As debut novels go this one is pretty much up there with the best. Previously published in hardcover in 2021, this week sees the paperback release of Mirrorland and if you enjoy twisty, psychological suspense stories then this one certainly ticks all the boxes. Any book that Stephen King endorses with 'dark and devious' is, in my opinion, well worth a read.

Identical twins El and Cal spent their childhood in the claustrophobic atmosphere of 36 Westeryk Road in Edinburgh and only they knew just what nightmares followed them around as they played their complex game of pirate ships in Mirrorland, the place they could escape to when the reality of their life in this gloomy gothic mansion became too much to bear. We meet again with Cal when, as an adult, she returns to Edinburgh, from America, barely coping with the devastating news that El, now living with her husband at Westeryk Road, is missing ...

What then follows is a dark and addictive story of a childhood spent in the shadows of an unnamed terror and of the effects which linger long into the twin's adult lives. The story moves along at a cracking pace and whilst there were times when I had to suspend belief, the over-riding joy of immersive fiction is that it takes you to places that you could never imagine in your wildest dreams and that's exactly what Mirrorland offers on its roller coaster of a ride. I was fully invested in the story from the start especially as we follow Cal as she attempts to put together the jagged pieces of her fractured childhood whilst at the same time doing all she can to find out why El has disappeared so mysteriously.

Mirrorland is fast, furious, deliciously dark and definitely devious. I loved it.

A mix of fantasy with real life Mirrorland started a little slow for me but picked up pace later on . A unique blend of magic realism with some twists and turns in the end made this an interesting read for me

I would like to thank the TBC Reviewers request group , Netgalley , the publisher & the author for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. This was a great read, gripping from the beginning. Great characters and well written, it was a great premise and really held my attention to the end as I tried to unravel the plot. Very much recommended!

Great story with complex storyline and good characters. The story of mirrorland I found fascinating with the fiction blurring with fact. Very different to my normal type of book but really enjoyed it and found it a real page turner

OH MY GOSH this book was good. it had a compelling storyline that was engaging the whole way through, it had believeable and relatable characters and I really enjoyed the writing. I couldnt put it down, it was unpredictable, full of suspense and twists. I really enjoyed it.

DNF at 30%. I appreciate the chance to review this arc but ultimately it wasn’t for me. I hate fantasy novels and this had too much of that.

I've been curious about this book so was grateful to read it ahead of the paperback release.

Twins Cat and El have been estranged for twelve years when Cat gets a call to say that El is lost at sea, feared dead.

This is a psychological thriller that merges past and present. Their childhood was spent a Victorian house with servants' stairs and secret dusty corners, full of imaginary friends and foes, clowns, pirates, witches, convicts. Cat's present is one of unanswered questions and a refusal to believe her twin has died.

I like the atmosphere, the rambling memories and imaginings of their childhood, the way the imaginary friends are presented as real within a vividly described weird childhood. Imaginary friends, real people and ghosts have blurred together in the mists of time.

It isn't the fastest book, but I felt contentedly involved at all times, never wanting it to hurry along.

There are a big few twists at the end, which I felt possibly stretched the rules.

Overall, I enjoyed it and will look out for this author's next book.


Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK

I am sorry i just didnt like this book that much i didnt understand what was going on half the time...
The book never held my interest and i found it a bit bizarre i really struggled with it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

Did the premise sound interesting? Yes

Did I enjoy it? Yes

Should you check it out? Yes

I was hooked from the beginning and enjoyed my journey

Absolutely loved this tense thriller featuring mirror twins Cat and El, El is missing presumed dead but Cat hasn’t seen her for twenty years... the descriptions of their childhood house in which El still lives are vivid and you could almost be there. The characters in their childhood games: the pirate, the tooth fairy, the witch, mouse etc., they’re all imaginary or are they? Cat moves in there with El’s widower/husband Ross, but who is leaving all the treasure hunt notes, can she trust Ross or not? An Unreliable narrator, can Cat trust her memories or will Captain Morgan save her? Dark and powerful in the gothic tradition, it’s a page Turner as we crash to the climax

Dark, mysterious and quite confusing at times but overall a good and intriguing read. The plot centres on identical twins Cat and Ell and the death of Ell brings Cat back from a life in America which she had fled to. Absolutely nothing is what it seems in the story, however, plus a lot of the narrative blurs into fantasy worlds of childhood fairytales and books so it was hard to keep track of what was real and what wasn’t. There are also countless secrets and lies both in the present and in the twisted past of the family with some very dark themes emerging. At times this was a bit of a headache, particularly with the fantasy blurring too closely with reality which wasn’t really my thing. There were also parts of the reality which were a touch too far fetched and unbelievable for me. Overall though some good twists and turns and a satisfying ending so definitely worth sticking with it.

Am always a tad iff-y on doing reviews for blog tours as what if I don’t like the book? Where do I go from there? I don’t want to ask to be removed if I dislike/DNF a book. So, when WriteReads messaged and went “You like thrillers, right?”, I was intrigued, and when I read the blurbs for Mirrorland, I was very much on the fence (it was the US blurb that swung it for me. The UK made me very curious – like with different cover art for different countries, blurbs are different as well to entice and intrigue the reader to picking up the book and reading it).

It’s been twelve years since Cat saw her identical twin sister, El. Twelve years since Cat ran away from Scotland to LA. Twelve years of no contact. But now, news of El’s disappearance has forced Cat to come back. Come back to the family home where El and her husband, Ross, live.

But being back at 36 Westery Road is not the welcome Cat want. When the girls were growing up, they created a dark imaginary world – Mirrorland – full of pirates, clowns, witches. Cat hasn’t thought of this world in twelve years, but the world is creeping back into Cat’s mind. Every dark corner hides a secret or a long-buried ghost. What’s worse is that someone has left Cat clues in nearly every room. A treasure hunt that leads straight into the dark heart of Mirrorland, the truth of El’s disappearance and the heart of Mirrorland’s creation.

This is hard to write. Not because the book was bad – it isn’t – but because it had brilliant and clever ideas, but never felt executed right for my tastes. A sister returning home to deal with a strange disappearance of her twin? Tick. A mysterious treasure hunt from a mysterious stranger (who it is? The missing sister? The missing sister’s husband? The sister’s killer? Someone else)? Tick. A look into children’s imagination and how children and adults fall into it when dealing with trauma? Tick. In theory, all of this should have worked for me. And yet... it didn’t work for me.

Ok, let me write about the positives. It’s a highly original thriller, which is weird and can very easily be made into a movie or a TV show. It would be a strange and unnerving watch of a thriller as Cat slips from real life into her memories and viewers would wonder whether we can trust Cat and her version of events (yes, we have the unreliable narrator troupe). It would be like that scene in The Hours where Julianne Moore’s character, Laura, is on the verge of killing herself. A dream-like unnerving shift. It’s, also, well-written and has this lovely Scottish gothic edge to it. Plus, while I saw one or two twists coming, there were twists that I didn’t see coming and made me go “Wait, what?”

Like I said, these ideas work as does the writing, but there’s something, something I can’t quite put my finger on, that didn’t work for me. While the writing is solid, there were times I skimmed and I would get muddled over if I was reading present day or childhood memory. While this is highly original and creative, I could never really keep the lands in Mirrorland straight in my head. Maybe this was to give an extra dimension of unease, but it annoyed me when I kept having to go back to the start to see floor plan of the house and go “Oh, you mean here! Right, with you now!”

I get what the author was trying to do and the way she tackled the truth, the fiction and the magic of childhood memories to tackle trauma was unique [not seen it tackled this way before] (by the way, this book has a lot here. Ranging from domestic abuse, sexual assault, incest, child abuse and others).

While this might not have been the thriller for me, it is highly original thriller that I thinksome fo you guys will like hugely with its gothic atmosphere where the lines of reality and childhood fantasy blur.

I started Mirrorland and was initially a little bit confused about what was real and what was pure fantasy. After a few chapters I realised that that's exactly what the magic of the book was. This is one that you need to just dive into and let yourself fully submerge.

The story revolves around Cat and El two estranged sisters and the mystical and captivating world they have woven themselves into. The book catapults between past and present and gives you a full on immersive experience of childhood trauma.

A fantastically twisty thriller which captivates you right until the very end.

I couldn't get past the first few chapters of this one. I went back to it a few times but with no more luck. I think the writing style just didn't gel with me. I found that it got in the way and didn't let me immerse myself in the world of the story.

For example, in the first scene, which is from a child's point of view, the description 'her voice was still like the harbour water' made me laugh. For one thing, how can a voice be 'still' when the character is speaking? For another, what child would think that?!

I felt that the writer was trying too hard. The best books are those that let you forget that there is an author and that these people are not real. I don't want the author to constantly be trying to impress me with silly metaphors and similes.

I'm sure some readers will love it, though.

A good read.This was an interesting story part fantasy which was a bit far fetched at times ,but the main characters were great and it kept you guessing right till the end and I really enjoyed it. A great debut novel

Identical twin sisters El and Cat invent Mirrorland out of their imagination, a place where they can find peace and make sense of the world. A cruel, dark world that no-one should ever have to endure. The downside of Mirrorland, with its cast of fantastical characters and adventures, is that reality and make belief, truth and lies, have the potential to blend into one another and muddy the waters.

When we are introduced to El and Cat, we learn of their estrangement, an estrangement that seems cruel and unfair considering how unbreakable of a bond they shared as children. Slowly the truth is revealed, through a rollercoaster of secrets, lies, emotions, and psychological suspense.

Mirrorland is a story about the power of love and the price of freedom in a world so cruel and twisted that one could never survive alone.

My head is spinning after finishing this book, the sinister plot line and captivating twists make this book a must read.

I did find the story a little slow to start and Mirrorland difficult to keep track of in my head, but once that all became clear I flew through the rest of the book.

This story is as devastating as it is clever.

I will look out for more from this author.

I will be honest. This book was a little confusing at first. Cat returns to Scotland after an estrangement with her identical twin goes missing. El has disappeared and Cat is helping in the search. Alternating between the past and the present we learn about the horror of their childhood, and the imaginary games they played to occupy themselves. Overall an enjoyable read.

This was a brilliant read and is being featured on my blog for my quick star reviews feature, which I have created on my blog so I can catch up with all the books I have read and therefore review.
See www.chellsandbooks.wordpress.com.