The shadow in the mirror

Within your own mind you can recreate a world foreign you to one you are living in the present. Discontented with your world and hoping to become someone others would admire, and respect is what Harold sees but in a way that makes you wonder what’s real, what’s imaginary and what’s wishful thinking. Harold is not popular and often seeks out people who ignore him and pay him little mind. But his image in his own mirror reveals another him , in a parallel world that recreates him in a different light. But that’s not all he sees. Who is this older man that is in the mirror or he sees at times? What do his words mean and what do the nightmares hold beyond what he experiences?

Harold’s world takes on many different shades of white and black. Seeing the old man and hearing his haunting messages often changes his perceptions and actions. Driving his car and reliving something causes him to become violent, blood all over and where did the cat paw prints come from as his mother calls an ambulance, but Harold gets into his car and wants to drive away. But his destination proved mistaken as a van for the mental institution was there and his mother and aunt stood by as they took him away. Harold finds his time in the hospital dark and he relives events that he’s not sure are real and yet a message would take him on a quest to find answers about his birth and truths he still needs to uncover.

Even the events in his school and his encounters with students that did not accept him, bullies and then Maira who sat next to him in class and seemed to want to be his friend until she didn’t. Encounters changed and then the mirror shows the Harold with the same girl who seems to care for him it’s like he’s trying to create himself as he would like others to see him but only in the shadow of the mirror and the images that stare back at him. The old man comes into many scenes trying to manipulate is actions with his elongated words and then Harold decided on the trip to Peru but just where will this lead? Who is the shadow in this mirror: Which Harold?

Harold finds himself in different dimensions, yet his mind shifts to events that impacted his life. A special woman named Kemya settled in Peru hoping to solve humanities problems. A cat named Kenji her salvation. A bus ride to get to the airport turns dangerous as the driver overturns the bus and many are hurt but before leaving it, he sees an odd woman who disappears. Finding his way to a pharmacy and then on a train once again to the airport, Harold sees the other Harold and what he relates is quite graphic as the young girl he fell for in school is with the other Harold and from warmth the scene turns cold and strangely odd. Facial expressions turn into sorted ones with unusual eyes and more. Real or imaginary as we wonder if Harold is creating his own plot and his own book for readers to hear the story, he wants them to read.

Harold seems to be living in several parallel dimensions as he takes trips to another time trying to live what he hopes will be his destination with his high school love. But, within this dimension as he dreams of the way things should be or hopes to be, the initial scenes show them joined together one way and all of a sudden a fear and a coldness shows in her eyes and then things disappear and he wakes with a start after the nightmare clears away. Within this dream he hears the voice of a man who claims that he will be destroyed, and he needs to know the truth while we revisit Peru and a woman who seems to be experiencing something unusual and volatile at the same time. Things are either real or imaginary as we learn more about his past when his mother’s voice takes the spotlight and we learn about Bernard his father and his odd behavior towards him after he was born.

Odd events happen on the bus and the earthquake in Peru sends him far off again hoping to learn more about who this old man that haunts him is, why he claims he needs to know the truth and why his mother recalls and remembers his father and his odd behaviors, sees the same old man too. Just who is this spirit or is he real? The earthquake caused many people to die and be injured and yet Harold was able to find his way somewhere else. Answers still must be coming, visions of his past quite bright, Maira, the cat’s paws, the memories of school and more haunt him.

Even the events in his school and his encounters with students that did not accept him, bullies and then Maira who sat next to him in class and seemed to want to be his friend until she didn’t. Encounters changed and then the mirror shows the Harold with the same girl who seems to care for him it’s like he’s trying to create himself as he would like others to see him but only in the shadow of the mirror and the images that stare back at him. The old man comes into many scenes trying to manipulate is actions with his elongated words and then Harold decided on the trip to Peru but just where will this lead? Who is the shadow in this mirror: Which Harold?

Harold finds himself in different dimensions, yet his mind shifts to events that impacted his life. A special woman named Kemya settled in Peru hoping to solve humanities problems. A cat named Kenji her salvation. A bus ride to get to the airport turns dangerous as the driver overturns the bus and many are hurt but before leaving it, he sees an odd woman who disappears. Finding his way to a pharmacy and then on a train once again to the airport, Harold sees the other Harold and what he relates is quite graphic as the young girl he fell for in school is with the other Harold and from warmth the scene turns cold and strangely odd. Facial expressions turn into sorted ones with unusual eyes and more. Real or imaginary as we wonder if Harold is creating his own plot and his own book for readers to hear the story, he wants them to read.

Harold was possessed by someone and something, but he was not the only one. Wanted to take back what was his, images would appear in the mirror, in front of him and in his dreams. Traveling to Peru living on nothing like a homeless person and then taking lives, stealing and having visions not knowing what was real or imaginary. Things spiral out of control when Maira has visions and falls prey to the same image if the old man and his commands finding herself falling and into a dark black cloud.

Kemya takes a plane ride hoping to safe Harold and the weather turns dangerous and a storm so cold causes the plane to plummet and the result baffling.

Harold sees things, hears his father’s voice in his nightmares and sees him at times heating his words: you should never have been born. Jack Higgins has his own odd and eerie past as we learn just who he is and his power over Harold and others. But Harold’s life has many sordid twists and turns demon statues, voices hoping to direct his actions, a crystal cross and amulet and a man determined to find out who he really is but will he? Can he find the real Harold in any world? The old woman from the bus, his father, his mother all who wanted him to serve their needs and wants. Then something changes it all and the author leaves us wondering what really happens to Harold? Which world does he reside in and is he alive or not? Nightmares all his life, struggling for his true identity author Roberto Guerra brings some interesting issues to light : existence, security, forgiveness, fears, family love, despair, mental illness, visions, identity crisis and possibly paranoia and schizophrenia as Harold struggles through many stages of his life but will he ever come to terms with and rid himself of The Shadow in the Mirror? Everyone wants to find themselves but when Harold investigates a mirror if he chooses to again who will he see? A story that will haunt you days after reading it and mirror that changed the course of so many lives? The next time you look at your image in a mirror: What or who will you see?

Fran Lewis just reviews