The Mirror

Cleo is one of the novel’s main characters, a 28-year-old artist and Sonya’s best friend. Cleo is long-limbed and beautiful; her hair is curly and the color of burnt honey. Sonya’s roommate in college, Cleo moved into the Maine manor at Sonya’s invitation and, like Sonya, has come to call the manor home. A children’s book illustrator and a painter, Cleo is an exceptional artist. Her oil painting of a mermaid leaves everyone who encounters it in awe. In the manor, Cleo occupies Collin’s studio, indicating a connection between them. Since art and creativity in the book represent truth and strength, Cleo’s artistic abilities show she is a force of good, another foil to Dobbs. With her positive use of magic, Cleo counters Dobbs’s evil spellcasting.

Cleo grew up in New Orleans, close to her father Jackson and her mother Melly. She is especially fond of her grand-mère Imogene, a wise, intuitive woman. From Imogene, Cleo has inherited knowledge and an affinity for good magic. Cleo embraces her Louisiana Creole heritage, describing herself as “Creole, Asian, a hint of Jamaica, a whiff of Brit” (29). She is passionate, fiercely loyal, and has an irreverent sense of humor. She often uses her humor to fight Dobbs’s show of strength, such as when she yells out: “O bite me, you hideous, heartless hag” (159) in response to Dobbs rattling the windows. Cleo believes that Dobbs feeds on fear, and thus uses her courage and irreverence to starve Dobbs. In The Mirror, Cleo adopts the green-eyed black cat Pye, the green eyes reminiscent of Sonya.

Cleo is opinionated and protective of Sonya. She is quick to get angry at anyone who insults or slights Sonya, such as Sonya’s ex-fiancé Brandon. However, Cleo can sometimes be overbearing in her protectiveness, such as when she has to force herself to give Sonya space after Sonya witnesses Johanna’s murder. Cleo is also wise, illustrated by the way she takes her time to develop a romance with Owen. Though Cleo instinctively likes Owen, she does not want to jeopardize the equation emerging between cousins Sonya and Owen, showing herself to be an intuitive, clever character with a dynamic arc.

One of the novel’s main characters as well as its primary romantic, Trey is a Maine-based lawyer and has a dog called Mookie. Trey is 32 years old and tall, with dark hair and deep-blue eyes. Sonya notes Trey’s blue eyes have black rings around the irises. Trey comes from a family of lawyers; his father, Oliver Doyle II (Deuce) was Collin’s best friend, echoing Trey and Owen’s relationship. Trey is very close with his family beyond working together, as shown through his relationships with his mother Corinne and sister Anna.

Trey shows his sensitive, empathetic nature through his work, where he often takes on pro bono cases like Marlo’s. Trey fights to put Marlo’s abusive husband in jail. Sonya and Owen both note that Trey has seemingly infinite patience. For instance, when Sonya takes her time before telling Trey something important, he never pressures her. Sonya also compares Trey’s sweet and compassionate nature to her father’s. A brilliant lawyer, Trey has great powers of persuasion, and Sonya notes that he can persuade people without them even realizing it.

Trey represents a self-aware, empathetic model of masculinity, challenging the stereotype of the possessive, dominating, and brooding hero. Though he always wants to shield Sonya from harm, physically putting himself between her and danger, he also knows when to step back. Trey tends to keep his troubles to himself and bottle up his feelings. However, when Sonya calls him out about this, he responds by sharing his worries with her. His willingness to change shows that he is a dynamic character. Trey is also a foil to Brandon Wise, Sonya’s ex-fiancé. While Brandon is smug and selfish, Trey is humble and selfless. He is also intuitive, foretelling that Dobbs will soon grow more dangerous. Trey’s many good qualities establish that he is a befitting counterpart to Sonya.

Owen is one of the novel’s four main characters. Sonya’s cousin from her Poole family, Owen too has the characteristic green eyes, though Sonya notes his eyes are a lighter green than hers and ringed in amber. Owen has dark brown hair and is ruggedly handsome. He has a scruffy, large eye-patched mutt called Jones, whose fierce nature mirrors Owen’s.

Like Sonya, Owen can enter the mirror and see the past because of his Poole blood. However, Owen notes that he did not ever see the mirror in the manor before meeting Sonya. Owen and Sonya met for the first time in Inheritance, and their bond becomes stronger in The Mirror. He also develops a romantic relationship with Cleo, who notes that Owen is courageous, such as when he rushes into the mirror after Sonya without hesitation.

Owen is a ship-maker and carpenter with a strong aesthetic sense. Since art represents truth, power, and regeneration in the book, Owen’s draftsmanship establishes him as a positive force. When Owen shows Cleo the sketches of the ship he plans to build her, she is speechless. She had expected Owen to build a sturdy ship, but his ability to sense and visualize what Cleo would want surprises her.

In Owen’s dream of Collin, Collin tells him that he has a gift for building things, which will come in handy in the fight against Dobbs. He is a key member of the quartet resisting Dobbs. Further, Dobbs injures Owen twice in the novel, first when she injures his nose, causing it to bleed, and the other when her cold magic burns his hand. Dobbs also tells Owen she will bathe in his blood, remarking on his resemblance to Collin. These facts foreshadow a potential face-off between Dobbs and Owen.

The antagonist of the Lost Bride trilogy, Dobbs is the spirit that haunts Poole Manor. Always dressed in a black wedding dress, Dobbs has wild black hair, angular features, and a full mouth. Sonya describes her beauty as harsh and intimidating. Dobbs died by suicide in 1806—after killing Astrid, she jumped to her death from the manor’s seawall, sealing the curse on the manor. The curse is that every first Poole bride of her generation who inhabits the manor will die, ensuring that Dobbs will always be its mistress. Over two centuries, Dobbs’s curse claims the lives of seven Poole brides, and power grows with each acquisition.

Dobbs is a witch, though the narrative stresses that not all witches are bad. Cleo also believes in magic and casts spells, but Dobbs uses her magic for evil purposes. She is an evil, antagonistic character with no shades of gray, committing several murders and displaying no empathy. Every time she commits a murder, Dobbs chants a spell. For instance, after she kills Johanna, she says: “Seven brides with seven rings, with blood and death their power sings” (432), sealing her power.

Dobbs’s spells show her desire to silence the voices of others. She occupies the manor with slams, thuds, and spooky noises, overwhelming Sonya and Cleo with sound. She also floods the house with visual scares, such as blood running down walls, smoke creeping inside doors, and rats snarling down the dumbwaiter. However, the novel suggests that Dobbs’s power and her destruction are linked. Because of her method of sealing the curse, she is stuck in a loop of dying, playing out her last moments every night at 3:00 am. She also places too much faith in objects as talismans, such as her blade and the wedding rings. Because objects can be taken or destroyed, her power too is finite. Dobbs is a flat character because she does not change throughout the novel, remaining stuck in time, and unrepentant about her terrible deeds.

Nineteen years old when she died, Clover has long blond hair and blue eyes. She was married to Charlie Poole and died in childbirth after delivering Collin and Drew, becoming the fifth lost bride of Poole Manor. When Trey met Clover’s spirit in Poole Manor as a young man, he later described her to his sister as a “hot babe.” Clover has a first-person chapter in the novel, which portrays her as an idealistic, free-spirited, and somewhat reckless character. In her historical timeline, Clover represents the purity and passion of youth, as well as the headiness of love. In the present timeline, Clover’s spirit is a benevolent godmother to Sonya, often communicating with her and her friends through songs. Clover is associated with music, her taste encompassing many genres and eras. Though Clover is a ghost, she is playful and ready to change with the times. Thus, she illustrates the novel’s key theme of The Interplay Between Past and Present.

The twin sons of Charlie and Clover Poole, Collin and Drew are separated a few days after their birth. Collin is adopted by his aunt Gretta and passed off as her biological son, while Drew is adopted by the MacTavish family. Though the twins do not know about each other and do not meet in real life, they sense a crucial bit missing from their lives. The novel suggests that the brothers meet through the mirror, witnessing vignettes of the family tragedies as Sonya does.

Both brothers are artists and paint the brides, and their painting styles are uncannily similar. Sonya is Drew’s daughter, while Collin does not have children. Collin and Drew are described as sweet men with brown hair, green eyes, and long, artistic fingers. The description of the similarities between the men only amplifies the injustice of their separation. However, Collin tries to rebuild the severed connection by leaving Sonya the manor. Sonya often catches a whiff of Collin’s aftershave—Eternity by Calvin Klein, the same as her father—around the manor, suggesting Collin watches over her. Collin and Drew represent benevolent mentor-like father figures for Sonya, Owen, and Trey in particular.