A novel by Mari Hon
In Her Reflection
Everyone has looked at someone else’s life and wondered, What if that were mine? But what if, one morning, it actually was?
But what if, one morning, it actually was?
For Suzy, that woman is Rebekah Finch—the confident, elegant woman whose life has always seemed just a little more beautiful, a little more certain, a little more complete than her own.
But Suzy has only ever seen Rebekah from the outside.
Now, both women are about to discover what happens when admiration becomes reality—and when the lives they thought they understood begin to reveal everything they couldn’t see.
In Her Reflection is a warm, emotional story of identity, comparison, friendship, love, faith, and the unexpected journey of learning to become fully yourself.
Inside the novel
Open the book
Chapter one, set the way it is printed. Turn the pages.
Lines from the novel
She looked like she belonged in her own life.
Don’t rush to become someone else just because you haven’t finished becoming yourself.
God, I’m tired of trying to be the woman everyone thinks I am.
Perhaps the strangest part of living someone else’s life wasn’t discovering their secrets. It was discovering how wrong you could be about a person you thought you understood.
It was easier to admire someone else’s life than to examine your own.
She had been so busy wanting Rebekah’s life that she had never wondered what it cost her to live it.
Maybe people didn’t need to be fixed. Maybe they needed to be seen.
It didn’t always begin with hatred. Sometimes it began with admiration. And if you weren’t careful, admiration could slowly turn into disappearance.
When you’ve spent enough time believing someone else’s life is better than yours, your own life can start to feel disappointing simply because it’s yours.
Sometimes I think people love the version of me that never needs anything.
Four moments, a little longer
A stranger in the mirrorChapter Three
The next morning, Suzy woke up feeling strangely comfortable. She stretched beneath the soft sheets. Then she froze. These weren’t her sheets. Her eyes opened. The room was unfamiliar. Large windows covered one wall. A beautiful cream-colored armchair stood beside the bed. There were flowers on a small table. Everything looked expensive.
Suzy sat up slowly. Her heart began to beat faster.
“What…?”
She looked down at her hands. They weren’t her hands. Her fingers were longer. Her nails were perfectly manicured.
Suzy stumbled out of bed. She ran toward the mirror. And stopped. A woman stared back at her. Long dark hair. Calm eyes. A face she had seen almost every day for years.
Suzy couldn’t breathe. She touched her cheek. The woman in the mirror did the same.
“No.”
Notes in a worn BibleChapter Seven
Suzy turned another page. There was a longer note this time. Not a Bible verse. Not an explanation. Just a few lines written in Rebekah’s handwriting. God, I’m tired of trying to be the woman everyone thinks I am. Suzy’s eyes moved slowly across the page. I don’t know how to be strong all the time. A pause. Then: I’m afraid that if I stop holding everything together, everything will fall apart. Suzy swallowed.
The next line was written smaller, almost as if Rebekah had hesitated before writing it. But maybe I was never supposed to hold everything together. Suzy read it again. And again. At the bottom of the page, Rebekah had written:
You are God. I am not.
Suzy stared at those four words. There was something strangely peaceful about them. Not because they solved anything. But because, for the first time, Suzy could see that Rebekah wasn’t trying to convince herself that she had everything under control. She was admitting that she didn’t. To God. And somehow, that felt more honest than anything Suzy had ever seen from her.
A voice on the phoneChapter Fourteen
She thought about Daniel. Six years of knowing someone. Six years of conversations, dinners, arguments, quiet mornings, inside jokes, familiar silences. Six years of being able to recognize each other without even looking. And yet, one word had been enough to make her a stranger. Who is this?
She couldn’t stop thinking about it. Maybe that was what frightened her most. How much of a person could disappear before the people who loved them stopped recognizing them? Was a person their voice? Their face? Their name? Their memories? Or was it something deeper? Rebekah didn’t know. She only knew that, for the first time in six years, Daniel had spoken to her without knowing it was her. And she had never felt so far away from someone she loved.
Where comparison leadsChapter Twenty-Three
“The line between reality and the life she had created in her mind became blurred. She wasn’t pretending. That was the frightening part. She genuinely couldn’t always tell where one ended and the other began.”
Rebekah was silent.
Clara continued softly.
“She once told me, ‘I don’t know if I want to be her anymore, or if I just don’t remember how to be me.’”
The words stayed with Rebekah.
She thought about Suzy. About the notebook. About the woman who had once looked at her and seen a life worth having. And for the first time, Rebekah understood how dangerous comparison could become.
It didn’t always begin with hatred. Sometimes it began with admiration. And if you weren’t careful, admiration could slowly turn into disappearance.
Sometimes, the person you envy is simply holding up a mirror.
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