After years away in LA, Cat returns home to London when she learns her once beloved, now estranged twin El has gone missing. Cat feels confident her sister is alive and looking for attention, a theory confounds police and infuriates El’s husband Ross. When Cat begins receiving notes directing her through their childhood home and referencing shared experiences, she is initially relieved to have proof that her sister must be alive and her theory is correct. However… Cat is unprepared to dive deeper into truths about El’s life and realities of their shared childhood.

This one didn’t quite do it for me, although some unexpected twists and multiple layers of darkness helped me push through to the end. This book raised really interesting questions about perspective and memory, but they just didn’t completely land for me when mixed in with this writing and story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner Books for a copy of Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone in exchange for an honest review. Thrillers are my jam so I was so excited to read this one after the premise grabbed my attention of a young woman returning to her home country in search of her missing twin sister. This was a fast-paced story broken up by short chapters and excerpts of text message and email exchanges which always keeps me engaged and not losing interest.

I think what made this story just so-so for me was the execution of the plot, it just felt unbelievable at times and the switch between present day and flashbacks were not clear, it would go from a flashback in one paragraph and back to reality in the next with no transition to let the reader know of this change. The ending made me like the story a bit better than I thought I would by the halfway point of the book so I'm glad I stuck with it. With so many thrillers coming out this year and some already exceeding my expectations, this one will likely fall somewhere in the middle.

El and Cat are identical twins who grew up together in a mysterious mansion in Edinburgh. When they were young, they were as close as sisters could be, but as adults they fought and separated, Cat moved to the US, and El stayed.

Twelve years later, Cat gets a call that El is missing. She returns to the house they grew up in where El lives with her husband. Cat finds a trail left by El to discover what has happened.

The book alternates between El and Cat as children and how their fantasy land in part of the mansion became their lifeline, with the present time as Cat follows the trail left behind and confronts her past.

I love the setting, I left Edinburgh many years ago, and reading about the house took me back to my childhood there.. The story was gripping, I couldn't put the book down. The fantasy piece of the book was important to the story but hard to follow at times. The ending of the book yielded some surprises and satisfaction, for me, however crossed the line into implausible. Anyone who is triggered by stories of abuse might not want to read this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another book where the author tries to outdo herself with improbable twists and turns. I got bored with all the talk of childhood fantasies and skipped to the end. This plot is ridiculous. I don’t think that I would try this author again. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This really wasn't a read for me. The fact that she started sleeping with her (maybe) dead sister's husband right away made me ill. I did actually like the magical realism aspects of the book, but I just couldn't like any of the characters.

This book falls in the rare category of books which surprised me, but I still didn't find it to be mind blowing.

This book is about Cat and El, twins who have had a difficult childhood. After becoming adults, Cat wants to forget all the trauma and moves to Los Angeles, only to be called back to Edinburgh by El's husband that she has gone missing.

I think it is partly my fault that while reading the book, the beginning was very muddled for me and maybe I wasn't paying proper attention. But it took me a while to follow the storyline and understand what Mirrorland was. There were a couple of insane twists that were thrown in, but the middle really just dragged on for a bit and I just wanted to reach the end and solve the mystery. The ending is mind-blowing and I didn't see it coming at all. Maybe it was a 'right book, wrong time' case for me. I still think a lot of people might like this one better than me, especially thriller fans.

Liked this very much. I’m often drawn to twin stories, and though I’ve read a lot lately I found this one extremely intriguing. Didn’t see the ending coming!

Although I stayed with this book, reading as quickly as I could, it wasn’t quite for me. The fantasy land created by and for the girls was richly constructed, but I felt that, although integral to the story, too much time was spent on recounting it. There were no surprises for me in the twists and turns of the plot. I do think other readers will find it more to their tastes.

I loved Mirrorland. At the beginning, it is the story of a twin who ran away from her sister and her home twelve years before and never looked back. It is the story of a childhood spent in a dreamworld full of adventure, escape, terror, and sisterhood. It is the story of a twin refusing to accept that her sister could have possibly died with her *feeling* it.

We meet Cat (Catriona), whose sister El (Ellice) went sailing in her home of Edinburgh and hasn’t returned. Her husband wants her found, and Cat is sure that El has orchestrated the entire thing and is in no danger. Cat returns to her former childhood home, where she and her sister lived in a fantasy world alongside her mother and grandfather, and that fantasy world was Mirrorland. But was it all fantasy, or was there a grounding in reality?

I loved the background we got on the twins childhood and their relationship as it evolved through the years, leading to their separation. When I got to the last two hours of reading, (hey, I was savoring) I kept expecting to be finished in about ten minutes, but Johnstone kept the story moving and evolving and twisting and kept me guessing the entire time. I really, really loved this book.

I was captivated from the beginning with the details of the house Cat and twin sister EL lived in as kids. I love anything dark and mysterious and living in a house that had names like clown room, I knew would be good. Carole Johnstone has a way with descriptions that truly bring the pages to live and are easily to visualize as you get lost in her writing. If you enjoy a good scary psychological thriller then THIS is your book.

Whew. I can truly say this book is unlike any thriller I have ever read. The story is so unique and original!

I will admit, the book started off slow for me. I just didn’t quite get it, but something about it kept me tethered...I had to keep going. And I am SO glad I did. I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing too much, but the story revolves around twin sisters, Cat and El. Told in dual timelines, we see the twins as children in their fantasy world they call Mirrorland. Then we flash forward to present day where El has mysteriously vanished and her now estranged sister Cat rushes back to their childhood home in Scotland to find her.

This one may not work for everyone, but I really encourage you to give it a go. The second half of the book is absolutely fantastic. The atmosphere is dark, the twists are plentiful and the characters are brilliant. There are some trigger warnings so take care when deciding to read: sexual abuse, child abuse, and emotional abuse.

Mirrorland is the fantastical world created by mirror twins El and Cat while living with their mother and grandmother in a manse in Edinburgh. This magical world is filled with princesses, cowboys and pirates as dominates their young lives.

But then as young adults they both have a crush on the same boy, Ross that pulls them apart from one another. Cat moves to LA and El marries
Ross and moves into their childhood home. Then ten years later Cat receives a call from Ross informing her that El went out on her boat and never returned. Unable to believe that their twin bond wouldn’t have alerted her to El’s potential danger, Cat immediately sets off for their childhood home to find out what has happened to her sister.

I enjoyed this book , but will admit that it got off to a very slow start. I think there were a bit too many details about their imaginary world. But I stuck with it and I have to say it was worth it. Eventually all the extraneous information begins to make sense and the twists and turns begin and take the reader on a rollicking fun ride. My only complaint is that I wish it had gotten to the fun a little faster. Still, a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 read. Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

This book was a mixed bag for me. Based on the premise I SHOULD have really liked it. And for brief moments in time, I did. But there lots of other times I spent confused. Confused as to when in time events were taking place and confused as to what exactly Mirrorland was. The first 2/3 of the book felt very jumpy to me and hard to follow. I did enjoy the last third, but not enough to warrant more than 3 stars. I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Wow! Where to begin with this book. I had a hard time putting this book down as I wanted to unravel the mystery. The story focuses on two twin sisters, one has gone missing with her boat and the other returns to their childhood home to deal with the events. The story is set in the present as well as the past but it doesn't just alternate between chapters, sometimes you'll be reading in the present and suddenly you're in the past. At first I found this a little confusing but once I learned the clues I knew where the changes were occurring. As children the girls had invented a fantasy world that they called Mirrorland. The place that they created was so vivid that it had different places within it and people too. The vivid world that they created was pretty amazing and took the book to a whole different level.
What I found most intriguing about the book is that as the past and present stories were being told a third story started to emerge. **Minor spoiler ahead** When we start learning about the third story which is what really happened in their past the entire story took on a different tone. I was really impressed with the layers the author wove into the story. The only part of the story that I had a small issue with was the ending. Without giving too much away there was one scene that just seemed to happen with no build up or explanation and I was like wait, what? And then the final twist of the book honestly just felt too convenient. The author did explain it and explain how it came to be but I still felt like it was created as the easiest way to solve a problem.
Overall, I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a twisty, crazy story!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

It sounds like a fairy tale, the land of mirrorland where pirates, witches and clowns reside.
.
Twin sisters El and Cat grew up as close as can be but now they live on the opposite side of the world, Cat in LA and El in Edinburgh. Cat had no plans to return home until El’s boat went missing and Cat must follow clues throughout the house that lead her back into mirrorland.
.
Twisty and mind bending I had no clue where this book was headed. I don’t want to give too much away but this was a page turner for sure. Also, near the end there might be the most demented Christmas flight I’ve read! This is a wild ride and it was worth it. I went back and forth between audio and the physical book with this one so thank you to #NetGalley and #Libro.fm!
.

At about a third of the way into Carole Johnstone's MIRRORLAND, I wasn’t sure I wanted to finish it. I was skimming the sections that took place in the characters' childhoods. By halfway through, however, I was completely hooked and couldn't put it down. As soon as the first twist takes place and the earlier childhood imaginary sequences have context, I was regretting that earlier skimming.

Johnstone manages to bring the focus in and out between magical thinking and reality in such an insidious manner that the reader begins to move from one perspective to the other with an equal agility. At the end of the book, all I could manage was a resounding “Wow!”

A quick linear summary is as follows: Cat and El are mirror twins, growing up in a huge old house in Edinburgh with their mother and grandfather. They create an imaginary place called Mirrorland, where they spend most of their first twelve years. Near to the end of those first dozen years, a boy named Ross moves in next door and becomes a part of their magical world. When Cat and El are twelve, something disastrous happens and they leave Mirrorland. Both of the girls love Ross, and when he chooses one of them, the other leaves town. After another dozen years have passed, one of the twins has gone missing and the other has returned to help figure out what happened.

From mid-book, the twists come fairly frequently but always somehow make sense, right up to the final pages.

Johnstone does a tremendous job of conjuring up the magical world of Mirrorland, as well as the imagined uses for the various rooms in the house. She writes convincingly of storms and other phenomena, and she creates an overriding sense of menace throughout the story.

El and Cat see the world in different ways, but both are ways of processing their experiences into personal meaning. The shifting perspectives leave the reader disoriented, mimicking the sense of being on an unstable boat that suffuses the children's imaginary world.

MIRRORLAND reminds me of Emma Donoghue’s ROOM and also alludes to a variety of classics. It is a fabulous depiction of domestic abuse as it slowly seeps into a family, providing the reader with a sense of how that happens by almost putting the reader through it rather than simply narrating it.

While my first thoughts about this book were that the author was trying too hard to tell an old story through a postmodern approach, I ended up being in awe of way that this resulted in what seems a perfect representation of childhood trauma.

This is Johnstone's first novel. I can only hope that she writes many more. I will be waiting.

I was on the fence about this book for the first third or so. I found it confusing and like the reader was being pushed to care about characters we didn't even know yet. But then it started to make sense and was actually pretty good. It is also the second book in a few months about mirror twins, something I had never heard about before.

There was a lot of 'did s/he or didn't s/he' and being kept off-balance by the characters, none of whom are reliable, but it wasn't until almost the end of the book that the pacing started to speed up and it became difficult to put down. This gets 3 stars from me because of the slow start.

My thanks to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Catronia thought she escaped the life she grew up in by moving to LA. Then her twin sister El's disappearance throws a wrench in things and she is forced back to her childhood home, which Ellice and and her husband now own. Cat's time back at this house is bringing up repressed memories. Mixed in with current times, are tidbits of what seems to be completely unrelated stories and possibly make believe. Then comes the huge twist. These fairytale-like memories aren't so unreal after all. Once this is established, everything starts to make sense. Be prepared to be blown away more than once during this psychologically thrilling story. Once things started making sense, I could not put it down. And just when you think everything is solved, Carole Johnstone throws another twist in. This is such a good and meaningful story told in such an unusual way. 5 stars for sure!

Not an easy one to review. There was so much of this book that sucked me in and held on. And then there was the rest of it that I didn't love so much. The word "droning" comes to mind. However, I would absolutely read this author again.
Thanks to NetGally for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first time readying a book from this author. It started off real slow. About halfway through the book it started to pick up. Then I couldn’t put it down. Definitely a good suspense book that kept me guessing the whole time.