B+

The Mask of Mirrors

The Mask of Mirrors is a long and complicated book and I read it during a time of a lot of stress and very few brain cells. It is very high praise indeed when I say that it kept my attention and had me reading along to see what will happen next, while also pausing to linger on the amazing world-building details. This is a fantasy novel, the first in a trilogy, that begins as a con-artist story and transitions into a political and magical epic.

Ren and her sister Tess grew up on the streets of Nadežra before they fled and assumed new lives elsewhere. As adults, they return, with Ren disguised as Renata, an upperclass woman, and Tess as her servant. Ren is determined to become part of a noble house. This involves a long con using a false identity. As Ren spends more time with the family she hopes to ingratiate herself with, she finds herself becoming emotionally attached to them, which makes it increasingly more difficult to sustain her ruse.

Meanwhile she has to embark on various economic and political ploys to secure social status, which brings her into a close and confusing relationship with Vargo, a semi-respectable businessman with a criminal past of his own. Other compelling characters are Grey, a conflicted police officer, and The Rook, a secretive, hooded, caped figure of legend and reality who swoops around like Zorro defending the poor and aggravating the rich.

This book is slow-paced until the last third of the book when a lot of violent and magical things happen at one time. I actually liked the slower-paced parts of the book because I enjoyed the attention to detail, especially fashion, which you can read more about here. I liked the slow character building, especially since there are so many characters and point-of-view switches often. At first there does not seem to be any magic in the book, but it gradually becomes part of the narrative until things literally and figuratively explode in the latter third of the story.

Substantial TW/CW apply here: the book contains graphic child abuse and allusions to rape. It also contains graphic, bloody violence between and adults, both magically and mundanely delivered.

The story explores issues of feminism, class, crime, and colonization. It does not have much romance and no happy courtships transpire, alas – many sad things occur during the book. And, as the first book in the Rook and Rose trilogy, it ends on a cliffhanger.

I thoroughly enjoyed the escapades of clever Ren and the fascinating supporting characters, and the many twists and turns that the story takes. Readers who like political scheming, fashion as a weapon and a tool, secrets, and swashbuckling will enjoy this, and as a special treat for Tarot fans the characters have their own form of cartomancy which is described in detail in the book. I recommend this to fans of epic trilogies with a lot of intrigue.

– Carrie S

The Mask of Mirrors is the unmissable start to the Rook & Rose trilogy, a dazzling and darkly magical fantasy adventure by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms, writing together as M. A. Carrick.

Fortune favors the bold. Magic favors the liars.

Ren is a con artist who has come to the sparkling city of Nadežra with one goal: to trick her way into a noble house, securing her fortune and her sister’s future.

But as she’s drawn into the elite world of House Traementis, she realizes her masquerade is just one of many surrounding her. And as nightmare magic begins to weave its way through the City of Dreams, the poisonous feuds of its aristocrats and the shadowy dangers of its impoverished underbelly become tangled…with Ren at their heart.