Griffen: Shadows of the Mirror Realm

by A J Blakemont

[Beth C.]

http://vampirebookclub.net/review-griffen-by-a-j-blakemont-mirror-souls-chronicles-1/

Doppelgangers. Everyone is rumored to have a twin somewhere out there, and stories abound about the mysterious relationship a doppelganger might have with its copy. But what if they were real? Beings that appear out of nowhere, identical to their twins in every capacity—except that they are not truly human? Griffen is one such being, otherwise known as a mirror soul. However, mirror souls gain their sustenance from humans, killing them in the process. As Griffen becomes more aware of what she is and how she needs to survive, she begins to question whether living is worth killing for.

Griffen started off rocket-fast, and had me going until about halfway through. From there, it took a sudden left-turn and I had a hard time sticking with it after that. While I do not mind romance, as long as it is story-centric, this one appeared to have been written in as a second thought, a way to get more audience. It was fairly abrupt and sort of felt like hitting a wall where there shouldn’t have been one.

The settings of the story were pretty interesting—it varied from current day to the past, even to worlds that really don’t exist. The descriptions, particularly of those places that were not real, were quite well done and definitely evoked the imagery in my imagination.

The characters were an odd mix of human and mirror souls, and the humans suffered by comparison. The mirror souls had more material to work with, and were better fleshed out, though they did seem to be a bit one-dimensional at times. Plus, the story—again with that sudden left turn—changed from ‘all death, all the time’ to ‘Wait! Never mind!’. It was a bit frustrating, and I honestly liked the arc of the first half of the story much better than the second, even though it was quite a bit darker.

Overall, Griffen definitely had some things going for it, but it seems to have stalled on the way to the finish line. The storyline was certainly an intriguing one, and a viable one for further stories. However, the romance was bland and sudden and the arc lost its fizz, and for those reasons it would be very difficult for me to recommend.