Mirror is the first in Suzy Lee’s ‘Border Trilogy’; it was followed by Wave (2008) and Shadow (2010). The series was so called because Lee used the gutter, or central binding, in these books as a ‘border’ between reality and fantasy.

Mirror has a tall portrait format and, like Shadow, it uses yellow as a second colour to black. Unlike Shadow, though, yellow here does not denote the fantasy elements of the story, rather the colour of the little girl’s dress and, later on, the vivid expression of her happiness (see below).

The story opens with a little girl sitting on her own. Then she sees a mirror image of herself and – coyly at first – begins to interact with it.

As her confidence grows, the girl makes faces, turns up her nose and sticks her tongue out at her reflected image. Soon the two girls’ hands touch and sparks begin to fly.

First a shape reminiscent of a heart blooms between them, then it explodes into burst of colour as the two girls jump for joy over their magical connection.

Gradually, though, the bloom fades and, as it does so, the two girls merge into each other.

They sink into the gutter – that border between reality and fantasy – and disappear. This is portrayed dramatically by an empty white page in the middle of the book.

From here on the story takes a more sinister turn, as now there seem to be two separate girls, whose movements echo, but do not reflect, each other. At first they dance in synchronisation, but then their movements become increasingly individual.

Eventually the two children fall out with each other, and the original girl ends up pushing her alter ego away. As the reflected girl retreats back into the mirror, the illusion is shattered, literally. The game is over and the little girl is on her own again, as she was at the beginning of the book.

Suzy Lee (b.1974) is a Korean artist with an international reputation. Among other prizes, she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration in 2022. She also has her own independent publishing house, a private press for artists’ books, called Hintoki Press.