Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone is a mystery thriller novel revolving around the themes of childhood fantasies and what it means to be a family, and the art of deception and the trick of the hand so to speak.

In 'mirrorland', imaginations run wild. Our protagonists are two sisters who have had a troubled childhood. In order to cope up with the situation they found themselves in, they have weaved an elaborate imaginary world within their minds. That waorld is their safe haven, an escape from reality. As a reader, navigating through that world is not an easy task. It gets confusing at several points.

The ending is predictable and not very perfectly executed. Nonetheless, it is a brave attempt at weaving a subterfuge of the highest degree.

Thanks to the author and the publisher for the ARC.

"Mirrorland: the dark, twisty, gothic fiction debut from 2021's new voice in psychological suspense"

Stephen King loved it, and so did I!
He called it "Dark and Devious", and he's absolutely right!
The author is incredibly cunning, tricking your senses, as the story line slips in and out of fantasy and reality, but presented in a way which sounds so genuinely realistic, that the horrific events that transpire feel even more shocking!

Let the fact that Stephen King loved it set your barometer for what to expect. There are lots of trigger warnings, but I won't be sharing them here, because that would absolutely spoil the storyline. Just make sure you're feeling resilient going in!

My only complaint about it, is probably what everyone else will love. And that's that the author wraps up everything really neatly at the end. You leave feeling like the story is concluded.
But if you like to see the shadows, and it gives you goosebumps not knowing exactly how close you are to the monsters in the dark, I'd suggest not reading the last couple of chapters. Because you'll think about this one for a very long time 🙌

An absolutely brilliant debut that I highly recommend!! 🙌

Here's what it says on the cover:
No. 36 Westeryk Road: an imposing flat-stone house on the outskirts of Edinburgh. A place of curving shadows and crumbling grandeur. But it’s what lies under the house that is extraordinary – Mirrorland. A vivid make-believe world that twin sisters Cat and El created as children. A place of escape, but from what?

Now in her thirties, Cat has turned her back on her past. But when she receives news that one sunny morning, El left harbour in her sailboat and never came back, she is forced to return to Westeryk Road; to re-enter a forgotten world of lies, betrayal and danger.
 
Because El had a plan. She’s left behind a treasure hunt that will unearth long-buried secrets. And to discover the truth, Cat must first confront the reality of her childhood – a childhood that wasn’t nearly as idyllic as she remembers…

I loved it!! ❤️

I loved this book. At first I found it a bit confusing. Twin sisters (mirror images of each other) have had a strange, cruel upbringing, isolated and not aware of what "normal" was so they create a fantasy in each room of their old house and it is unclear what is real and what is not. Then something happens that means they have to start a new (more normal) life. However they both fall for the same man and this causes a split which means one sister goes to live in LA for years. When her twin goes missing she returns and refuses to believe she is dead. However she is still in love with her sister's husband and their shared grief becomes something else. An engrossing read and an incredibly unexpected ending!

I really tried with this one - but I got increasingly more bored and I have promised myself to not make myself finish books I will rate less than 2 stars unless they are ridiculously fun to read; I did make it 40% in though.
I do not think this book knows what it wants to be - it's a thriller without having thriller pacing but with thriller plot beats, it's a coming of age story without actually dealing with the coming of age, It's literary fiction but the language felt more self-indulgent than anything else. This just did not work for me at all - and I am very sad because the premise and the promise of a dysfunctional sibling relationship really are brilliant.

After a long absence, Cat returns to Edinburgh after learning of the disappearance of El, her (estranged) mirror twin. Cat is resolute that El is not dead and investigates by following clues left around their childhood home, a place of mystery and imagination.

There are two main strands to the narrative: the present focused on the investigation and insights into the unusual upbringing of the twins. There is much detail of their childhood games and the stories they are read by their mother. The mention of Bluebeard early on suggests one of the major themes of the story.

The story is rather too quirky for my tastes and the relationships didn't ring true. The literary references foreshadow and undermine any twists in the tale. Any reader with knowledge of The Shawshank Redemptiom will anticipate the final revelation. The debt to Stephen King is evident in the writing and acknowledged by the writer herself.

I found this book really hard to get in to, at least 50% through. I key going and now I’m glad I did. The ending was good, at first I thought I knew how it would end. But there was a few twist and turns on the way,
Overall I did enjoy it, thanks to them ending but, it is a slow starter.

This is a clever, dark psychological thriller about twins and trauma, secrets and lies, manipulation and imagination.

Split between the ‘now’ of Cat searching her childhood home for clues to her twin sister El’s disappearance, and the memories of that childhood, with hours spent playing in Mirrorland with the witches, clowns, pirates and fairies, and the boy next door, Ross, it becomes clear very early on that Cat is an unreliable narrator. Stories weave through the memories and the treasure hunt Cat is desperately trying to decode clues to, and the reader is drawn into the confusion about where imagination ends and reality begins.

I was reminded of tales like Rebecca or The Shawshank Redememption in places, but this book has far more twists and turns, until Cat and the reader are united in not knowing who or what to trust.

With plenty of action, suspense and mystery to go along with the psychological mind-games, this is an edge-of-your-seat read, with more faces than a funhouse hall of mirrors, that will keep you guessing right up to the final page.


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Dysfunctional just begins to describe this family. A few times it was hard to follow the fairy tale characters into the real life and the twist in the end was a little far fetched for me.

This sounded interesting and different. But it didn't work for me.
I had trouble following the story. Especially the Mirrorland fantasy parts. I just got lost and confused. But I also couldn't pull myself back from the confusion.
Having the fantasy parts were unique and did intrigue me but it took me out of the mystery too much and I struggled to care in the end.
I didn't think the reveal could explain everything in a way I wouldn't still be confused.
I struggled to want to finish it. I think I would have quit if it wasn't for the audiobook.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but unfortunately I didn’t manage to finish it. I liked the idea but couldn’t get on board with the fantasy element and the story just didn’t grip me.

What an amazing, enchanting, horrifying book. The book deals with big, modern themes in way that you don't know they're coming until bam they hit you between the eyes. Specifying the themes would be too much of a spoiler.
This book is very well written, with a great feel for the language of Edinburgh, both today, and the previous generation. The characters present and past are excellently drawn and wholly believable. The reveals are gradual and so well structured that what starts off as a missing person mystery takes sudden and stunning, disturbing twists. Totally absorbing!

This was an interesting read about twins who were mirror images of themselves, and their unusual and disturbing upbringing. Throughout the story many secrets came to light making for some interesting curveballs.

Although it was sometimes hard knowing when was ‘now’ and when was ‘back then’ it is a story worth reading, or even listening to as an audio book. .

Stephen King recommends this so no wonder it’s a really, good exciting read. Twins who have fallen out but we’re close as children. It’s creepy and atmospheric and a strong 4/5.

This has such a slow start that I almost gave up, which is almost unheard of! I am glad that I stuck with it though and it turned into a great read.

Cat and El are identical twins, who are able to sense even the slightest pain in one another. Throughout their childhood, they spent their lives inside a fantasy world Mirrorland - a world populated by pirates, outlaws, clowns, and prisoners. One fateful day, something happens and they had to leave behind Mirrorland forever. After being estranged for twelve years, however, El has disappeared and Cat finds herself returning to Mirrorland where El returned with her husband Ross (a mutual friend Cat knows all too well). While El is presumed dead, Cat is suddenly thrown into Mirrorland once again for a treasure hunt bearing the prize of her sister's fate.

Once I got into the book, the pace picked up considerably and the plot was very strong. The characters were well developed and had great depth.

It's very cleverly written; it feels a bit muddled at times and some things which seem completely unrelated come together in the end so it all makes perfect sense.

Cat comes back from America after hearing the news that her mirror twin sister has gone missing out on her boat.
She feels that her sister El is still alive and when the emails start to arrive she believes more that that is that is case.
The story moves from the present to the past and only becomes clear as you move through the book.
The story is quite confusing and you really need to be paying close attention.
I'm still not sure if I enjoyed it.

This sounded very up my street. A missing sister, a dark history that needs to be revisited, a narrator who might be unreliable, the promise of twists....and this book has all that. But it was also painfully predictable. I'd worked so much out by around a third of the way through I was almost tempted to skip to the end. I didn't and am glad in someways. What I did like was the writing, how the author evoked that feeling of desire for a first love. I'd recommend this book to anyone that doesn't read a lot of thrillers of this type. I suspect I've read so many of these I see through the plots too quickly these days.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I am very glad I decided to read it. The narrative is very atmospheric, and the characters are very well written. Recommended! Thank you for my ARC.

This didn't work for me at all.

Initially I got to around 30% and put it aside because I just could not get a grip of what was going on. Then I read a few reviews where the reviewer had a similar experience to me but pushed on and ended up really enjoying it so I picked it back up again and I read to almost 50% but honestly, I didn't like and wasn't engaged with any of the characters and I had spent so long being confused that I just didn't care about getting to the bottom of the mystery.

For me the first 25% didn't have enough in it to engage me in the story and if I'm not engaged by that point I'm unlikely to become engaged further on.

I'm really happy I've discovered this author. It was great writing, interesting plot, thrilling pace.
Characters were well written in-depth as well. Definitely recommended.
Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

I knew going in that I would probably like this book because the synopsis immediately captured my interest but Mirrorland really managed to surpass my expectations and is definitely one of the best thrillers I’ve read recently. Mirrorland is dark, fantastical and disturbing in equal measures, but it all works so well together to form a compelling and unique thriller.

Carole Johnstone makes use of some classic thriller tropes but spins them and makes them her own. If you’re into reading thrillers, you’ll notice that ‘the missing person’ trope is used all the time and it can become kind of predictable and follows a certain formula. In Mirrorland however, this trope of sorts is used to a really interesting effect and I loved all the twists and turns the case took. You’re left questioning whether El is really missing, who is responsible and of course the big question: what happened in the sisters childhood with Mirrorland and why they’ve been estranged for the last twelve years. Given the fact that Cat is an extremely unreliable narrator, the suspense and confusion of the story is even more heightened.

I really liked all the fantastical elements and the flashbacks to Cat and El’s childhood as they grow up in the imposing gothic house where their mother reads them stories and their imagination runs rampant. I thought these were some of the strongest parts of the novel and builds up this whimsical atmosphere with a sinister edge hiding underneath even the most pleasant moments. At times it can be hard to keep up with all the different rooms, worlds and characters that the girls have created but you get used to the fast paced flow eventually and it adds a whole different layer to the story.

The novel weaves in between the twins childhood jaunts to Mirrorland and to the present day where Cat is back in the house and starts receiving strange hints and clues, containing information which only El could have known. I really liked how the story plays out and how by the end all the loose ends get tied up, I like when stories have this well contained nature and Johnstone fulfils this to a T.

Johnstone explores many different themes and covers a lot of important issues in the novel such as domestic abuse, childhood trauma and coping mechanisms, which I think is so important. Some of the content could be triggering so I’ll include a full list of trigger warnings here: childhood abuse, sexual assault / abuse, domestic abuse, gas lighting, alcoholism, drugging, infidelity.

If you’re looking for unique thriller which will be sure to stick with you and provides mind bending twists and turns then definitely pick up Mirrorland.