The Mirror Man

The Mirror Man is a sci-fi thriller that will have you looking at yourself and those around you in a whole new light.

What I Loved

I loved the fast pace, the thrills, and all the sci-fi elements. I adore a book that can keep me on the edge of my seat and The Mirror Man did just that and more. A company doing ethically questionable things mixed with the US military makes for a good dose of intrigue, deception, and dangerous situations.

I also am intrigued by the underlying theme of self-discovery. Considering the main character, Jeremiah is middle-aged, I suppose you could call it a look at the events leading up to a mid-life crisis and what Jeremiah saw when he looked in the mirror. Being able to be on the outside looking in is an eye-opening experience for Jeremiah as it would be for us. It caused me to wonder what I would think of what I saw if I could be an observer of my life.

I also loved that this story is character-driven. Jeremiah’s growth and increasing awareness move the story forward and create a uniquely complex character, with layer after layer of a shell built up around him, threatening not to let us in. But those layers come down slowly and thoroughly until the man standing before us is not the same man we are introduced to in the first chapter.

The story is written in the third person though it is limited to Jeremiah’s point of view, which gives it the intimacy of a story told in the first person while still allowing us to see little peeks into the periphery. This approach helps to create the suspense that kept the pages turning faster and faster for me.

To Read or Not to Read

If you love sci-fi or thrillers, this is a book that you will enjoy from beginning to end.

To be honest, I don't read a lot of science fiction, but the blurb for The Mirror Man just made this one too hard to pass up. The book started out a bit on the slow side, but it didn't take long before I was hooked by the main character and the possibilities. Cloning is a thought-provoking topic anytime but take that a step further. What if you agreed to step away from your life while a clone stepped in? And what makes it really intriguing is that we get to 'watch' Jeremiah as he watches the clone live his day to day life. Some things about the story were predictable and some weren't, at least not for me. As I mentioned, I don't read a lot of science fiction, but I do love a good thriller, and the very idea of this one is pretty chilling when you think about it. All in all, The Mirror Man is an intriguing debut, and I'll be interested to see what Jane Gilmartin does next.

What begins as a straight forward science fiction thriller quickly becomes a deep exploration of what it means to be a human in our world. Jeremiah is offered $10 million to let a clone take over his daily life while he lives a life of solitude and luxury. At first, it was fine, even a little exciting, but as time goes on, Jeremiah realizes that his clone is becoming more disengaged from his wife and child. As his family begins to fall apart, Jeremiah sets out on a plan to take his life back.
Interesting and thought provoking, The Mirror Man is an exciting new sci-fi thriller from Jane Gilmartin.


Thank you to Netgalley and MIRA for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

Fascinating premise but bland delivery. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed this book – thus the 4 star rating, and I do recommend it for the interesting premise alone . . .

However . . .

Page after page, I found myself wanting. I wanted more of a creepy vibe. I wanted more tension. I wanted more plot and character development. And in the end, I wanted more from the main character. If the ending had been stronger, I would’ve given this 5 stars, because I could’ve overlooked the other issues, but as is, the ending made me overthink the earlier page-by-page issues, and I found myself feeling disappointed.

Spoiler: I didn’t want him to just save himself, I wanted him to take down the bad guys one by one and save the world from being replaced by clones. Instead, he basically negotiated a deal only to save himself, his son, and his dog.

If you could have a clone replace you for a year, unbeknownst to anyone at all, and get paid $10M for it, would you? I mean, it's TEN MILLION DOLLARS! Phew! It's been a minute since I've read some addictive sci-fi and Gilmartin delivers.

We have all seen the advances in science throughout our decades on this planet. We've even seen cloning happening and talks of organ possibilities to extend the human life. We have also seen this type of storyline from other books and movies. However, what The Mirror Man does is give us a look at the other side. How someone who voluntarily accepts this role, is now sequestered from his family and can now see himself playing himself.... and when you're watching yourself from afar, you really get an introspective look. And sometimes it sure ain't pretty. So, how far would you go to get your life back because even if you didn't, no one would ever know any different....

Honestly, what a run and refreshing read. I really felt a lot for Jeremiah and loved seeing his full arc. And for those of you with pets out there, give them a little extra love. Louie. 💗 For a science fiction read, this was a story about so much humanity and the complexities that are a part of even the most mundane existences. An outstanding debut.

If you could have a clone of yourself, would you agree to be cloned? That is the question that Jeremiah is faced with. He agrees to be cloned, and sits back and watches from afar his clone living out his life - with his wife, his job, his son, etc. And he will be paid quite well for agreeing to be part of this cloning experiment. If you were cloned and watched yourself from a distance, would you like what you see?

I loved how this novel began with Day 1 - Jeremiah watching himself as his clone lives his life. All he had to do was agree to the experiment - be cloned, live in an apartment that is all paid for, and watch for a few hours each day as his clone carried on, none-the-wiser, and lived Jeremiah's life. Jeremiah had to agree to these terms for just one year, and would receive $10 million as part of the agreement.

I enjoyed this novel and the scientific aspect behind it all. A clone of a human being, who believed he himself to be a human, and had no idea what exactly was going on. He didn't know he was being watched, day in and day out, and being analyzed with his every move. I enjoyed reading about Jeremiah's thoughts as he watched his clone living his daily life, and what he thought about the whole process. It must not be an easy decision to sit back and watch your clone living out your life, and watching yourself from the eyes of an "outsider". You might not like everything that you see, and can do nothing to change it as you are secluded from the outside world.

There were many twists and turns, shocking revelations as you read through the chapters, and a great ending that I enjoyed! Be sure to add this novel to your TBR list. You will love it!

This is not the kind of book that I would normally choose for myself but after I got into it, I enjoyed it thoroughly. The beginning was a little slow for me to get into but I assure you, that if you continue on, you won't regret it. There were very good twists and turns throughout the story, ones that shocked me! It was a great read.

Jeremiah Adams is not satisfied with his life. His wife and son have grown distant. He’s pretty sure she is having an affair. But the dog loves him to pieces.

When Jeremiah is offered to be part of an important year-long study for his employer, ViGen Pharmaceuticals, Jeremiah jumps at the $10 million dollar payday. But of course for that amount of money you already know it’s going to end badly. Greed is ugly.

His company’s new drug is called MELD. It can transfer your consciousness along with all of your memories into a clone that looks just like you. Yes, cloning humans is illegal and wrong, but this is Big Pharma at it’s best. Working with the military of course.

Jeremiah will be living in a fairly luxurious apartment twelve stories under the company. He is to be monitored all day every day as he watches remotely his clone take over his life. Everyone buys into the clone being Jeremiah. Almost everyone that is. And Jeremiah doesn’t want anyone to know about that, which causes a chain reaction he did not intend.

First I would like people to stop comparing books. I have read all of Blake Crouch and this isn’t it.

What I didn’t like were the questions that were not answered or just glossed over. Was his wife having an affair? When Jeremiah looks at ‘himself’, living his life he is shocked by what an uninvolved person he is. Disgusted by his own lack of interest in his family.

Not willing to continue, he makes a deal with his boss which neither intends to keep.

I just wish there had been more detail about the characters around him.

NetGalley/ October 20th, 2020 by MIRA

I loved this book. It was fascinating to think of having a clone in real life. There have been several movies along the same vein and I think this would make a great movie.

I liked Jeremiah and felt for him. It would be very enlightening to watch yourself and get an outside view of how you are and how people react to you.

I didn’t like that I never fully understand why the experiment was taking place. The story said several times that high ranking people were very interested in the project but not what the long term goal was.

This is an interesting kind of science fiction dystopia in which human cloning becomes possible. Trapped in a type of Truman show, Jeremias is cloned and has to watch for one year how his life unfolds without him, with the clone in his place. But as his life gets out of the tracks, he will try everything to get out of the weird assignment, resume his life where he left off, and get things back on track.

At first glance, the plot line of this book seems tired: part clash of the clones, part "Total Recall" memory conflicts, part retread sci-fi mystery. But as you get drawn into the book, which concerns a pharma marketing exec who volunteers for a cloning experiment, replacing himself with a clone for a year, you find out it is quite original and intriguing. The clone -- and his body double who is locked away -- are both carefully observed, although not as carefully as the scientists think. By the time you reach the end, you'll have thoroughly enjoyed this book, and the combination of sci-fi and mystery is a nice balance. Highly recommended and I might have to watch the original Total Recall just to savor some of those memories, wholesale.

I have loved science fiction since I was a child. I remember my first Sci-Fi book about an ant colony, and I was blown away. I feel the same way about The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin, a story about cloning that's fresh and thought-provoking. I started it to see what it was about and couldn't put it down. I read the whole book in a matter of hours. I'm going to read it again because it was that good.

When Jeremiah Adams is offered a lifetime job opportunity to earn a large sum of money that would be hard for most to resist, he agrees, thinking about the new life he can have and having second thoughts about what he will do. Watching himself as a clone, what a premise.

This book is riveting. I found it interesting the author writes about cloning with the moral and ethical ramifications that come with it, even knowing this is "just" a story.

I want two things after reading this. Another book that picks up where the author left the ending as I feel there is more story there and a movie.

I highly recommend this read and look forward to more books written by Jane Gilmartin.

Book: The Mirror Man
Author: Jane Gilmartin
Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Mira Books, for sending me an ARC.

I did actually find this title very difficult to rate. On the one hand, I really did enjoy it, but on the other, I thought it was really lacking something. There were certain parts of the book that I was actually very interested in, while others I thought were lacking. I did find myself skimming parts and unable to put it down in other parts. I don’t know what it was about this book that made me do that.

I think the big thing was probably the character development. There are a lot of things that happen in this book that should have made me feeling something for the characters, but, yet, I ended up just not caring or not even aware that something big and awful had happened to them. I think that this has to do with the fact that it really felt like the author had not given us enough time to actually grow to care for them. I think that had we gotten to see what happened before the clone then it would have given us time to actually develop some kind of a bond with those characters. I guess what I’m getting at is that I wasn’t really all that attached to them.

The idea of the clone was actually a pretty cool concept. I also liked that the author gave us plenty of little differences between the real person and the clone. It just showed us that even a clone cannot replace a real person. I wish that the book had exploded some of the ethical decisions that go along with cloning. It did a little bit, but I just wish that it had done it a little bit more. I think you could have had a much stronger and more engaging book had it went there.

The writing was okay. Like I said earlier, there were some parts that I found really engaging while others were just lacking something for me. I think had the author handled certain things a little bit differently then this book would have gotten a much higher rating from me.

This book comes out on October 20, 2020.

I was enchanted by the blurb at the story I really wanted to find out what twist the author would add to this type of read. This is more of a story about the man himself and what he learned about himself watching the clone. There are a few other twists and terms in here that make the story quite interesting and make you want to finish it to find out what happens. I enjoyed it I was expecting more of a thriller suspense type thing than the psychological type that the story actually ended up being but that does not mean that it was a bad book.

I haven't read this other before and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised and will gladly read this offer in the future.

Interesting concept but didn't suck me in. Characters weren't that compelling and the plot sort of wandered along aimlessly. There was an interesting twist in the latter part of the book, but it got resolved almost as quickly as it was introduced. Still, I'd be open to reading the author's future books (this is a first novel).

The Mirror Man is a combination of psychological drama and science fiction as we follow Jeremiah, a 48 year old marketing executive for a medical conglomerate, through the process of being cloned by the company that employs him. I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. For Jeremiah it seems like a straightforward transaction as he gives a year out of his life and gets a payoff of $10 million dollars. What he doesn’t realize are the emotional effects of watching from a distance as the clone take his place in his personal life. Then, as he goes deeper into the experiment, he also begins to understand the ramifications of the cloning project for society. What begins as a rather passive transaction on Jeremiah’s part becomes a tense drama as we watch his efforts to free himself from the nightmare he finds himself in. The reader’s enjoyment is heightened as you ask yourself what makes someone fully human? What are the moral and ethical implications of cloning? Does your DNA determine your future? This was a very entertaining read with a great ending. It will linger with you after you read the last page.

The Mirror Man by Jane Gilmartin, an interesting premise. I was very interested in this book but had a hard time connecting to it. I do think others will enjoy this book, Thank you for giving me a chance with it.

It’s an offer many of us would have a hard time declining. Take a year off from all your responsibilities, family, work, all of it. In your place will be a clone, someone who can deal with your ever distant family. And you can sit back, watch and make a whole heap of money. The offer is too tempting for Jeremiah, and he spends his days in an upscale apartment with a front row seat to what’s happening to “him” and his family. But when the clone begins to act unpredictably, Jeremiah wants out before his family gets hurt. But ViGen has spent a lot of money on this project and they need it to succeed, regardless of the human cost. If you like intelligent, thought provoking sci fi, than this story is for you