“You become the story you tell yourself.”

Weddings are full of drama, and in one of those intersections of real life and reading life, I found myself reading “Mirror Marked” the week after my brother got married. With a whole new appreciation for the chutzpah unique to wedding planners, I found myself thoroughly charmed by this slim purple volume.

Vida Cruz-Borja’s horror-fantasy novella is funnier than it should be, and also a lot more profound than expected. The hundred pages are delightfully populated by Filipino mythological references, words, and phrases (“Galisan sana puwet niya” appears within the first two pages, as does “It’s giving Princess Punzalan in Mula Sa Puso.”). 

It begins in medias res, with a kapre bringing our wedding-planner heroine, Kelly, face-to-face with an entity powerful enough to penetrate the curtain between worlds. Wedding crashers are an occupational hazard, but this one happens to hold enough power to be an endgame boss. And in the very first chapter, Kelly gets sucked into a magical mirror.

Thus begins a constant turning back of the clock, as the author gives us snippets of pre-wedding drama, and real life drama that explains how Kelly gets herself trapped between planes.

For such a short book, the characters are fleshed out, as the author describes their phone cases and lockscreens (featuring Stark and Fern from Frieren), and illustrates their childhood traumas. 

And it is here that the memorable thing about this novella emerges: the true horror isn’t found in the fantasy elements of a world where fae and Filipinos co-exist. It is found in the home, in the warping of a growing child’s mind and body when love is weaker than expectation.

What I initially took to be a scary romp through the shadows of acacia trees and Nuno sa punso anthills proved to be a reflection (pun intended) on how the past can imprison us, unless we choose to break free.

I found it extremely clever how the author does things with pronouns “I” and “you” in chapters that, towards the end, become clear technical choices which underscored the book’s theme of choosing an authentic self all the more.

That Kelly happens to be queer feels organic rather than explicit representation story arc, and the romance that ensues is charming in all its pregnant possibility, and does not in any way distract from the overall themes of the story.

How fitting it is to read this horror-fantasy novella in February, the month of love. Yet, as Vida Cruz-Borja reminds us, the most important of love’s many forms is love for self, shadows of the past and all.

[The reviewer received a copy of MIRROR MARKED for review. It retails for around P1,600 on Amazon and around P1,400 on the publisher’s website, PS Publishing ]

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

Gabi Francisco is a classically trained soprano who now performs in the English / Music / Drama classroom. On weekends she soaks in as much art and literature as she can, so she can pass her love for the arts on to her students. She passionately believes in the transformative role of arts education in nation-building. (IG: teacher.gabi.reads )