In Every Mirror She's Black: A Novel

Product Information

To my incredible publishing teams (WM - Asanté, Emily, Beatrice, HoZ - Maddy, Sophie, Ayo) and everyone on Team @notenough.book, thank you for exemplifying what true teamwork should look and feel like 🙏🏾💖🧡💚 Given Lola’s experience as a travel writer and photographer, it’s no surprise that architecture and cityscapes are meticulously characterized in the novel. I especially loved reveling in the decor of Jonny’s many homes.

Throughout the novel, Muna develops many short-lived relationships, with the longest being her uncomfortable acquaintance with Yagiz. Why do you think these relationships are transient, and what do you think the author is trying to convey in her relationship with Yagiz? Muna; with her story the author showed us the struggles of being more than a refugee just in name; the displacement; the need for roots and looking for a way to belong somewhere with someone was beautifully written. Muna’s story was powerfully told. I know Lola from the travel blogging and photography world, and so I was familiar with the gorgeous portraits she did of refugees in Sweden, and know that the author drew from her work there to create Muna’s character. Setting and the Novel I'm in no way intending to slut shame Brittany but I must ask: why the hell would she sleep with a man she barely knows (and by barely knows I mean she met him like once on a plane)? Especially when said man shows up at her house uninvited? Then she proceeds to keep sleeping with him, ends up getting pregnant, moves to a foreign country with him, and MARRIES him, all in the span of like 6 months! Some things are bad ideas, period. Kemi; I find it very difficult to understand why someone portrayed as intelligent could not outright figure out that she was only employed for her skin colour and that her added qualifications were just for show. Why did she keep questioning their real intentions. Sometimes she stood up for herself; yes I liked those few instances she displayed “I won’t take rubbish “ but I didn’t like it that it took finding a man to make her take a clean break. I did not like how she treated Brittany. It was judgemental to say the least.

Need Help?

Outfit choices and fashion become pivotal in Mirror, as they are so linked in the story to identity, culture, and body image. I was particularly moved by the description of how a bold dress that made Kemi feel powerful was seen as jarring and over-the-top to her Swedish colleagues.

Kemi’s relationship with Ragnar is unhealthy almost from the start. What does her final interaction with him show about her own growth and what she’s learned about herself in Sweden?

Reviews

There is a sequel coming out in 2023 that I do want to read, but only because some of the storylines felt unfinished in the end. I guess I was intentional knowing she did write a two book deal at the outset. If you’re looking for a novel filled with action, this isn’t it. It’s more of a social commentary made through the lives of each of the main characters - Kemi, Brittany, and Muna - and how they survive day-to-day. I found each of their stories interesting, and how they’re all connected through one powerful man. Do be aware that there are lots of very steamy romantic scenes in Mirror, so this book is not for those seeking strictly G-rated reading. There are also several mentions of violence: physical and emotional harm, as well as deep-dives into weighty issues such as racism, self-harm, abuse, and sexism. Tying together the lives of these three women is a fairly egotistical, unlikable guy. Good looking enough, it seems, to get away with it. Part of the fun of reading a unique book is discovering the book on your own. So no spoiler alerts, and I will stop my review here. I am telling my friends: you should read this!! I found this novel slightly uneven - of the three almost-intersecting stories, one is considerably weaker than the other two and unfortunately comes to somewhat dominate the narrative.

And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny’s office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home. A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege—a life she’s not sure she wants—as the object of his unhealthy obsession. As seen in Vulture, Essence, Good Morning America, The Independent, Goodreads, PureWow, and many more!

In Every Mirror She's Black

Johnny: I understand the author's attempt to make Johnny a complex character. However, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with how his autism was used in the story. It's not that a character on the spectrum can't do bad things or be a bad person; anyone and everyone is capable of harming others. But something about it left a bad taste in my mouth. I wish I could explain better what rubbed me the wrong way. The relationship between Jonny and Brittany is highly unconvincing and there is no attempt to understand Brittany’s thought process as she undertakes a fairly ludicrous series of decisions. The author also seems to think the allusions to Jonny being somewhere on the autism spectrum are much more subtle than they are in reality. Many years ago, while writing my book LAGOM, I came across a Swedish proverb that says “The deepest well can also be drained,” and it arrested me. That even the strongest, most resilient among us can eventually break too because we are human. These are not fairy tale lives or absurdly perfect romances or tales of young women whose parents provided them with such an auspicious start in life that there's no way they can fail. This is contemporary life where women who are dating past high school are going to run into some uncomfortable and/or insulting situations.

Muna experiences a tremendous amount of loss in the novel. What do her experiences show of the struggles refugees go through when displaced from their homes? Kemi seems to make a spur-of-the-moment choice to move to Sweden. Why do you think she did this? How did her sister's opinion factor into her decision? A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege–a life she’s not sure she wants–as the object of his unhealthy obsession. I read it religiously over the course of a single Sunday, delighting in how it effortlessly weaves a rich tapestry of intersecting issues without every sacrifice good ol’ plot-driven storytelling. A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege—a life she's not sure she wants—as the object of his unhealthy obsession.

Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Yasmiin and Kadija went through trauma on their own and I don’t know whether I was happy with how their stories ended.