[In a Mirror] is as penetrative and analytical as anything [Mary Stolz] has ever done. But is it a teen-age book? I confess I bogged down for a minute while I went through it because, as a stream-of-consciousness journal of a present-day college girl, it would surely have Henry James looking to his laurels.

It is extremely well done, once you accept the heroine as a product of the "majoring in psychology" group. Smoothly written and as fascinating as certain psychiatric case histories can be, I nevertheless would not recommend it except to those teenagers of your acquaintance whose emotional balance is well established. They could handle it and would thoroughly enjoy it, no doubt, but for the more immature I think it is too introspective and somehow disturbing. (p. 98)

Margaret Ford Kieran, in The Atlantic Monthly (copyright © 1953 by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Boston, Mass.; reprinted with permission...