Oooh what a great thriller!

Mirror twins Ellice and Catriona have vivid imaginations, brought up by their grandfather and mother, they often escape to "Mirrorland", an imaginary land in the basement of their house. Roll forward to when they are adults, Cat returns from her new home in the US because El has disappeared... the story becomes more and more gripping with each piece of memory that Cat manages to slot back in place, and nothing is quite what it originally looked like.

This is a completely original thriller with a cast of gripping characters; it got me a couple of times with really good twists which I just did not see coming. What a read!

It's an interesting story. Sometimes I like fantasy and sometimes not so much. I'm not sure what it was about this that didn't quite click with me. Perhaps the characters didn't connect, they didn't always seem likable. Although, sometimes unlikeable characters are the best.
I think this would be a good book for a reading group as it'd lead to a lot of discussion. It'd probably split the room.

It's an interesting tale and very beautifully written.

However, there are a lot of far fetched moments and it requires a lot of suspension of disbelief from the reader for this to work. Also, it has a completely unreliable narrator but I don't think all was explained in the end. Not sure if it was intentional, so we could be really inside Cat's mind or if it's just that the author didn't have explanations for every detail.

Despite all that it's a good novel, one I am sure will be talked a lot in 2021. Also, as I said, the writing is precious, so it's easy to get lost in the pages.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

A dark, creepy story involving twins, how they handled childhood and come to terms with that in adulthood. Full of twists and turns this gripped me from the start. A fast, good read.

Identical twins, Ellice (El) and Catriona (Cat) live with their Mum and Grandpa in a large gloomy old house in Edinburgh. The house has lots of nooks and crannies, lots of places to hide, and that’s very fortunate, because when the twins retreat into their make believe fantastical world of Mirrorland, a place of swashbuckling pirates and mean and scary witches, they need to hide on lots of occasions.

When the twins reach adulthood, they have a massive falling out, and have no contact with each other whatsoever. Cat moves away from her twin and begins a new life in California. Then, some 12 years later, comes the shocking news that El is missing. Cat doesn’t think for a minute that El has really disappeared, she believes it’s another one of El’s games, and so she returns to her childhood home - to Mirrorland, something she never intended to do, because she knows all of El’s hiding places, and she’s determined to find her.

It’s difficult for me to review this one, because there were parts of it that had me really gripped, really wanting to discover what happened next, but at the same time, as the storyline veered off into the realms of fantasy (something which I don’t enjoy) I found myself skimming through. However, it has to be said, it did become clear as the story progressed, that there was a very good reason for the magical fantasy, and it then made complete sense. It was certainly unique, but not really my thing.

If Brothers Grimm and Ann Radcliffe lived in modern times and wrote a psychological thriller together, they would have written Mirrorland.

Two identical twin sisters, El and Cat, share a secret that instead of pulling them closer, pushed them so far that they can't even live in the same country together.

When El disappears, Cat finds herself returning to her previous life, where she had a sister. The biggest surprise for Cat is that all is not exactly as it seems, or not exactly as she remembers.
Did she forget what happened or was it simply her way of glossing over things she would rather not think about? The only thing that still prevails from her past is her intense and eerie love for her sister's husband.

When I started reading Mirrorland, right from the start I was pulled straight into the lives of El and Cat, which were filled with fairytales and pirate adventures. After all, being daughters of a pirate king is not a small thing. But why has he never come back for them? They had to live their strange lives with their mother and grandfather in a gothic Edinburgh house where their only play companions were characters from all the books they read with their mother and all the stories she told them.

This is a beautifully written book that takes you into Mirrorland filled with mystery and the oppressing dread of what the human mind can conjure to make people persevere with their lives. We never can truly say what's happening behind the closed doors of our neighbours' houses. Mirrorland is a story of survival and of the power of the sisterly love and how far sisters would go to protect each other.

If you love books with unreliable narrators that take you on a tour that ends up being a distorted image of reality, and which would make you gasp with disbelief at the very end, then Mirrorland is for you.

Mirrorland is dark, twisted, intoxicating, and compulsive. Follow the breadcrumbs of the mystery to see if you can, in fact, see what the ending brings.

It would be a perfect read for fans of Sarah Pinborough, Gillian Flynn, and Sarah Waters.

Thank you HarperCollins for my ARC via NetGalley.

Loved this creepy tale about twin sisters. Beautifully written, with believable characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an early look at this.

I found this book difficult to get into and found it pretty confusing to begin with. However as I got further into it, it became clearer what the story was. I did enjoy it but found it a bit slow and long winded. I thought it was a satisfactory conclusion. Well written but not really my thing. 3 1/2 stars from me.

This is a well-written and hauntingly expressed book. Unfortunately I found it not for me. The reading felt heavy-going and slow. I'm sure many will enjoy it though as reviews suggest.

Where can I start but Wow!!! Mirrorland is one of those stories that long after you've finished reading you know will stay with you. I really can't stop thinking about it.

Mirrorland is the telling of twin sister's Ellice and Catriona and their vivid imagination when family life got tough. After both siblings start adult lives, Catriona is forced back to her childhood home and now must relive her darkest days in order to set the truth free.

Immensely captivating, dark and heart-wrenching, Mirrorland will have you on the edge of your seat guessing the outcome until you've finished this twist and turn read.

Mirrorland is a captivatingly dark, original story about identical twin and the fantasy world they inhabited as children. The result is a brilliant blend of fantasy blurred with reality mixed into a psychological thriller. I’ve truly read nothing like it before. The writing is remarkable and the characters are very well-developed. There are plenty of twists that will keep readers guessing. Highly recommended!

This book was cleverly written in an adult fairystory style. Sadly to say it was'nt for me, I struggled with the whole concept of Mirrorland and Westeryk House until I was about 70% into the book.
Mixed with forgotten memories, deceit, abuse and make-believe the history of El and her twin sister Cat was brilliant. Added into the equation is El's husband with a did he or did'nt he question hanging over him.
The whole story was brilliantly put together but I did find my self totally lost in places. The other characters were not interesting enough and I found myself getting really frustrated with El. I thought the ending was too predictable and a bit of a let down.
Mirrorland is worth a read but is a little confusing.

A haunting, twisting, mystery where nothing is what it seems and reality and fantasy have fused. Cat returns Scotland after years of living in LA, when her identical twin sister El goes missing. El's husband is convinced she is dead, Cat is convinced she is alive. Cat and the detective must unravel the mystery. But all the characters are linked, and each manipulative in their own way. Positioned between flashbacks of an intricate fantasy world -Mirrorland - that the twins created when young, its hard to discern reality from fantasy. And what was the fantasy really hiding?

The fantasy element is intricately woven into the story and as a result I found it confusing at the beginning and hard to get into with two false starts. But it was worth persevering as the book is part mystery, part thriller, part tons of imagination and well worth the read. It is wholly unpredictable and the secrets of the story cleverly revealed. Its also beautifully painted so that even now I have its images imprinted in my memory. A creative, memorable haunting read.

Mirrorland.
I so very nearly gave up on this book! It started off so complicated, it made my head spin. There is this house, various rooms named after Pirates, Tooth fairies, and other weird beings, and always a sense of menace surrounding the two central characters, sisters Ellice and Catriona. I drew out the map of the house, filled in the relevant names, read five chapters and thought, no- too weird, that’s it!
After Christmas, I reluctantly picked it back up, and to my surprise, fell in love with this unique story of sisterly love and loyalty, shared terrors, and things of nightmares. It was such a compelling read, that I devoured it within the next two days, and have spent the last week thinking about it.
I loved the bravery of the young Ellice, how she coped with her cruel upbringing , Catriona used an alternative view of her world in order to cope with their difficult situation.
The book really came to life when the treasure hunt started. Clues were left around the house, in order to get Catriona to accept that her rose coloured view of their childhood was badly flawed. Who doesn’t love the idea of a Pirate and hidden treasure?. There are numerous clues and hints throughout the book, the titles of the books read by the mother are perceptive, but I didn’t pick up on these, until the end, when all fell into place. Other clues are painfully obvious, I thought the ending was so Shawshank!!
Preparation is the key theme, the importance of tinned foods, practice drills and knowing whom to trust. A very serious theme, disguised as a work of fiction. Loyalty and trust go hand in hand with betrayal, especially when you have been lied to for so many years.
I loved the justice of the ending, it was so satisfying to my mind. It may have been contrived, but it felt right. Unbelievable, but right, is the best way to describe it. It is a brave book, chilling and full of suspense. I shall remember this story for a long time.
A five star read. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in return for my honest review. I will post to Goodreads and Amazon when the relevant pages are open.

Mirrorland is a book that if there is such a thing as fairy tales for adult this one of them. Breath-taking and heart-breaking it's a book you will devour and not stop thinking about.

Mirrorland
by Carole Johnstone
HarperCollins UK
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, for this review copy. This is my unbiased review of the author's work and style. If you want plot lines and spoilers, please see the publisher's blurb and other reviewers' reports.
I selected this book originally because I misread the title as “Mirror Lands” a book about the Russian and Chinese Border lands. However, out of curtesy I felt I should read t and supply a review. Well, I will be the first to admit that psychological thrillers – especially those with horror aspects are not normally my cup of tea.
So, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself initially drawn both to the characters and the plot. In stock thrillers if there is a mystery then one is fed by the author clues some useful some red herrings and the reader can amuse themselves by trying to second guess the author. With a good author you fail with a weak author you succeed. I personally am happier to fail. In Mirrorland I failed, in that I got the ending wrong but primarily because I missed the clues.
Ms Johnstone’s writing is impeccable and her style evocative of M R James. I cannot say I enjoyed the plot because I didn’t. Maybe if it had been shorter, I would have liked it as a Christmas Eve story, but at this length I just felt the content of the story too worrying and not a little frightening.
All that said one cannot take away from Ms Johnstone her skill. So, my personal verdict is four stars, but for those for whom this genre holds an appeal it warrants five stars.

I found this quite difficult to get into. It is well written and very clever though and despite not being my cup of tea it will appeal to many others.

Where do I start? OMG this book had my brain in a whirl with its gripping twisting plot!!

In 1998 Ellice and Catriona are twins, as children they created their own world called Mirrorland. They both leave home as they want to join a pirate ship.

The twins are now grown up but have not been close for many years.

El has disappeared whilst out on her boat. She is married to childhood friend Ross and they live in her childhood home in Scotland.

Cat who is now living in California returns to see what has happened to her twin. She is adamant that El is still alive.

I loved how the story goes back to when the twins were young, living in their fantasy world where they were safe and happy.

This is such a gripping thriller, I felt like my brain was in a maze as we came to the ending, with me desperately trying to find the light of day!! I love a book where you have to concentrate or you will miss a vital clue!!

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Cat returns from America as her sister, El has gone missing in their hometown of Edinburgh. Everyone thinks El is dead but Cat isn’t convinced, she’d feel something wouldn’t she?

I wanted to love Mirrorland as it has some great reviews but for me the whole plot was just too slow and it seemed to be over halfway through the book before anything really happened. Also way too much fantasy for my liking. Sorry but this book wasn’t for me. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins UK and the author for the chance to review.

Mirrorland…first that cover told me about all the blows it would deliver. It’s dark, it’s intimidating and the abyss you’re staring at? Yeah, it’s going to pull you all the way under.

Not going to lie, I always wished I had a sister, but a twin sister? Shouldn’t that just come with a health warning, plain and simple? Your sense of identity is shrouded around being part of a pair. Mothers of twins the world over tend to dress them the same, do their hair the same and treat them the same. How to you break free when your treated as half of a whole?

The first chapter of Mirrorland is like walking through an eerie fog. Nothing is clear, nothing is recognisable, but everything feels more threatening. You know something has gone spectacularly wrong but just what is a mystery. Two sisters. The dark depths of the harbour. Blood. if you could have heard my heart and my breathing, you’d assume that I needed a doctor pronto! Whispered promises between those that are bonded through birth. Whatever happened you could tell that those they trusted now left them feeling like it was just five letter word.

Mirrorland has you turning those pages like it was the end of the world, well I suppose for two little girls it is. My brain was itching for the answers, needing to know more, feel more and it delivered with a sharp shock that was reverberated through-out my being. The story instantly grabbed my attention, and the details and writing has me wound tighter than a spring! The klaxons were going off in my head, the red alert was engaged.

From an opening chapter that certainly had me engaging my seatbelt to my favourite trope of the unreliable narrator, I knew this was going to be a hell of a ride! The themes investigated was cleverly executed; the obvious shockwaves through-out the community, past traumas and childhood experiences just added to the authenticity of the novel. When El goes missing after a planned boat ride to Anstruther (my favourite place in Fife) from Edinburgh, we get to experience a chain of events told through her twin’s eyes, Cat. She doesn’t for one second believe that she has drowned, even though the coastguard and the authorities are saying it would be impossible for to still be alive in the conditions. If she had died though, she would have felt it, right?

Mirrorland delves into family despair. A twin’s anguish and a husband’s pain. Kat’s stubborn resolve was intense and raw. Carole Johnstone, you made me feel in this one and that is just a testament to how incredibly strong the narrative was. The girls have been through a whole lot together and it made me connect to the plot and the characterisation more. Okay, so not all her decisions are good ones but she’s only human after all. We all deal with pain and anger in different ways. The book was everything I hoped for and more.

Mirrorland was a masterful work of art in pacing and suspension. Johnstone has lit a fuse and the impending explosion will rock more than your psyche. Deliciously dark.