Mirrorland is a twisted and bewildering read. Cat’s estranged identical twin has gone missing, presumed dead. This mystery drags Cat back to her haunting childhood home, where she must come to terms with her unreliable memories of an abusive childhood. It was complicated and twisted in a way that I didn’t particularly enjoy. I found it much too slow in first three-quarters of the book; the last few chapters were a rollercoaster. However, the plot was well developed and the writing consistent. I think it was a well-constructed book, but it wasn’t my style. I think others will enjoy it, and I’d recommend it to fans of thrillers with unreliable narrators.

I knew after reading a few pages of turgid prose that this was not the book for me. As the promotional copy clearly states, it is for fans of Gone Girl. Personally I become very impatient with victim literature. I skipped to chapter 30 and got caught up with no problem. There were a few twists at the very end but nothing that would knock your socks off. I’m sure for its genre, it is quite adequate but it is formulaic, I wouldn’t recommend it to any but the most diehard fans of this category.

This was so good!! I couldn't put it down and read it in 2 days (work sucks). Loved the back and forth and would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good thriller/mystery! Thank you for allowing me to preview this copy!!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for gifting me a digital ARC of the debut novel by Carole Johnstone - 4 stars for a twisty twin tale!

El and Cat are mirror identical twins. They grew up in an old manor in Scotland with their mother and grandfather, They created Mirrorland - an elaborate fantasy world under their pantry stairs where they spent all their time with pirate ships, clowns, witches. In the present time, the twins are estranged. Cat is living in California and El has remained in Scotland, married to their childhood friend, Ross, and living in their childhood home. Cat is called to return to Scotland because El has gone missing in a boating accident and is presumed dead. Someone is leaving Cat clues that are forcing her to confront their past in Mirrorland.

This is a twisty, complicated mix of past, present, fantasy and dream worlds. But it is so imaginative that it will pull you into this fantasy world where truth and lies are difficult to discern. There are so many unreliable narrators in this book that you will never see all the twists and turns coming. Looking forward to more from this author!

"I wasn’t anywhere when my sister died. Because she isn’t dead."

I don’t know how to begin to review Mirrorland. I’m still not even entirely sure what I just read. What I do know is that I haven’t had a case of the mindfucks like this since reading Verity.

"I know how this goes. How it’s always gone. This is a treasure hunt. She has the map. And I have no other choice but to wait until she gives me the next clue."

In Mirrorland, twin sisters Ellice and Catriona invent a fantastical make-believe world, filled with pirates and witches and clowns, as a way to mentally escape from the abusive, traumatic environment they are being raised in. Decades later, Ell is missing and presumed dead, and Cat must return to her nightmarish childhood home to uncover what has happened to her sister. In the process, she’s forced to reckon with memories she buried long ago and acknowledge horrific truths about her past.

"There was never a time when Mirrorland didn’t feel real; when we couldn’t feel the wind and rain and wonder of it, or smell the sea and smoke and sweat and blood of it. But sometimes, Mirrorland felt very real, and those were the times when we were clever or cruel or afraid."

Based on the description, I went in to this book expecting the domestic thriller version of The Night Circus - something fanciful and imaginative, with a good twist or two thrown in for good measure. In reality, Mirrorland ended up being much closer to horror, with a touch of magical realism. It felt like a mashup of The Girl in the Mirror (twin sisters with a boat, where reality isn’t what it seems), The Family Upstairs (a troubled, traumatic childhood, spent in a creepy house), and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (an impressive degree of mental escapism). And, yeah, there’s a little Verity in there too (a series of postmortem letters leaving you entirely unsure of what to believe).

"This house and our mother and her stories turned our imagination into a melting pot, a forge. A cauldron. And, I’m beginning to realize, I can trust nothing that came out of it."

Mirrorland is creepy, unsettling, horrifyingly traumatic at times, and goes above and beyond “thriller” in genre. And it’s not really fantasy, either, despite all the pirates & clowns. Most of the book left me feeling terribly sad for the twins, and angry with their mother for allowing such a life for them (and even angrier at another character who later chose to prey on them because of their embedded weaknesses). Lots of sick, twisted people & situations in this book, but not in a fun way.

"I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I know it won’t look like murder. Because he was born to be a pirate."

The book is well-written and engaging; I couldn’t put it down. If we’re rating the author’s ability to create tension, suspense, and true horror, it’s a 5-star experience. But based on the way the book made me feel - mostly cringy and uncomfortable - 3 stars feels generous. So I settled somewhere in the middle.

"Any escape is better than none."

——

A huge thank-you to Carole Johnstone, Scribner, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

——

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Love, love, love this book! I am always excited when I find a book that is very different from so many that are out there and trust me this one is! Cat and El are mirror twins who grow up in a toxic environment, so in order to ease the almost daily trauma of their everyday life they create Mirrorland under the stairs where they are pirates, clowns, or cowboys. They become estranged after they become adults and Cat moves to LA but is called back to Scotland when her sister goes missing.
For me the only thing I didn't care for was all the fantasy and make believe because it was hard to know what was real and what was not. However, the author did a stellar job tying it all together at the end. I will be watching for more from Ms.Johnstone.

Thanks to Net Galley for allowing me to read this amazing arc for my honest review. I highly recommend!

What an incredible debut! Mirrorland has it all-drama, thrills, twists, tragedy and beautiful sisterhood. However, the absolute best part of this book is the imagery. Johnstone is masterful at setting each and every scene.
Catroina and Ellice are identical twins with a dark past. Once inseparable, yet they haven’t spoken in 12 years. When El goes missing, Cat is forced to return home and face the past. With so many delicious twists and turns, I fell in love with this novel.

I received #Mirrorland as an ARC courtesy of #NetGalley and #simonandschuster in exchange for an honest review

Woah! What a wild ride! Mirrorland is a mind-bender above and beyond your typical psychological thriller.

As kids, mirror twins El and Cat lived in a world full of imagination, adventure, and invisible friends in Mirrorland - a sort of ‘club house’ they built in the basement area below their home in Scotland. They play-acted cowboys and Indians, clowns, prison guards, and pirates with their neighbor Ross.

When they are 12 years old, El and Cat are forced to run away and start their ‘second life’ after something unspeakable happens in the house. As they age, the girls become estranged - Cat moves to Los Angeles and El marries Ross, moving back into the old family home.

When El goes missing, Cat returns to Mirrorland, which along with clues left by El, forces her to recall suppressed memories about their ‘first life’, sort out fact from fiction, and decide whether El is dead or alive. She’s unsure who she can trust - Ross, El’s new friends, even herself.

Pay attention when you’re reading this one, because you never know if Cat’s playing make-believe in Mirrorland or living in the present. Some reviewers said this makes things confusing, but I think it truly draws you into Cat’s altered view of reality and her fragile mental state.

I thought the book went on a bit longer than it needed to force its ending. I thought it was going to end maybe 4-5 chapters before it did. It would have ended more strongly without the unofficial “part 3”. But it was still a creepy horror/thriller that I’d recommend!

I loved the premise of this story--twin girls creating a magical world in their play area in order to escape the harsh realities of their abusive childhood. I really enjoyed how in-depth a world their imaginations were able to create.

At times, on audio, the shifts between fantasy and reality got a little bit confusing. I feel like reading a hard copy would be able to follow, since you would more easily be able to flip back a few pages to sort out what was going on. I haven’t read a lot of magical realism.

The investigation into El’s disappearance was interesting, and I was eager to figure out the twist. I didn’t find any of the main characters to be that likable, though, so I had trouble connecting with their stories. Overall I enjoyed the ending and was certainly surprised.

The beginning of this novel, that is to say the first half, is slow going and a bit dull and confusing at times. The second half is when things really start to happen and we actually get answers to the questions that didn’t seem to interest us much in the first half. There are twists, turns, and revelations but they are not handled as deftly as they could have been and there were so many that they lost their punch. A couple of well timed OMG unexpected twists would have been magnificent. Five all bunched together is simply tiresome. A somewhat entertaining thriller with lots of disappointments.

I've got to be honest - this one kind of lost me.
I think it really needs to be marketed as fantasy/heavy magical realism. Though I'm not a huge fan of those, a lot of folks are - and I think they would really enjoy this story!
I think the writing was very good and the story picked up (for me) toward the halfway mark. I do look forward to seeing what else this author writes.

Mirrorland | By Carole Johnstone
4.5/5 stars!

If you are into psychological thrillers, this is a must-read!
"A twisty, dark, and brilliantly crafted thriller about love and betrayal, redemption and revenge, Mirrorland is a propulsive, page-turning debut about the power of imagination and the price of freedom."

Synopsis:
Cat and El are twin sisters but have been estranged for 18 years. Cat lives in LA and El in Edinburgh, in their childhood home, with her husband Ross. Cat returns home when El goes missing. El has left secret clues, in a treasure hunt fashion, all throughout their house, where they would fantasize treasure hunts as kids, to help Cat solve her disappearance.

Thoughts:
This is a very dark, very twisty story. The beginning has A LOT of fantastical elements. I almost was going to abandon the book in the first 80 pages or so because I strongly dislike fantasy. There was pirate, ghost, and witch talk, all seemingly make-believe games that the girls played when they were little. However, I had seen rave reviews on this book and decided to power through. If you start this book and feel this way, KEEP GOING because I promise it will all make sense in the end. About halfway through it really became a page-turner for me and I could not put it down.

Mirrorland blurs the lines of fantasy and real life. What was imagination and what really happened to these girls as kids? It was confusing in the best way. There were surprises and secrets revealed through the very last page.

I cannot believe this was a debut novel. The writing was out of this world! I highly recommend this book and I think it will be one of the books most raved about in 2021.

TW: Death, suicide, murder, abuse, drugs, alcohol, mental health, and more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

My brain is on fire after listening to Mirrorland. There’s nothing like a good audiobook for a slow work night.
Cat is out unreliable narrator and she tells a creepy, twisted, complex story set in a claustrophobic, bleak house.
Twin sisters Cat and El created a world called Mirrorland until that world nearly devoured them. Twelve years later, Cat is called back to Scotland from her new life in LA when El disappeared and is presumed dead. Cat thinks El is still alive. They hadn’t talked in ten years, and yet Cat believes that if El were really dead, she would feel it.
This book is crazy. I seriously don’t know how to even talk about it. I had to pay attention (which means I had to go back on my audio a few times) because there is so much detail, layering of the stories, twists and turns in this house of horror.

The premise of this book sounded very interesting, however, it read like an amalgamation of various other best selling novels I've read and loved. I'm thinking specifically of Room and Gone Girl. When you put those well-loved novels into one story, it does not work. The pirate storyline was very vague, and I found myself often wondering what was going on for most of the first half of the book. I couldn't piece it together and was often bored and/or confused. The ending was predictable. There was a creep-factor that I really enjoyed and the writing was fluid.

Book Review for Mirrorland
Full review for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

This is an as advertised twisty thriller. Even when the twists were somewhat unexpected, they still happened in unexpected ways. In the beginning, the children's make-believe portions were a bit tough to remain interested in, but they definitely served their purpose in the long-term of the novel. As everything started to come together, it made for a particularly captivating backend of the story and a strong novel. This anticipated thriller is likely to meet or exceed expectations.

I was hoping for a dark tale going into Mirrorland and Carole Johnstone delivered just that and more. The novel is immediately sinister but it's also one you need to take your time with. Johnstone frequently switches between the current time period as Cat deals with the fallout of her sister El's disappearance to the their childhood and what went on then.

There's a lot of information and detail, especially in the sections taking place in the past. Growing up, the twins seemed to live in their imaginary world Mirrorland. I found this addition equal parts fascinating and heartbreaking. You can tell early on that this imaginary land was a product of some form of trauma they had or were experiencing. Mirrorland was a place where they could be strong, free, and in charge.

I'll admit I wasn't the biggest fan of Cat. I did appreciate getting to read her inner thoughts as Johnstone did an amazing job of showing you her thought process. But there were still times I wanted to tell her to open her eyes and see the red flags she was ignoring.

This book ended up being darker than expected. At one point, I thought I was going to cry at all that had been revealed by the end. Mirrorland is being compared to Gone Girl and it's the second book I've ever read to meet that bar and possibly exceed it. It's a heavy novel that will get under your skin and leave you reeling. I can't wait to see what Carole Johnstone does next!

Such amazingly vivid story telling from a debut author that I am looking forward to reading more from. This story touched me on several levels.
Catriona 'Cat' is estranged from her twin sister Ellice 'El'. When she gets the news her sister is missing she returns from Los Angeles California to Edinburgh Scotland. She arrives at her childhood home and has to unravel her memories of the past. Things she has deliberately forgotten and are entwined in the memories of the elaborate Make-believe world she had her sister had created for escape, Mirrorland.
This story had me on the edge of my seat, especially in the final chapters.

Thank you to Scribner, Carole Johnstone and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC.

At first and for much of the book, I didn’t follow what was going on. The story was very convoluted. There was too much description of childhood Mirrorland and way too many memories. It read like a bad dream, or maybe a nightmare.

But then, it all starts to make sense; all those invented fantasies finally made sense.

There are some pretty good I-didn’t-see-that-coming moments leading to an ending with a twist. All in all, I enjoyed this debut novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Mirrorland. I liked it.

A great suspenseful thriller, that was well written. Mirrorland focuses on twin sisters. When one goes missing, the other must recall their childhood and find the clues. Different, but good.