The Mask of Mirrors by 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.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you to Orbit UK for the review copy!

For me to binge-read a fantasy book that’s 600+ pages is the highest compliment I could give.

That’s it, review over, I guess.

Kidding, kidding.

The Mask of Mirrors has been on my radar for a while as a highly anticipated 2021 release and it certainly didn’t disappoint. In a quick Goodreads comment saved as a placeholder for the actual review, I said that it hit for me the perfect trifecta of characters-plot-worldbuilding. I stand by it now that a few weeks have passed since finishing the book.

Why did I enjoy it?

While urban fantasy is very much a specific subgenre, a contemporary subgenre, The Mask of Mirrors felt UF nonetheless. Set in a city (joining the niche segment of fantasy stories about up-to-no-good charismatic people conning their way through a city with canals), one of its main plots revolves around the in-world equivalent of a detective solving a mystery. It is one of the reasons for its delicious readability.

The other reason is…who can resist a con story? Ren is not your usual conwoman, though, she’s no unscrupulous rogue. While she doesn’t much mind lying her way into a noble family who has fallen into hard times, pretending to be their kin, she actually works hard for them. At one point I started rooting for her success not just because of the principle of the thing, but because she deserves to reap rewards. Ren wants safety, she wants stability. There’s genuine caring there, and not only for her sister (her co-conspirator), but also for her fake family. She’s very much the portrait of a reluctant criminal, even if she does it so well, and with so much flair.

Speaking of flair. Vargo. My favourite character. No-one has ever made moral bankruptcy look so sexy. He flirts his way through the crème de la crème of Nadežra’s society while ruthlessly ruling part of its underworld. He shows up to parties cosplaying a courtesan wearing not much more than body paint, and crafts complex magic like it’s nothing. It is, and I apologize for the literary technical term, unbearably hot. Joke aside (was I truly joking though? Mhh), it’s the type of character that’s in the shades of grey, that has their own mysterious agenda, and that steals every scene they are in.

There are other point of view characters and the switch between them is smooth and seamless.

Now to talk a bit about the worldbuilding (you know what else is smooth and seamless? My transitions). First of all, it is a queernorm world, which is always such a pleasure to read. Visible trans people! Same-sex marriages! It doesn’t fail to make me feel…lighter, happier. Don’t get me wrong, the class disparities and ethnic tensions are very much there and not a topic brushed aside just because yay queer rights, but still…The fact that a character makes another character a magical binder for his comfort is just a source of joy to me. I am of course very much not in my lane saying this, I’ll wait to read reviews from trans readers.

The world has almost a texture to it, it feels real, it feels intricate and multi-layered and complex. The descriptions (especially of clothing!) are amazing. And you feel the two authors really having fun with it all. There’s quite a few elements to absorb but nothing too heavy (believe me, if I can do it…). I loved how the magic was woven into every aspect of daily life. It’s mundane but it’s also mysterious. If you’ve read Sherwood Smith’s Inda (and you should), it has that same level of intricacy.

We’ve been blessed with many stories about colonialism in SFF recently. Off the top of my head, I can think of A Memory Called Empire, The Traitor Baru Cormorant, and the upcoming She Who Became the Sun and The Unbroken. As someone from a former European “protectorate”, these stories always have a particular impact on me. The Mask of Mirrors’ take on this theme is achingly familiar. The original population was pushed to the margins, their religious practices barely tolerated, their sacred magic seen as a party trick for bored aristocrats. Two POV characters have ties to these communities, and it’s interesting to see how they perceive them and how they’re perceived by them, how they code switch to gain information or trust. The ethnic tensions are also a major plot point.

The plot is…well, you know when you do sign up to go on a rollercoaster but you just didn’t expect it to be that wild? That. I’m not saying more, suffice to say that DMs have been sent to Travis (who read the book before me) and that they might have contained profanities in caps lock.

I am nearing the end of this review, and I realize that I haven’t mentioned the titular Rook! Which isn’t to say that he isn’t interesting. A masked vigilante duelling arrogant noblemen and serving justice for centuries? I…probably should edit the review to talk about him earlier. But the fact that I didn’t just goes to show how much is happening in this book, how many interesting aspects and themes and characters are vying for our attention as readers.

To conclude, and because I really need an appropriate quote when we’ll tweet about this book since I can’t posssibly pick it up from that paragraph thirsting over Vargo, The Mask of Mirrors is an intriguing and exciting opening act with show-stealing characters, mysteries, simmering tensions, and a worldbulding that is simply exquisite. Read it.