This novel by Cameron Nunn, tells the story of two young men who both attend Hamilton College in Sydney.

David Pollifrone is a year 11 student at Redmont (the boarding school).  David does what is expected and does it well. He likes being first in his studies and prides himself in being in the 1^st XV rugby team. All the boys at Hamilton College know, you don’t see anythi

ng, you don’t hear anything and you certainly don’t say anything. Life for David seems to be pretty easy… Until Simon Turner shows up and shares a room with David. Simon is on an Indigenous scholarship and is the grandson of a rugby legend.

Simon is expected to fill his grandfather`s boots on the rugby field, but this is not the case. Turner would rather study, rugby just isn’t h
When Simon and David are paired together to do a History assignment on the history of the school, they decide to research past scholarship winners. They find a missing name in the archives and become curious as to why it has disappeared. Along the way they discover hidden truths and forgotten memories. When the headmaster finds out about the assignment he giveis thing. Turner experiences bullying by students and finds himself targeted by teachers. Simon doesn’t quite understand the pecking order and how things work around Redmont.

s the boys ‘a little chat’ and directs them to choose another task. Headmaster Pollifrone doesn’t want to risk drawing that attention to him while Turner takes this as an opportunity to find out more.

When I read this book I found myself picturing Hamilton College as being Joeys. The way he describes the school just seems a lot like Joeys. The Author uses great descriptive language and has many great twists that kept me wanting to read more. I like the way the author makes the two characters (David & Simon) have sort of contradicting personalities. Although we see at the very end that all the events David had experienced, changes his personality, for better or worse we really don’t know for sure.

Another reason the book appealed to me was that it has some pretty sweet fight scenes and the language used is very graphic. Again I like how the author puts some twists in the story to make it a thriller in a way. ‘Shadows in the Mirror’ is a fairly short book but it has a great story to tell and uses some great themes and ideas.

Reviewed by: Yirrbi Jaffer-Williams

Available in BLRC: F NUN