The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath

Sigh...

Mirror is a little girl who isn't a little girl anymore. When she and her guardian, Goliath, try to find a way to cure her, they find out that she is part of a big creepy magical conspiracy involving a serial child-murderer, the Lord of the Underworld, and Mr Loveheart, who might not be completely soulless yet.

Hidden inside The Singular and Extraordinary Tale of Mirror and Goliath is a good book with a fascinating premise, a rich world, and interesting characters, but it is ruined by being written entirely in first person despite multiple narrators, by changing perspective too often, and by being too short (which, had we spent longer with any one character, maybe it wouldn't have felt so disoriented). It feels like Ishbelle Bee once read a book she loved and then the author of that book put out a short story from the perspective of a minor character and then thought, "I will write a book from the perspective of all of the characters! No one will have to wonder if they are missing some contributing factor, like how the boss villain's wife's aunt contributed to his motivations." (or the Guardian, Death, the minor villain, the instigating villain, the big villain's wife, or the detective... all of which are points of view in addition to the two protagonists). If she had stuck to the points of view of Mirror and Mr Loveheart, easily the most interesting of the characters anyway, I can't help but think this book would have been better. As it was, between the sketched out plot and the frequent perspective shifts, I couldn't immerse and (ironically) felt like the story was only half told.