Our Own Notes on

Mirror Mirror

20-x-En

January 2022
Title

Summary
Mirror Mirror Summary

Mirror mirror is about a group of friends who are in the same band, living their teenage lives in
London. The band consists of four people. Red, Rose, Leo and Naomi. But one night Naomi
disappears and no one knows why. It wasn’t the first time for her to run away. So in the very
beginning of her disappearance it didn’t come as a big shock. But the longer she was missing
the more worried people got. Their music teacher, Mr. Smith tells the three of them that they've
found Naomi laying in the river. It’s a big shock to all of them. The friends decide to go visit
Naomi at the hospital. She looks nothing like herself, they can barely recognize her. She looks
all beat up and barely alive. They all agree that something terrible must have happened to her.
They do everything they can to figure out what happened to her and who did it. The further the
investigation goes, the more intense the progress gets. The final detection is shocking. Mr.
Smith, their own music teacher, was the one in charge of her dangerous situation.
In Red’s family her mother is a drinker and her father is never home. Red has the mother role in
the family. Red plays the drums, and her little sister, Gracie, sees Red as a big role model. Red
is totally in love with Rose, but she doesn’t know how to express her feelings.
In Leo’s family everything is a big mess. His older brother, Aaron, sits in, for assault with intent
to kill. Leo’s mother has nothing to say and no one is listening to her, except for Leo -
sometimes. Rose is living in a mansion in the heart of London, but Rose and her stepmother
don't get along with each other. Naoimi’s family has a lot of warm-heartedness and there is
space to be who you want to be.
Seperated, these 4 people were nothing, but together they are everything.

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Life and background of the author
Cara Delevingne
Personal life:
Cara Jocelyn Delevingne was born on August 12th 1992 (29 years), in Hammersmith, London,
Great Britain. Her mother, Pandora Anne Delevingne, is a socialite and former Selfridges personal
shopper. Her father, Charles Hamar Delevingne, is an successful English property developer
Cara Delevingne has two older siblings, Chloe, and Poppy Delevingne. Poppy Delevingne is an
English model, socialite, and actress.

Fame:
Her book:
Cara Delevingne has through the years been an English model, singer, actor, and now also a
writer. She has written the book Mirror Mirror, and originally published on October 3th, 2017. The
intention with the book was focused on the young people, to give them more confidence to feel
perfect however they look, they need to be happy with themselves. Cara also mentioned that
every human in their lives has been at some point as the characters in the book for example
feeling isolated as Red.

Model life and fans:

Cara’s model career began fairly early on. In her childhood, she was best friends with Geneviev,
the daughter of Sarah Doukas who owns Storm Mgt, and Cara’s older sister, Poppy, was already
a model so she was naturally led into this profession. Throughout her career, she modeled for
many big brands such as Chanel, Vogue, Yves Saint-Laurent, Victoria’s Secret, etc.

Actress life:
Cara has, in all her actress life, been a strong woman-character, with her own opinion. In
“Valerian and the city of a thousand planets” (2017) should Cara (Laureline) and Dane DeHaan
(Valerian), identify a destructive dark power. And in “Suicide Squad” (2016), where she was the
actor of the character, Enchantress.

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In 2015 she was one of the main characters in “Paper Towns”. She played the role of Margo Roth
Spiegelman, who is a strong independent character that loves mysteries. But one night Margo
disappears and leaves a lot of cryptic clues.
Other movies she has been a part of:
● Anna Karenina (2012)
● Life in a year (2020)
● Jimmy Choo: Shimmer in the Dark
● London Fields (2018)

Rowan Coleman
Who is Rowan Coleman?
Rowan Coleman is a 50 year old (14th april 1971), bestselling author, who lives in Hertfordshire
with her husband and 5 children. Rowan enjoys doing activities with her lively family and also
writing, despite her being dyslexic. For Rowan, her family is her muse. They inspire her to be not
only strong and independent but be imaginative and take opportunities.

Her childhood and story:

Rowan was born april 14th 1971 in the UK. While growing up in Berkhamsted, she didn’t do well in
school and felt like a failure. That changed when she was 13 years old where she showed her
teacher something she’d written. 'She asked if I'd copied my poem out of a book and I indignantly
denied it!' Rowan recalls. This was the starting point for Rowan’s writing career. After getting her
degree, she started building her career in publishing. In the end, she left so that she could write
full-time where she ended up winning awards for her work.

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Characterisations

Red
Red is the narrator in the story. She is called Red, but her real name is Amy. Red is a lesbian.
Looks: She had long red curly hair once. But then she got a haircut, so now it's short on the sides
and long on the top. She got the name “Red” because of her red hair. Her usual uniform is a
checked shirt, jeans, white T-shirt underneath. She has 4 piercings and 3 tattoos. No one knows
about her tattoos.
Family: Red has a terrible relationship with her parents. She never feels happy with her family, the
last time she remembers is the day Gracie was born: (p.21) - “that's the last time I remember
feeling like a family”. The only family member she cares about is Gracie.
She is kind of a rebellion against her parents. She is willing to do a lot of things to keep Gracie
safe and happy.
Band: Red plays the drums. It’s Naomi and her that writes the lyrics for the band's songs. It is also
her that handles all the IT related. She filmes the music videos and creates their accounts on
social media. She is also trying to get them on Spotify.
Before Naomi disappeared, Red and her used to sit in the library during lunch break.
Love: Red is in love with Rose. She tries to kiss her and gets rejected. It ruins their friendship. She
ends up getting in a relationship with Ashira.
Self-imagine: She sees herself as an awkward teenager. She likes herself on social media, but
hates what she sees in the mirror. Red had an eating disorder. She was fat, but then suddenly
stopped eating and got very skinny. She describes herself as invisible and was trying to. “And
over the next year or so I worked really hard on becoming invisible…” (p.50) She has changed
over the years. Her looks didn't fit her personality, but because of her accepting herself, she has
been more confident with herself. Now her looks and personality fit together. When the band
started, she started to feel better: “Us four was the best thing I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t want
to go back to that skinny ginger nobody that never meant anything to anyone. I don’t want to be
invisible again.” (p.107).

Rose
Appearance

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 - Rose is a girl with long beautiful dark hair, she’s tall and slim and overall beautiful

Personality
- Rose is an extremely, overly confident girl who takes great advantage in her looks, and
uses it in her favour.
- She cares about her friends a lot but she has a hard time forgiving them once they’ve
crossed her boundarie.
- She seems very stubborn, and doesn't back down from a challenge.
- Attention seeker, she is a sucker for attention, especially from men but also from the
crowd when she is solo-singing in the choir.
- Rose’s behavior is rather “I’m better than you” and standoffish from time to time. She
doesn’t make much room for mistakes nor excuses, she is kind of cold.
- Rose is tired of the fact that everybody is always trying to get into her pants. When Red
makes a move on her, she feels disgusted and deeply betrayed.

Friends, and family

- Rose only has a father whom she lives with. Her father doesn’t give her much attention
or affection, he simply provides her with a glorious house and food- and free whiskey.
- She also has an annoying stepmother who she does not like…
- Her best friends are Red, Naiomi and Leo.
- Red is her closest friend who she feels most comfortable with. Red and Rose
usually have deep talks, watch comfort movies and friend-cuddle.
- Leo and Rose’s relationship is more complicated, they’re best friends but they
have a little flirt going on- mostly from Leo’s side though.
- She has a relationship with a secret man, who later gets revealed as Mr. Smith

Leo

Leo is 16 years old and he has a deep voice for his age and is very handsome “the dude just gets
out of bed and he looks on-point” (p. 9). He plays guitar in the band. He is totally popular
amongst girls. “... he might as well be God; girls worship him as if he is”. He is muscular and very
masculine “... like he came fully formed and deep voiced, tall and muscular” (p.9) He is not a big
fan of school“”I don’t even want to be here”” (p.31) talking about school. In response Mr. Smith
said this: “Then leave,’ Smith told him, squaring his shoulders. ‘Walk off. Go truant. Your mum will
be visited by the police again, and you’ll probably be excluded for good this time. They'll try and
send you to the educational behavioral unit, as a last attempt to get you back on track, but you’ll
ditch that bullshit too, and before you know it you’ll be following your brother inside. Do that. That
sounds like a great life plan.’” (p. 31). Leo has been in some trouble with his criminal brother
Aaron, mostly because his brother forced or “controlled” him. Even though Leo certainly knows
his brother is a bad influence on him, he still praises him though: “Leo thinks the sun shines out of

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his arse!” (p. 58) (out of Aarons arse) and does what he says. To have the attitude of a “Tough
guy”. Leo is a pretty tall guy and that's the way his friends describe him as well: “Tall and hot” is
one of the many comments he received on his greek god-like appearance. Leo looks a lot up to
Aaron as seen in this quote: “Leo thinks the sun shines out of his arse!” (p. 58). He is a quite
temperamental guy to the point where his friends describe him as having “Anger issues”. Rose is
convinced Leo is a virgin, but then Red says that Leo had sex with Annabelle Clement, maybe as
a cover up to match Leo’s attitude. Rose says/thinks he is a virgin. But then Red says that Leo has
had sex with Annabelle Clements. (p.96-97).

Naomi

Mr. Smith
In the beginning of the story we all like Mr. Smith. He is the good teacher, who's trying to take
care of Red, and asks about her family and issues. We get the impression that he is the teacher
everyone likes. He is good at keeping them interested and committed to what he is teaching
them. He is also the reason why mirror mirror happened. Without his help, there would be no
band. He has a friendly relationship with the students, he even says that he will invite them to the
wedding when he meets the right woman. When Naomi vanishes, he also seems very supportive
and goes to the hospital with the group. He checks up on them and asks them about any updates
whenever they have been.
But then suddenly we see his dark side. … The group discovers that he is the reason why Naomi
disappeared. They also discover that he has a secret relationship with her. He abuses her and
films it. He puts the videos on the internet. They also get to know that he has abused some other
girls before Naomi, Carly Shields and the girl Red kisses at a bar. He is in the middle of building
up a relationship with Rose, but the group exposes him at the concert.

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Jackie & Max

Ashira

Aaron

Red’s parents (Mads & Thomas)

Red has a complicated relationship with her parents. Her father works for the council and her
mother is a stay at home mom. They live in an upper class neighborhood in a suburb of London.
Her mom has been treated for alcohol problems before but has fallen in again. The first time
Red's mother gets treated for her alchohol dependence her father helps her mom a lot. But this
time he isn’t home because he is having an affair. Red thinks this is very childish and she has to
act as the grown up at home.

(P. 201 L. 11) ““You are the grown-up, dad. You are the adult. It’s not fair that you get to run
away, do whatever the fuck it is you’re doing and leave me and a seven-year-old litlle girl to pick
up the pieces. You are the man, so act like one.””

Red´s dad doesn't take care of her and her sister. Red confronts him and goes crazy on him for
leaving her and her seven year old sister to themselves, because their mother can't take care of
them.

Red’s mom is selfish and does not think about Red’s feelings or why she has changed from
mommy's little girl. Her mom does not accept Red’s appearance nor her friends.
(P. 197 L. 5) ““It’s just that I worry for you, love, the way that you seem to be heading. I look at
you, your hair and your earrings and how the band takes up so much of your life, and then I
think about your poor friend Naomi and what happened to her, and I just … I get that you feel
left out, overlooked. Who can blame you? But now it’s time to stop. Time to go back to normal,
please. Please. You’re embarrassing me with all this nonsense, and I’ve got enough on my
plate.””

Even though her mother thinks she is protecting her daughter she is actually just hurting her.
Red’s mom puts her own needs before her childrens and always takes the easy choice by
drinking her pain away when she should confront it.

But in the end Red shows her parents that they need to act like adults. Her father promises to
stop having an affair and her mother is going to rehab.

(P. 348 L. 32) ““Dad is going to stay while I get better. We found out about help, and where I
need to go to get it. It’s going to take a long time, and be very difficult. But every time I want to

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give up or give in I’m going to think of you” She brushes my fringe out of my eyes. “My
incredible, beautiful, amazing daughter.””

Red finally gets the love and support from her parents that she has been screaming after for so
long.

Structure (Jakob og william)

The novel is built like any other novel, divided into 40 chapters. In between some chapters there
are flashbacks, acting as a chapter, each giving us a different story and insight to the backstory
of a number of people, and an elaboration of the characters personalities.

In the beginning of the novel, the author Cara Delevigne, tells us her motive for writing the story
and something about her childhood. And of course her thanks to the people making the
production of mirror mirror a possibility.
The ending of the novel is again Cara Delevigne answering a Q&A about the novel.
In the end of a chapter there sometimes is a little kind of segment where the reader gets to read
text messages between e.g. Rose and Red. This is to get some kind of perspective as to how
they act when they are not physically together.

The novel starts in an in medias res with the reader getting to know that Naomi is missing. The
reader then gets to know about the band she was in, and the big confusion there is included in
the whole case of Naomi gone missing. With the band not knowing if she is coming back or not.
Because Naomi has gone missing before, just not for that long of a periode. The band keeps
being together. The confusion and sadness has a sudden flare-up when Naomi is suddenly
discovered in the river by the docks. It is uncertain if she is going to survive. The band had a lot
of disputes at the time, because they wanted to make a concert in honor of Naomi, but the band
was falling apart, because of relationships, Leo's brother and so on. Red from the band seeks
the answer to what happened to Naomi, but it is a tough task. When Naomi woke up the whole
thing collided. The band found the culprit and exposed him in front of everyone.

The text follows the Hollywood model. The reader starts off with a little teaser by Naomi going
missing. Then we get a presentation of the members of the band. The reader then gets an
elaboration, with the band trying to hold themselves together, and Red and Ashira get some
leads to what could possibly had happened to Naomi. Point of no return is when we find out it is
Mr. Smith stood behind it all, and what he has been doing to women. The conflict escalation is
when Red and Ashira gets ready to expose Mr. Smith, and then the klimaks comes when they
actually expose him. Then it ends with a fade of the conflict with the band getting back together
and Reds family actually being a family.

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Setting
Time:
Since twitter is present in the story, we can conclude that the story, at its earliest possible, is
from 2006.

Furthermore, Instagram's new logo appears on page 228, which is from May 2016, this now
means that the earliest possible time for this story to start is May 2016.

Further- furthermore Heathens is also mentioned, a song from June 16. 2016. So we can now
conclude that, at the time of page 245, the date is at least the 16’th of june 2016. The 23’rd of
June appears on page 135, and since we know that a full year hasn't passed in 100 pages, and
none of the above dates are mentioned in a flashback, we have now pushed the date of the
story to

June 23’rd 2016.

Chapter 1 is the first non-flashback page, being page 5. We now assume that 1 day passes pr.
chapter, and not counting the flashback chapters, we find that “X” chapters pass from chapter 1
to page 135

Place:
The story takes place all over London, Great Britain. We know that because they mention
places like for example Vauxhall bridge on page 3:
“Vauxhall Bridge, our bridge, the one we’ve walked across so often”
We also see it when Red visits Ashira in her room where Ashira is watching CCTV footage of
City of Westminster as we see on page 86 line 1:

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“[...] when the door is shut she nods at her central screen. It’s the City of Westminster traffic
camera CCTV, she says, turning her laptop to face me”.
Along with Vauxhall tube station, Camden town, The Hospital and the school

Basically, the story takes place all over London. That means you have to imagine moody
weather with clouds and rain with minimal sunshine.

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Language

Chats and social media

Red’s Fuck You Play List

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Themes:

Love and Friendship

- They are all really different persons, but they have music in common.

Identity
They’re teenagers and they’re trying to figure out who they are and who their friends are.
- Red:
- Sexuality
- Tries to kiss Rose
- Gets rejected by Rose, loses her confidence and best friends.
- Misses Naomi.
- Rose:
- Has problems at home.
- Flirts with every guy she can find so that she forgets her problems at home.
- Naomi:
- punk-rock-princess with a free soul
- gathered the band and
- Leo:
- The responsible at home
- The underdog to his brother

Teenagers
- School pressure
- Studies and grades
- Expectations
- Who does everyone expect you to be?
- Relationships (family, friends and love)
- Support system?
- Social media
- What kind of pressure does social media have on teenagers?

Growing Up
- Red going from child to parent at home
- Theo going from a hang-on to aaron to standing up

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 - Rose goes from sharing, to closing herself, and ending up trusting.

Family
Different Dynamics:
- Red
- Presenting the absent kind of family, and the neglected
- Her mom is drunk and her dad is with some other woman, while she in her teens is left
to take care of her Grace.
- Leo
- When the parent role gets pushed over by criminal brother
- He does everything to protect and respect his family and protect it, even though it hurts
“the kid”.
- Rose
- When they just seem to not give a shit
- Rose talks about her dad, but we never really hear of him or her mother. Her family is
more like a secret and unknown. We only get told that there are problems at home and
how great her dad's liquor is.
- Naomi
- Supporting and searching
- Jackie and Max just await her recovery and only thinks about her safety after the
episode, but Ashira is actively and aggressively searching for answers and one to blame.

Trust and Betrayal

The friend group:
- They all come from messed up families or have troubles at home. They found each other and
they slowly started trusting each other.
- They’re loyal to each other, but scared to be betrayed.
Mr. Smith
- He becomes a father figure for Red, and Red trusts him a lot.
- He gains their trust by helping them with the band and gives them advice on what to do and not
to do.
- But he ends up betraying them. Naomi disappears and he acts like he doesn't know what has
happened, even though it’s all his fault. (And if they hadn’t caught he would’ve gone for Rose as
well.)
Naomi:
- Naomi starts trusting him. (Him-a guy she met online.)
- She becomes happier, and wants to run away with the guy, but she doesn’t want to betray her
friends by leaving them.
- Mr. Smith gains her trust and tells her to run away with him, and leave her friends and family.
But he betrays her and “sells” her as a toy for other men.

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 - He tries to kill, and when he finds out that she’s in a coma and might wake up, he plans to kill
her again.
Rose:
- He gains her trust, and wants to run away with him.
- Mr. Smith wants to sell her, just as he did to Naomi. (He’s going to betray her.)

Social Issues
Social status
- Poor, rich, popular, friends etc.
Issues
- What do they meet?
- How do they handle it?
- How do they share it?

Chats and social media

Chats:
Red and Rose:
108 days streak: s 40
Rose thanked Red for having a fun night. Red is still interested in Rose so Red asks what she is doing and
she tells that her dad is having sex with “the cow” a lady and Rose doesn’t like it. Then Rose tells Red
that she is drinking whiskey which means that she is drinking with her problems.
23 june
s. 135-136
s. 203-204
Chat history: s. 59
Naomi is the only one offline.
Ashira and Red: s. 90
Ashira is hiding an important thing and Red is not telling.
s. 146
s. 232-233
Leo and Red: s. 104-105
s. 176-177
s. 303
Kasha: s. 187
In the book we read Red og Rose’s messages often.
Social media:
Fanpage: s. 47
They are trying to make money by the music to get some cash on their hands.
Photo of Camden High Street. s. 159
Rose Carter Instagram: s. 169

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Video: s. 228

Message

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