Cover Image: Mirrorland

Mirrorland

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Member Reviews

I really enjoyed the Blackhouse by this author. This book moved a bit too slow. It is intricate and smart. And boy, that ending! It will make you think.

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Found this book incredibly boring and was unable to finish it. I wish I had stuck it out longer, but I just couldn't. Something didn't grab me.

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Mirrorland is an atmospheric psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the final pages. When Cat's estranged twin sister El mysteriously vanishes, Cat must revisit their childhood home in Edinburgh and the dark imaginary world they created called Mirrorland. With chilling twists and an ending that will leave you stunned, it's an addictive thriller from start to finish.

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I wanted to love this book so much. The people in my book club loved it and hyped it up, saying it was their favorite book of the year so far. So I wanted to love it. I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I felt like the book just dragged on and on. The ending was good, slightly predictable if you knew what you were looking for throughout the book. The clues were there. Overall, the book was ok. I’ve read better, and I’ve read worse. I was on page 220 when it finally started to pick up for me. Then I enjoyed it through to the end.

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Their childhood made these twins grow closer and lean on each other more than most people would think. Their home environment led tham to invent a magical world where they were invincible. As adults, they outgrew their fantasies and each other. When one twin goes missing, the other will return to their childhood home and revisit those fantasies to find her sister.

Mirrorland is both a dark and forbidding tale and one full of hope and sisterhood. It was an excellent read.

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I had such high hopes for Mirrorland. Unfortunately I’m dnfing this one 37% in. I don’t think this author’s writing style works for me.

Thank you to the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

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Cat goes on a search for her missing mirror twin, El. This book takes you on a journey through imagination and reality. There area a lot of twists and turns that keep you hooked. Read it now!

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Thanks to Netgalley, Scribner, and Carole Johnstone for this ARC . My first by this Author, and don’t know why I waited so long to read it..it was so spellbinding for me. I loved every story, every character and loved the ending … it was a combination of thriller, fantasy, fiction, everything I love in a great book.. The back and forth of the stories was at first confusing, but once you get into the rhythm of the book, it all works !
4 stars …and on to my next Carole Johnstone book .

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Do you know the feeling you get with certain books that you will like them even though they don’t fit your favourite tropes or genre or anything else tangible to go off of? And yet, you still have this inkling of holding a new fav in your hands?

I had this with Mirrorland. And I’m always super hesitant to start these books … because with high expectations it’s so much easier to be disappointed, even when a book is good. But I’m glad to report that I liked this one!
It took me a bit to really get sucked into the book, the unusual way the story is told took a second to grow on me. But eventually, this was one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. Mostly we follow Cat in the present, her coming back to Scotland after finding out her twin sister has gone missing. But slowly the past comes crawling up, old memories surface and reality and their childhood games blend together until you can’t be sure which is which.
Cat is a very flawed character. Not easy to like and she goes through a lot of anger, jealousy and bitterness. But that’s what made her so intriguing to follow. She has a lot of old memories, past trauma and new revelations to work through.

Mirrorland is one of those books where I think the less you know, the better. Let yourself be swept up in the atmosphere and try to solve the mystery with Cat.
I went through all the different emotions while reading this and it just held me captive the whole time.

Would recommend it to: people who like a confusing and emotional reading experience, who appreciate atmospheric writing with a blend of past and present

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This one took my brain for a spin in all the right ways. It’s very rare that a book will blow my mind to where I have to sit and really process it before moving forward with my life in the end, but this one did exactly that! Wow…just wow!

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Mirrorland was an okay, middle-of-the-road mystery/thriller for me. I wasn't blown away but I also wasn't disappointed that I read it.

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An interesting idea and a good story. I liked the how everything wasn't wrapped up and it led to more imaginative storytelling. The characters were likeable and interesting.

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First of all thank you to net galley for the arc!

This one really pulled at my heartstrings. I can’t really say much about it right now since it’s still fresh and I’m still crying.

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Unfortunately this was a DNF for me as I could not get into the writing style or plot. Thank you for the opportunity to try this title out.

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I loved the mix of past and present in this book, it was done so successfully. I love how easy and quick this was to read. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I would read anything from this author

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I am incredibly sad to say that I really did not enjoy this book. It started off promising and interesting, but once I felt like I had a feel on the characters, I just immediately got bored. I wanted to push through to see if the ending would pay off, and long story short...it didn't.

Right off the bat, this book gave me vibes of Pretty Little Liars and Alice and Wonderland and I thought that would make me love it overall, but it went off the rails one too many times for my taste. In my opinion this book should be marketed as magical realism, not a thriller.

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36 Westeryk Road, Edinburgh contains Mirrorland, the escapist world of mirror twins Ellice (El) and Catriona (Cat) Morgan. Now in their thirties El leads Cat on a treasure hunt to unlock their shocking reality and discover truths.

It took me a while to get into this but its draws you into the original and creative plot and ultimately it becomes very difficult to put down. It is a very atmospheric tale, super creepy in places and the author fuses the childhood fantasy Mirrorland brilliantly into the nightmare of the present day. At times it feels so claustrophobic that it’s hard to breathe and as the truth emerges it’s shock after shock and some of it is brutal. The final twist is excellent and ends the book positively. It’s a novel about the root causes of their childhood fantasies and its impact on adulthood, family sacrifice, deception and extremely clever subterfuge and becoming free from the iron shackles of the past. It’s grippingly tense and harsh in places but overall is a corker of a psychological thriller. Take a deep breath and dive in.

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Description•
Sisters
Imagination
Suicide or Murder?

•Rating•
⭐⭐⭐ 3/5 stars
It wasn't love for me, but you may enjoy it.

•Review•
So, this one was just difficult to follow at first. Then you kind of understand where the author is going. But then it just becomes so unrealistic. I almost wish there was another point of view or a clearer description of the twins' life. It just needed something more

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This was more of a miss for me. It's not a bad book by any means. I was very confused by the first half of the book (listening on audiobook was a bad idea) but in a way it lent itself to the unreliable narrator trope even if that wasn't the author's intention. The comparison to Gone Girl is a little too on the nose and ruined some of the plot twists for me because of how Gone Girl has popularized them. I'd be interested in giving this author another shot in the future.

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Overall

I am forever and always up for dark thrillers, and the blurb of this one immediately captured my attention. Plus, unreliable narrators are probably my favorite thing in mysteries. So yeah, I was obviously always going to pick this book up.

Mirrorland is a dark, twisty horror thriller with an unreliable narrator that’ll have you questioning everything you think you know. It’s got a plot that will grab you and refuse to let go, complicated sibling relations, and all the plot twists.

I definitely was not disappointed. This book was a freaking trip. I started out a little bit confused, and if you pick it up and have the same experience, I urge you to continue. Things make sense before too long, I promise! And when they do, the payoff is so rewarding. There’s a moment towards the end where the book feels like it should be over and it isn’t, which was kind of weird and not necessarily bad, plus a few moments where it somehow dragged, despite so many things happening. Despite that, I still really enjoyed this book and didn’t want to put it down!

My Thoughts

- Cat is an unreliable narrator, which leads to some confusing flashbacks at the beginning of the book. The payoff is definitely worth it, though, when things start finally piecing together and making sense! I absolutely love unreliable narrators, even though they tend to cause some confusion at first. Maybe because of it, actually. It’s so rewarding when nothing completely makes sense and then you realize that it all makes perfect sense . . . just not quite in the way the narrator originally thought. If this isn’t a trope you’re fond of, this book probably isn’t for you, since it leans pretty heavily into it.

Mirrorland (the room in the story, not the book) starts out as a charming, semi-magical place, brought to life by a child’s imagination. You know . . . until it isn’t. The progression is gradual, as both Cat and the reader start learning truths about her past. The mystery behind it is so attention-grabbing, though, that it’s hard to put down!

- Make no mistake, this is a dark book, which aptly deserves all sorts of trigger warnings. But that’s part of what made this book so fun. If you can’t handle dark books, you’re probably going to want to pass on it. If you love horror, or even Gothic fiction, I think you and this book will get along just fine. This worked out great for me, because Cat isn’t really a dark character. She’s definitely got a dark sense of humor, and she’s utterly sarcastic, but I find both of those things funny. Really, she’s just at a place where she’s struggling as an adult (and really, who isn’t?) and struggling over conflicted feelings about her sibling (yup, yup, yup). She’s not necessarily a great person, but she’s also not awful, either. She’s highly relatable because she walks this middle ground that most of us tend to inhabit.

Yet, there are dark secrets about Cat’s past that she’s forgotten . . . and she may not want to remember. The house isn’t quite what it seems and neither are her memories of living there. So yes, plenty of dark things that happen in this, but if you enjoy getting goosebumps from an atmosphere or that feeling that something isn’t quite right, this book really delivers on that!

- Mirrorland features some larger-than-life characters that don’t always make sense at first, but just wait for it. This goes back to the unreliable narrator thing. You will be confused. I sure was. This especially relates to Cat’s childhood, where a lot of people are name-dropped without much explanation. Slowly but surely, this starts making sense, and when it does? *chef’s kiss* Once I realized what was happening, I started trying to make sense of the characters on my own and guessing what the big reveal would be, which was super fun (and I did eventually get a couple right).

It isn’t just Cat’s past, either. There are plenty of shady people lurking around this book, people that El had known before she disappeared—died, according to the news, but Cat isn’t so sure about that. As far as side characters go, I enjoyed them, and the complexities they brought to the mystery.

- Here, there be plot twists! So. Many. Plot. Twists. Expect the unexpected! Trust nothing! By the time I was halfway through the book, I got pretty good at guessing the plot twists, but I still misguessed several of them. I love me a book that keeps me guessing and always has surprises in store! I think the unreliable narrator is definitely a big part of why this works so well, and the dark, not-quite-right atmosphere lends a hand to that, as well. I never quite knew what to expect with this book, and it kept me turning pages to find out what would happen next!

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