS by Kelly McWilliams Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
Book Title: Mirror Girls
Author: Kelly McWilliams
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: February 8, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Synopsis:
A thrilling gothic horror novel about biracial twin sisters separated at birth, perfect for fans of Lovecraft Country and The Vanishing Half
As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while white-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia.
Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past. When Magnolia finally learns the truth, her reflection mysteriously disappears from mirrors—the sign of a terrible curse. Meanwhile, in Harlem, Charlie’s beloved grandmother falls ill. Her final wish is to be buried back home in Georgia—and, unbeknownst to Charlie, to see her long-lost granddaughter, Magnolia Heathwood, one last time. So Charlie travels into the Deep South, confronting the land of her worst nightmares—and Jim Crow segregation.
The sisters reunite as teenagers in the deeply haunted town of Eureka, Georgia, 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.
Reviews:
“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 moving story about sisterhood and perseverance in the face of a society that tells Black girls they are worthless.”―Booklist
“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 spooky Southern gothic ghost story. “―BCCB
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Author Information
Kelly McWilliams is a mixed-race writer. She is the author of Doormat and Agnes at the End of the World. She lives in Seattle with her family.
Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Facebook
5 Reasons to Read Mirror Girls
- This captivating and timely story will keep you hooked until the end.
- A gorgeously haunting story about curses, ghosts, family, and what it means to be bi-racial in the 1950s.
- Charlie and Magnolia are compelling narrators, and I really enjoyed seeing their lives intertwined after they realize they’re twins.
- I loved how the bond of sisterhood was explored in this ghostly tale!
- Mirror Girls is a powerful story that confronts racism, familial abuse, and white privilege in a thoughtful and important way.
Excerpt From Mirror Girls
PROLOGUE
Jeannette Yates
EUREKA, GEORGIA
1935
For colored girls, there’s no such thing as happily ever after.
My daughter knew that—it was loving Dean
Heathwood that made her forget. That boy was as white as they come, but he sure did love my Marie. He showered her with gifts: an obsidian mirror, a leather atlas, a diamond ring.
Of all Dean’s fancy presents, though, the books were
easily the most dangerous.
Beautiful books they were. Romances and love poems,
sonnets and fairy tales, all leatherbound with bright illustrations. The kind of books colored children never get to touch, let alone own. Soon enough, my daughter’d fallen in love with those lily- white stories, with the kind of happy endings she’d never live to see.
Now I carry Marie’s favorite book of all, Love Sonnets,
under one arm, protecting it from the night air. My daughter’s child is strapped to my back. I take the long route through the swamp, the very path the ancestors traveled, running from Heathwood Plantation’s shackles. Like them, I push past creepers and marsh grass, following the thick, slow pulse of the water. Peat bog sucks at my ankles, but I can’t afford to fall.
It’s long past sundown. If white folk spot me, they might
arrest me. Or kill me like they did my sweet, lovestruck girl.
I lean against a cypress tree, letting grief well up for one
heartbeat—then, no more.
For my grandbaby’s sake, I’ve got to keep moving. Struggle on.
On my back, Charlene lets out a wrenching wail. Ever
since we left Freedom House, she’s bunched tight with rage, like she knows she’ll never see her twin sister again. Like she knows, too, that I’m to blame.
I reach over my shoulder, catching her tiny hand. “I’m
gonna fix this, baby girl. You’ll see.”
The scent of woodsmoke leads me to the conjure man’s
hut. The grass- roofed shack perches on the water’s edge, hidden beneath a veil of Spanish moss. Preacher says it’s a mighty sin to visit with a conjure man, but it’s a risk I have to take.
The night Marie birthed my grandbabies, I smelled the
sizzle of a curse cooking itself up. One twin came into this world white as goat’s milk; the other, pecan brown. Doctor called it a miracle, but I wondered. After Marie died—and poor Dean, too—the hex- stench grew stronger. I got to remembering what my daddy used to say: Only thing stronger than white magic is our magic. Don’t forget: Our love’s stronger even than their hate. And that got me to thinking of Old Roland, brewing up potions in the swamps over yonder.
Thunder cracks; my grandbaby whimpers.
“Hurry on in, Jeannette!” Old Roland calls. “Sky’s fixin’ to
fall!”
Inside, I catch my breath.
“Didn’t expect you’d come calling,” Old Roland mutters—
it’s so dark, I can’t see him.
I spin around.
“Last I heard, you’d been Saved.”
Finally, I do see. He’s the shadow crouched behind a soup
pot, stirring swamp- grass- green liquid with a broom handle.
Careful now, Jeannette. You got to be careful.
My grandbaby grabs a fistful of my hair, holding tight.
Roland rises, knees popping. Squinting, I see the spirits
swirling in circles around his head. Growing up in haunted Freedom House, I’m plenty familiar with spirits. Haunts can’t scare me—but Heathwood’s white evil does.
“I’m here to buy some of your power, Roland.”
“What you need with my power?”
Tour Schedule
Week One:
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2/7/2022 |
Excerpt |
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2/7/2022 |
Excerpt |
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2/8/2022 |
Excerpt |
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2/8/2022 |
Review |
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2/9/2022 |
Review |
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2/9/2022 |
Review |
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2/10/2022 |
Review |
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2/10/2022 |
Review |
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2/11/2022 |
Review |
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2/11/2022 |
Review |
Week Two:
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2/14/2022 |
Review |
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2/14/2022 |
Review |
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2/15/2022 |
Review |
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2/15/2022 |
Review |
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2/16/2022 |
Review |
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2/16/2022 |
Review |
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2/17/2022 |
Review |
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2/17/2022 |
Review |
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2/18/2022 |
Review |
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2/18/2022 |
Review |
Giveaway
3 winners will receive a finished copy of MIRROR GIRLS, US Only.
acourtofcoffeeandbooks.com 