Cat and El are special, identical twins. When El disappears and is presumed dead, Cat reluctantly returns home.

For the first few chapters I was confused – I could not distinguish reality from fantasy. Bingo! Neither can Cat! Then the rollercoaster ride began. I LOVED the descriptions of Mirrorland and how the twins spent their time there.

I quickly became engrossed in the plot and there were several reveals that I did not anticipate.

It is a dark story that’s filled with beautiful fantastical descriptions of love, friendship, family, betrayal and terror. The blurring lines of fantasy and reality, what we wish and believe to be true against what really is, reminds us that nothing is ever as it seems. You can’t trust yourself and you definitely can’t trust those you love.

And…I REALLY enjoyed the ending. It couldn’t have ended any other way!

#netgalley #mirrorland #carolejohnstone #harpercollins

I really enjoyed this psychological thriller. Quite different to the norm and although I had my suspicions as to how it would end, I still wasn't sure.

Cat's twin sister Ell has vanished, presumed drowned in her yacht off the coast of Edinburgh. Cat returns to Edinburgh, to the house they grew up in, and has to face their complex past - including their childhood hideaway of Mirrorland. The stories they told themselves are a mixture of fantasy and reality, but what are they based on? What's true? Who are the monsters?

I found this quite hard going, to be honest. It's twisty and dark, but some of the phrasing was hard to grasp and keep straight in my head. I'm glad I persevered though, because the ending was really clever. It's also a story of healing from trauma, and of what people tell themselves to get through hardship. Cat isn't always the most sympathetic of characters, but as Cat and Ell's story becomes clearer it's easier to sympathise with her. Ell remains something of a mystery throughout the novel, although the ending does resolve that somewhat.

Overall, worth reading - especially if you like psychological thriller type books.

A very clever and well written psychological thriller which has the reader's perception of the truth constantly changing throughout. Merging and revealing childhood games vs reality, both in the past and present, made for a very complex story with challenging characters... But which are real and which are imagined?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and would definitely give 4.5 stars if I could. However in the final section I found my enjoyment waning a little (but not disappearing!), as revelations continued again and again each time everything felt resolved. If the book had finished 10% ish before the end it might have been 5 stars for me. Having said that, the final plot does have me admiring the author's cunning to craft such complexity.

I will certainly be recommending this book to a lot of people!

This is a strange but powerful book. I'll be honest, I struggled with it initially, but the further I got the more I understood it, and the more I loved it. So, what do we have?

El goes missing while sailing off the coast of Scotland one day, and her estranged twin sister flies back home from LA. Now, with hindsight, I realise I made a mistake picking this book up when I did purely because it's only a couple of months since I read a book about a twin sister who goes missing in Paris and her slightly estranged sibling flies in from California. They're very different stories, but on some level, I suspect I couldn't help comparing the cold Scottish with the glamourous vices of club DJs in Parisian catacombs. So that one's on me, and it may also have meant I was less receptive to Mirrorland's early strangeness. Because entwined with the story of the police investigation and coastguard search, we had a fantasyland (Mirrorland) they created as young children. And I just found myself wondering about it all. Okay, their pretending to be pirates as children might somewhat explain the adult El's interest in sailing but it mostly seemed like slightly random filler during a pleasant but not exactly inspiring investigation into a missing person.

And then things started to click into place and the whole story morphed into something rather amazing. This is a love story to literature and imagination. The shelter that we can find in its escapism during trying times. As its first life ended, the second life blossomed, and as the story unravelled, it showed a third life too.

Yes, that random filler I was trudging through ended up revealing itself as a sophisticated and essential aspect of the whole story. For a world of imagination, it actually makes the rather fantastical reality seem plausible and realistic. It's a truly clever piece of writing that I can't help but admire.

The plot twists and turns, revealing countless horrors (this book has more trigger warnings than a rifle range) and slowly uncovering yet more lies and deceptions. Every time I thought I had this figured out something else was thrown at me. The fantasy of Mirrorland creates a thick fog of confusion, a subtle questioning of reality that fits the themes of the book so well. The more I view it with hindsight the more I see the nuances that elevate this so highly. Johnstone doesn't tell a story - she crafts it masterfully.

If you've ever truly got lost in a book, this is a book to set sail on once more. I enjoyed my voyage, and look forward to drifting away once more.

Wow! I do love a good thriller and this book kept me on the edge of my seat!
Very well written and the plot was great.
Those who want a good read you really need to read this book.

The premise of Mirrorland really is out of the ordinary. It plays on the theme of twins having a secret way of communicating and living in their own special world but that’s only the half of it. From the blurb, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect, whether what I was about to read contained some element of the supernatural or fantastic. It turns out that Mirrorland is a gripping exploration of how reality and memory and fantasy can become intertwined so that a troubled mind can’t distinguish them.
I really like the Edinburgh setting, at once gentrified and sordid. Having Cat return home from LA after 12 years provides a neat way of describing the environment by what has changed and what has not. And the house at 36 Westeryk Road appears to have changed not one jot.
It’s clear that El and Cat experienced something traumatic there as children but the details are kept close, carefully parcelled out for maximum impact. When I thought I understood the extent of what they had endured, another layer of horror was revealed and I was led another step down the dark staircase. Never mind the baddies in Mirrorland, there are plenty of monsters up top in the real world.

'I wasn’t there when my sister died. Because she isn’t dead.'

I finished Mirrorland earlier this week and I can’t stop thinking about it! An exploration of memory, trauma and the power of imagination, this exceptionally crafted debut novel is dark, twisty and utterly gripping.

'The most dangerous stories are the ones we tell ourselves.'

The story follows Cat who is forced to return to her childhood home in Edinburgh when she finds out that her twin sister has disappeared. As she attempts to untangle the mystery of El’s disappearance she’s also faced with the demons of her past, haunting her from within the walls of the house she grew up in, a house of curving shadows and crumbling grandeur. And underneath the house is Mirrorland: a vivid make-believe world the twins created as children. A world of darkness but also a place of escape...

'Perhaps everyone’s childhood memories are the same: part truth, part fantasy. '

Carole Johnstone masterfully blends the fantastical with reality, making us question what is real and what is an invention from the twins childhood. The past and present collide as Cat unravels the mysteries and secrets from her ‘first life’ that she has suppressed. The portrayal of memory throughout the book is fascinating, how we can misremember and choose to forget.

The characterisation and relationships are phenomenally written. The intensity of Cat and El’s childhood bond is fierce and unsettling. They love each other, but there’s an underlying cruelty and darkness ever-present. Their relationship with Ross, El’s husband and a childhood friend, is complicated and volatile. Their mother is paranoid and sharp, but is also playful and full of love. There are no simplistic characters in this story, each is multifaceted and complex, making the narrative rich and thrilling.

'It’s easy to be tricked. Especially if you want to believe it.'

Atmospheric, captivating and haunting, Mirrorland will stay with me for a long time.

I was immediately gripped from the prologue. What happened to the twins when they were children? Why are they so fearful? El and Cat promised to stay together forever, but something happens to change that. Years later, El has disappeared and Cat has returned to find out what happened. This felt a bit like a modern flowers in the attic. Lots of fantasy mixed in with reith. It was easy to read and fast paced. Addictive with plenty of twists and turns and hooks to keep the reader interested. Loved it.

An absolutely blinding novel., Dark, claustrophobic, and tense. Everything that seems good and wholesome in this tale shows it's rotten core eventually and that's one of the things I found so interesting. A look back at what appear to be normal lives yet the further you read and the deeper you dig the darkness starts to seep though the pages and you won't be able to put it down. It's not a feast of violence and gore it's far more subtle yet so evil and twisted, well planned and executed that it's sure to be on everyone's "To Be Read" list.

I can only hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

A fantastic psychological thriller that will have you turning the pages. You start off thinking you know what has happened but you soon realise it's far more complicated than the story first suggests. This is a story of twin sisters, a disturbing childhood that will never leave them and a man they both love. Reminiscent of Gone Girl in the way it will have you changing your suspicions with twists and turns aplenty. Highly recommended.

The first part of Mirrorland is a little difficult to get into, however I’m glad I persevered as the second half is thrilling and kept me guessing and changing my mind up until the end.

A fantastic novel, full of twists and turns that kept me guessing till the very end.
Mirrorland is a psychological thriller/mystery I loved the unreliable narrator and the fact that there's a major twist toward the end

When I read the blurb for Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone, I knew straight away that I had to read it. It sounded so intriguing and different from what I had read before in crime fiction. But I was slightly worried, would the book itself live up to the exciting premise? I needn’t have. Carole Johnstone has written a really good debut novel, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Cat hasn’t returned to her home in Edinburgh for years since she moved out to America. The reason she has returned is because her twin sister, El, has disappeared. El’s husband is distraught and desperate for news, but Cat appears cold. She believes El is seeking attention and faking her disappearance. But things soon take a shocking turn for the worse. Is there a link between El’s disappearance and the game they used to play as children to help cover up a dark secret?

I was intrigued by the idea of Mirrorland, and I thought it was very creative. I wanted to learn more about the world El and Cat had created for themselves and what it really meant. What were they trying to cover up? When we are first introduced to Cat, I struggled to like her, initially. I couldn’t understand why she wasn’t taking her sister’s disappearance more seriously. It made me wonder what she knew about El that El’s husband and the police didn’t.

The mystery in this book becomes quite a complex one as Carole Johnstone unravels the secrets behind the game El and Cat used to play when they were children. There are some dark secrets which come to light as the novel reaches its climax. This is what makes this book such a dark and twisted read. Carole also explores what families will do to protect one another and what they are willing to do to make sure that their loved ones survive. It makes for some very intense reading as more secrets about El and Cat are revealed.

Mirrorland is an intriguing, original thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. If you’re looking for something that is a bit different in the crime fiction genre, definitely give this book a go!

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK Harper Fiction and Carole Johnson for the ARC of MIRRORLAND.
A complex, tightly woven story with a horrific treasure hunt. The atmosphere is very dark, a little depressing to be honest, playing on our fear of childhood horrors and nightmares; a story where it's almost impossible to know who is telling the truth. Extremely well-written and plotted. This is quiet horror at its best.

I really did not enjoy this book. I read a wide variety of books and I am very open minded. I found it to be very dragged out and far fetched and struggled to relate to the characters. I very nearly gave in and stopped but I do not like to be defeated by a book and I continued to the end. I was very disappointed and would not recommend this. The re-living of the childish memories of playtime and adventure and the whole plot was just too much.

A psychological thriller that shifts between present day events and a twin’s memories of her childhood. Initially I struggled to find my comfort zone with this but it did eventually become easier.
Trying to recall images and memories from your childhood can be difficult enough but when you include the complications and mysteries of the twins’ lives to date, the story becomes even more complicated.
Johnstone certainly succeeds in creating a confusing mish-mash of half remembered events that slowly become clearer as the story unfolds. At first this appears to be purely about the mysterious disappearance of one of the twins but then we enter their childhood world of Mirrorland and it soon becomes evident that their past was a tangle of terrifying events that must be fully relived if they are to be laid to rest.
The mysteries in this are compelling enough to pull the reader in and attain a level of suspense but, for me, events in Mirrorland were sometimes a bit difficult to follow – perhaps this was the intention of the author?
As always I yearned an eventual happy ending but this conclusion just seemed a bit too convenient.
Probably a definite read for those who like their psychological thriller to have that element of confusion built in.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Borough Press (Harper Collins Publishers) for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mirrorland is a smart debut. Twisty and well written, it has some of the most tense plotting and dialogue that I’ve come across in quite some time. It really does grab you such that you need to unravel the whole tale over a couple of chunky sittings.

It does however have some flaws. The first third is a little heavy with tales of childhood ‘games’, which later have context but initially come across as bordering on magical realism (which isn’t for me). Once I had a grip of where we were headed, I enjoyed the book a lot more. It also maybe takes the plot and it’s journey a couple of steps too far, but the ending very much brings the strands together.

It is a hugely enjoyable read and very sure footed. A rounded up 3.5*

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for an advanced copy in consideration of an honest review.

Took me a while to get into this book. The story had a touch of fantasy and mystery. Cat returns home from America as her twin sister El has gone missing and she refuses to believe she is dead. The story goes back and forth to the past and present and is centred round their childhood home they left as kids. The house called Mirrorland, is in Edinburgh and the book has the floor plan of the house with oddly named rooms. The house was Cat & El’s childhood home and she was surprised to learn El and her husband Ross lived there. Hard to determine what was reality as Cat slipped into the land of make believe as she goes on a hunt with clues that El has left. The writing is good and builds up to a good climax. Lots of twists and intriguing make believe character, Clown, Witch, The Tooth Fairy & Mouse. Interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this advanced copy of this novel. I found once I started this story that I could not put it down. It was a real page turner in the true sense of the word. Totally gripped from the first page to the last. Thank you for an excellent read, thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book.