Thomasina and her father are staying in her great-aunt Henrietta's house. Great-aunt Henrietta is on her deathbed, and Thomasina is wrapped up in caring for her, and in his grief over Thomasina's younger brother's death, the reader discovers. Thomasina's cousins are also in residence, along with an aunt and uncle. All of the residents of the house have their problems and are steeped in their own unhappiness, until one day Signe, the youngest cousin, finds a portal from a mirror-lined wardrobe into an alternate version of the house, occupied by a young girl named Hetty. Visiting the mirror version of the house always seems to help, somehow -- but are some of their problems too big to be solved even by this gentle magic?

This story is a bit Narnia meets Through the Looking Glass, except that the mirror house is not nearly as outright magical as either of the ones in the titles I've mentioned. This is an interesting book, very dark in spots, very Scandinavian. I'd recommend this to a specific sort of child, who enjoys thoughtful books that explore complicated emotional themes, and also to adults who occasionally enjoy children's literature. ( )