Although Guy writes fairly well, she is an uneven unwriter; [Mirror of Her Own] is marred by oddly constructed passages like "Gloria, leaned back and stretched out, sinking in her waistline," or, referring to a clock, "The ticking … emphasized the stillness … rubbing against Mary's sensitized nerves," and by a repeated and awkward attempt to reproduce phonetically Mary's nervous stuttering. The greater weakness, however, is in the diffusion of the story line; the author uses the book as a vehicle for expressing her ideas about race relations and class differences and the story remains a showcase rather than a narrative. (pp. 171-72)