Mirror Thief (Seay) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Audaciously well written...the book I was raving about to my friends before I'd even finished it.... while this novel seems on the surface to be a bit like Cloud Atlas (multiple perspectives, Russian doll structure), it’s more heartfelt, deeper, less of a pastiche. The book—in the end long, frustrating and slow—becomes a mirror....[but] does not contain [many] of... its own questions. This is not The Da Vinci Code for intellectuals. It’s more like “Howl” translated into Latin and then back again. Over 600 pages. It’s amazing.
Scarlett Thomas - New York Times Book Review


[A] wondrous debut, a deliciously intricate, centuries-spanning tripartite tale of money and mysticism.... Mr. Seay has conjured his own kind of sorcery, a sophisticated thriller that keeps the pages turning even as it teases the mind.
Sam Sacks - Wall Street Journal


Transfixing.... The Mirror Thief is a startling, beautiful gem of a book that at times approaches a masterpiece.
Michael Schaub - NPR


Compared recently to the work of David Mitchell, Seay’s big, genre-ish The Mirror Thief is actually better than most novels by that author.
Flavorwire


Hugely entertaining.
Daily Mail (UK)


A bold American debut...hypnotic.... Frequently reminiscent of the ominous historical bulletins of Don DeLillo … with a plusher, plumper register, more redolent of Umberto Eco …Seay is clearly a writer of exceptional and eclectic intelligence. The Mirror Thief is always highly admirable.
Guardian (UK)


The weirdest and most ambitious novel of 2016 thus far...a literary, speculative, mystical masterwork.
Chicago Review of Books


(Starred review.) A true delight, a big, beautiful cabinet of wonders that is by turns an ominous modern thriller, a supernatural mystery, and an enchanting historical adventure story.... A splendid masterpiece, to be loved like a long-lost friend, an epic with near-universal appeal.
Publishers Weekly


A 600-page thrill ride across three centuries and two continents.... Part crime thriller and part meditation on poetry, with unexpected plot twists and references to famous figures as diverse as the French dramatist Antonin Artaud and Jay Leno.... An impressive feat of imagination.
Bookpage


(Starred review.) Grandly entrancing.... Shimmering with intimations of Hermann Hesse, Umberto Eco, and David Mitchell, Sheay’s house-of-mirrors novel is spectacularly accomplished and exciting.
Bookbrowse


Seay’s great challenge is ...[met with] varying degrees of success; often the story seems an exercise in stringing together index-card notes on various arcane subjects, and while the book is well-written...it still feels undercooked.
Kirkus Reviews