Review: Mirror Town

Written by Daniel Nayeri

Illustrated by Liz Enright

New York: Little, Brown, 2025. Comic. 135 pages.

In a small town in Texas, 12-year-old Abel Azari can't help but feel a little underwhelmed by his life. His mother is always working, his father left them, his plans for summer are non-existent, and his crush Ginny may not know he exists. Abel wanders into a mysterious new pawn shop in town and lays eyes on a charm bracelet he knows Ginny will love, but he has no way to pay for it. Until the overeager shopkeeper offers a trade in exchange for the item. While helping his strange elderly neighbor, Abel finds the perfect item to trade; a large antique mirror. Before he can trade for the charm bracelet, however, Abel falls into the mirror and finds himself in a mirror world where everything is as he dreamed. Suddenly, Abel is the most popular boy in school with parents who can't stand to be away from him, and Ginny chasing after him. It's all too perfect - until suddenly, it isn't.

Daniel Nayeri has found a lot of recent success in the kid lit world for his non-traditional storytelling and his tales that push beyond convention. This fun new graphic novel series feels like a perfect direction to go to next. Like The Twilight Zone, this story draws readers in and makes them question what they would do if they found themselves in Abel's position. This is made successful by the story's main conceit and framing device - The Bizarre Bazaar. Before we meet Abel, we meet Bruno and Babs - the bickering, almost human, employees of The Bizarre Bazaar who start by warning their new customers about the perils of their cursed collection. And in this creepy comic, the new shoppers of the Bizarre Bazaar are you -- the reader.

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