‘Lonely Castle in the Mirror’ Review

By Holly O'Neill

Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel opens with its protagonist, Kokoro, expressing her dream that a new student will arrive and be her friend, saying that in her dreams she is ‘no longer alone’ (1). This very brief description showcases all you really need to know about Kokoro: she’s lonely. Her best friend has turned against her because of her school bully, and she’s too afraid to go outside, closing herself off from any possibility of making friends, as well as her education. 

And the depictions of her struggles with mental health are nuanced, showing how difficult it actually is to deal with anxiety. Readers can see how Kokoro herself sees her struggles and read her thought processes as she comes to terms with her inability to attend school despite not knowing why. The excitement Kokoro feels about attending school and living a normal life are snuffed out by the overwhelming symptoms her anxiety causes her to deal with, including stomach pains.

‘she’d been sure she could make a start there. 

Yet when she wake up, she realized it wasn’t going to happen.

As usual, her stomach was killing her.’ (6)

And so she stays at home, watching TV and waiting for her schoolwork to be delivered at the end of the day. These long hours spent at home are interlaced with the desire to be better and the pained thoughts of a child whose guilt is not enough to overcome her fears. As the book states, ‘it wasn’t simply that she didn’t want to go. She couldn’t’ (7). Her paralysis and lack of clarity on what is happening to her is an incredible portrayal of mental illness, with the childlike narration only exacerbating these experiences.  

More heartbreaking still is the relationship that Kokoro has with her mother. Her mother is shown to be harsh about Kokoro’s passive refusal to attend school, getting frustrated when her daughter can’t offer any explanation for staying home. But the emotional impact that this has on her mother is also explored, as Kokoro sees her mother holding a handkerchief and hopes that she hasn’t been crying, allowing readers to understand that the anger is coming from a place of love. What it means to be helpless to your own anxiety is a central theme in the novel, but the brief glimpses we see of Kokoro’s family, and how they too are helpless despite wanting the best for their child, is what helps to make the novel so emotionally strong. 

The story then takes a turn, as Kokoro’s bedroom mirror begins to shine, and she finds that it has become a portal into a magical world where she can spend her days in a fairytale castle, surrounded by six other students. The idea is that they have to find a key which will unlock a room and grant them any wish they desire to come true. However, if they don’t leave the castle by five o’clock, they will get eaten by wolves. This magical quest creates a ticking clock and encourages the characters to make the most of their time at the castle. But the way they use their time is important for different reasons than you might expect. All of the students are struggling to attend school, and while she is around people who understand her experience, Kokoro’s character undergoes growth. In fact, all of the students come together in support of each other, with them all forming friendships that encourage them to try and overcome their struggles, knowing that they won’t have to be alone when they do. 

By the end, ‘Lonely Castle in the Mirror’ is a bittersweet portrayal of mental illness that raises awareness for the bullying epidemic in Japan. It shows the importance of the connections we form with other people, while using the magical overtones to deal with difficult topics in a more tolerable way. 

Bibliography

Tsujimura, Mizuki, trans. by Philip Gabriel, Lonely Castle in the Mirror, (London: Penguin Books, 2022)