The Mirror Season: "Glass, Cutting Light"–"After"

by Anna-Marie McLemore
In this magical realist novel, two teens are forge a bond after they are both victims of violence.

This list covers "Glass, Cutting Light"–"After."

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4
30 words 12 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. machismo
    exaggerated masculinity
    “You crochet, you sew, don’t give into machismo now.”
  2. illustrious
    widely known and esteemed
    “One of our school’s illustrious scholarship students?”
  3. entitlement
    the belief that one deserves special treatment or privileges
    “I’m a guy.”
    He says it without bluster or entitlement.
  4. chivalry
    courtesy towards women
    But underneath that brittle, casual layer is a misguided chivalry, a sense that because I am a girl, I am someone who survived, but because he is a boy, he is someone who was weak and careless.
  5. unyielding
    stubbornly unwilling to give in
    I want to give unyielding faith to my mother’s assertion that mole and squash blossoms can soften anything.
  6. taper
    give a point to
    Her jeans taper down to sneakers like the ones my aunt wears at the pastelería.
  7. imperceptible
    impossible or difficult to sense
    He does that startle response I know I’ve done with him. It’s fast, almost imperceptible, each of us settling into recognizing who’s touching us within a quarter of a second.
  8. anachronistic
    chronologically misplaced
    An unintentional assumption hangs between us, that this is something I had written on my body after what happened to me, a kind of reclaiming. Instead of what it is, an emblem I had before it happened, one that sometimes feels anachronistic on my own skin.
  9. disoriented
    having lost your bearings
    He made sure I didn’t wake up in that disoriented place of wondering where I am...
  10. stark
    devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment
    Maybe the little pools of water will be mirrors as thick and stark as frozen ponds.
  11. splay
    widen or spread apart
    It shows my hair splayed, but doesn’t show how much I’m trying to hide under it.
  12. bereaved
    sorrowful through loss or deprivation
    Mrs. Vanderlinden’s face goes beyond pained to bereaved.
  13. crude
    devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment
    She likes everyone. The crudest, most reductive acknowledgment of who I am and how I love, at the worst possible time.
  14. noncommittal
    refusing to bind oneself to a particular course of action
    Sure, everyone liked Jess when she was at Astin, but in the muted, noncommittal way people like the smart girl who shares her class notes or keeps the spreadsheets for any club she joins.
  15. conspicuous
    obvious to the eye or mind
    My ponytail and jeans are a lot less conspicuous than her glitter headband, silver eyeliner, and faux leather jacket.
  16. faux
    not genuine or real
    My ponytail and jeans are a lot less conspicuous than her glitter headband, silver eyeliner, and faux leather jacket.
  17. disarray
    bring disorder to
    It’s a mess, but a mess that looks more like a disarrayed catalog than a bedroom—clothes with tags still on, new makeup in its boxes. I try not to step on the sweaters and skirts left on the floor.
  18. vanity
    low table with a mirror where one sits while dressing
    I find the stack of Polaroids at the back of a vanity drawer, under a mess of eyeshadow palettes, blush compacts, brushes rattling around.
  19. contour
    any spatial attributes, especially as defined by outline
    I slide open the window, push out the screen, and swing myself into the nearest branch of that great oak. The contours of its boughs lead me down, and I could swear the wind is letting out a breath.
  20. eaves
    the overhang at the lower edge of a roof
    It’s the night we search for mud nests in the hollows of cliffs, or under eaves and crossbeams.
  21. buoyant
    characterized by liveliness and lightheartedness
    My mother wants me to believe I can be any kind of girl. Even the kind with a laugh so buoyant it sounds carbonated.
  22. brazen
    not held back by conventional ideas of behavior
    “Eat these,” I say, brazen and sure, “and you’ll be in love forever.”
  23. rendition
    the act of expressing something in an artistic performance
    “It’s simply dreadful.” She copies the fancy accent my tía uses for all things Astin.
    “Horrid,” Pilar says, chiming in with her rendition.
  24. absolution
    the act of being formally forgiven
    “Give him time,” she says, her face soft, and sad. “Give you time too.”
    I want the absolution this woman is offering.
  25. upholstery
    covering on a piece of furniture
    It looks like a tiny white room, all pale upholstery and artificial light.
  26. prod
    poke or thrust abruptly
    I am no more solid than pink sugar and flour. My flesh is the crumbling dough of pan dulce. My skin dissolves like a sugar shell. I am something to be prodded, and broken apart, and consumed.
  27. obsidian
    glass formed by the cooling of lava without crystallization
    This is a storm like the stories my abuela told me, legends of screaming winds carrying blades of obsidian. Except instead of the glittering white of the coldest snow, or the gleaming black of obsidian glass, this is the searing silver of broken mirrors.
  28. tenuous
    weak or unstable
    We are already witnesses to each other’s assaults, and I can’t blame them for not wanting to fray what I’m guessing is a pretty tenuous case. A brown girl and a boy from a dust-road town, against families who have their names on plaques all over the county.
  29. rehash
    discuss again; go back over
    They give us this instruction, not to talk to each other about that night, almost apologetically. As though Lock and I really want to rehash the details.
  30. attest
    provide evidence for
    Blood work records attest to the state of the boy I left in the emergency room, and an admitting nurse will testify to the lipstick found on him when they checked him for injuries.
Created on Tue Oct 12 13:28:31 EDT 2021 (updated Mon Oct 18 15:55:02 EDT 2021)

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