Ok wow, this book is so twisty and turny. A really thrilling, page-turner of a book and a very original plot. 100% worth a read

This book is a real anomaly, I spent the first 50% wondering where it was going and not particularly gripped or enjoying it, then in the second half, it really took off! The pace quickened, the mysteries deepened, the twists started, the pieces started falling into place and I was hooked.

This is by no means an easy read, covering some very challenging areas, from the first person viewpoint making them even more poignant and disturbing. The power of one’s mind to ‘normalise’ life so you can cope and survive is portrayed clearly.

Difficult to review without any plot spoilers, but definitely worth the slow start and the unusual setting, go with the flow. A dark, powerful, unpredictable and emotional read.

Who isn’t fascinated by twins? I find stories about them irresistible and this book is one of the best I have read in a very long time.

Twisty with turns and surprise moments all the way through. A great read.

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone is a psychological thriller that explores the dark and twisted bond between twin sisters.

The narrator, Cat, returns to her childhood home after her sister, El, goes missing. There, she has to face the secrets and lies that haunt her past, and the mysterious world of Mirrorland that she and El created as children.

The book has a complex plot with vivid characters. The author blends reality and fantasy, creating a suspenseful and immersive atmosphere. Mirrorland also deals with themes of trauma, identity, and memory, and how they shape our lives.

An original novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the end.

This book setting was too complicated for me to really enjoy starting it. It reminded me of starting the Storm by Shakespeare and needing to take notes even before reading the first page.

First book I have read by this author. I loved the premise and the writing was very evocative which added to the thrills. Creepy at times, and also quite dark in places, but mostly a highly engaging and exciting read.

I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

When Cat receives news that her estranged twin sister, El, has gone missing, she drops everything and flies from LA to Edinburgh. After having fled the city 12 years ago and cutting all ties with El and Ross, their childhood friend and El’s now husband, Cat has tried to forget everything about the twins first life. But after mysterious emails and notes and strategically placed diary pages that El wrote as a child, Cat is forced back into Mirrorland, the childhood fantasy world the two girls made up in their house, as she tries to unravel the treasure leading to the answer of what has happened to her sister.

I listened to the audiobook of this because I’m so behind on my arcs.

Mirrorland is a place where childhood fears and dreams merge into a chaotic and adventure filled world, full of pirates, clowns, witches, and heroes. As readers, we experience it through the eyes of Cat and El as children and from adult Cat, exposing the realities behind the fantasy and the cracks in the facade. Mirrorland is almost a character in itself. The details are peppered throughout the story and build to create this thing I feel I’ve experience myself.

The mystery of this book is what happened to El, and I was fully drawn in and hooked to know what happened. Throw in a strained sister relationship, a possibly abusive marriage, the strange circumstances of the twins’ childhood and the mystery of how they left their first life, I couldn’t get enough of this book.

Despite the fact I love thrillers, nothing could have prepared me for how much I enjoyed this book, and how much I miss it now that I’m not reading it.

This is a Mystery/Thriller book, which I enjoyed reading, as I found it quirky, unique and interesting.

The story is about Cat and El, who are twin sisters. Cat goes back to Scotland after El has disappeared, and she tries to find her. Using clues that are around their childhood home, she tries to work out what has happened to her. We are given glimpses into what their childhood was like, which was that they had a cruel upbringing which caused them to create fantasy rooms in their childhood house.

Cat meets up with El’s husband and they become close while they are both grieving for El.

This is an unusual story, yet it kept me interested, and I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

Cat is an identical twin, one half of a whole, something so special that another hundred thousand babies had to be born before she and her sister El came along. And, as their mum always told them, such sisters share an unbreakable bond, they must face everything together and they must never let go of each other. Fast forward to adulthood though and the inseparable sisters haven’t seen each other in years. Cat has run away to California and El lives in the house where they grew up, a house as full of horror as it is magic, the home of Mirrorland. On the first day of their new lives the girls swore they would never return there, but something drew El back and now she’s missing. Cat has to go back, her sister needs her, but will she make it out alive a second time?

Ok so Carole Johnstone is now an auto-buy author for me 😍 I read the Black House a few weeks ago and adored it, so I decided to pick Mirrorland up too; thankfully I was not disappointed! I can’t believe this book is a debut novel, the world she has created here is so vivid and the plot is so well thought out. I devoured this book, read it in a day, which is no mean feat nowadays with three kids in tow. But I was completely entranced and felt sucked in to the world the girls had created for themselves in Mirrorland.

The story is gripping from start to finish, a mystery that isn’t resolved until the very last pages and that’ll keep you on your toes throughout. There are twists and turns sprinkled throughout, so just when you think you know where it’s going another little bomb is dropped and you have to re-examine all that you think you know. It’s a very clever (and dark!) book, and although I saw some of the twists coming, others were a welcome surprise. I loved the references to other novels throughout and thought the little details made all the difference, if you pay attention you will be rewarded.

The characters are unlikeable, then you feel sympathy for them, then you flip back again, and this continues throughout. Cat is an unreliable narrator but in the best way, it keeps you questioning what’s real and what’s not, especially since so much of the girls’ world is made up of fantasy anyway. I’m not a fantasy fan usually, and at first I did wonder if I’d made a mistake in picking this up. But if you push through the early parts of the girls’ play time, everything becomes clearer and it adds to the horror of it all. There are still some parts where I’m unsure of what was real and what was imagined, but I think that’s intentional and you’re supposed to be left feeling a little delirious after reading!

I am so glad to have found Carole Johnstone’s books and cannot wait for her next offering. Seeing as The Black House literally just came out I think it may be a while though, how will I cope?! But if you’re a gothic mystery/thriller fan and you haven’t explored her work yet you absolutely must, both Mirrorland and The Black House are excellent, atmospheric and haunting novels. Five stars from me!

This felt so much like Gone Girl with an added fantasy/supernatural element to it. I'm glad I read it because all in all I think if I was new to crime I would find it spectacular but I was able to guess the ending quite quickly.

I LOVED the premise of this one, and the reviews were great - on paper, it sounded right up my alley, but I really struggled with it at times.

While I loved the gothic elements, and the intensity of the storytelling, it was also slow and confusing at times, and the ending was a little overblown for me.

I'm in two minds about how to rate this one, so I'll go middle-for-diddle with three stars - the parts I enjoyed, I really enjoyed, and the parts I didn't made me really struggle to persist.

I will be interested to see what this author does next.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher, who granted me a free ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In 2022 I read and reviewed fewer books than I wanted. I began 2023 with a determination to read some of the titles I hadn’t managed to get to last year and make sure I reviewed them too! Doesn’t seem too much to ask for a bookblogger…

As the New Year bells rang out I was finishing Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone. Scottish based, a dark and twisty story (gothic is a word which I have seen used more than once in connection with this story) and extensive use of flashback chapters to a time when twins Cat and El were children.

Their childhood is very much central to the story set in current times (2018 as it turns out) as the characteristics of each twin is embedded during their troubled formative years and when we first meet Cat in 2018 the sisters have not spoken for many years, Cat is living in America while El has remained in Scotland and is married to their childhood friend Ross. But Cat is finally making the return trip to Scotland as El has taken her boat out to sea and both El and the boat are missing.

Cat is utterly convinced that El is alive. As a twin she would know if something had happened to her sister. When she returns to her childhood home (where El and Ross now live) she starts receiving strange messages – warnings – and then emails begin to arrive each seem to be from El who is sending Cat on “treasure hunts” similar to those the girls played many years before. Cat believes the language and the clues can only have come from her sister, so where is she and why is she hiding from her husband and twin?

Carole Johnstone makes excellent use of flashbacks to past events to reveal more and more about the relationship between El and Cat, El and Ross and Ross and Cat. But pivotal to the story is Mirrorland. The place where the girls spent their childhood – a fantasy construct within their house and garden where clowns, pirates were real, they could hide from The Witch in their house and live out the stories they enjoyed.

If truth be told I did sometimes lose track of what was a fantasy memory and what was Cat on a present day treasure hunt – reading in a busy Christmas house was not condusive to keeping firm hold of the story thread. It got to the point where I was doubting everything all the characters were saying, I doubted their actions were genuine and I second guessed everything as it happened. This is what I want from a thriller – that uncertainty and the need to find out what actually happens kept me coming back for chapter after chapter.

A good start to my reading year as I had fun with Mirrorland.

This was full of suspense, drama and intrigue and I loved it! It kept me guessing until the end and I found myself completely engaged with the plot

A unique read full of mystery and tense moments. I was drawn in from the first page, both mesmerised by the storyline and wondering how it was all going to work out. Hints of stranger things with another dimension. Loved it!

Cat and El are mirror twins, who have clearly not had a great childhood, for many differing reasons. To help get them through, they retreat into a fantasy land, known as Mirrorland. There are many characters within their extremely vivid imaginations.
As adults, the twins become disconnected from each other, leading separate lives on separate continents. Until El disappears after sailing away, her and the boat are nowhere to be found. Cat returns to her former home, and to El’s husband.

I struggled to get through the book at times, I read 4 or 5 other books whilst reading this book, as, in parts, I found it frustratingly slow going. The sections set back in time, during Cat and El’s time in Mirrorland, I found hard work. These parts read like a fantasy sci-fi read, as opposed to the thriller/psychological suspense I thought I was getting.

It is extremely hard for me to review this book, had I known of the high level fantasy content, I wouldn’t have chosen to read it, so I’m probably not the best person to write a review.
I think the book should be marketed more in the sci-fi genre, to find the corrrect readers, as I think many thriller/suspense readers as myself will struggle to connect with the story. I’m sure many will love this book, sadly I didn’t, just 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me.

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley and apologies for the delay in reading.
This was a bit slow for me, and I wasn't sure about the style of writing, but once I got into it it was ok. A good storyline.
My first book by Carole, and hopefully not my last

The pace moves along nicely and kept me turning the pages. The characters are interesting and well-developed. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

This on wasn’t really for me, I couldn’t get into the writing style, I tried several times, I kept going back to it. It’s well written but just not to my taste