My Review
I was so delighted to get my hands on a copy of this debut.
A different read for me in that it had a slightly gothic feel to it.
I really felt the hairs stand on the back of my neck quite a few times throughout reading.
I did find it to be a slow start for some reason but then a number of chapters in and it suddenly took off.
I am not sure did I ever take to the twins though.
Their characters seemed strange, almost sinister. Like they had a sisterly bond but knew nothing about each other.
The house I will admit frightened me. It was so creepy, even some of the names of the rooms scared me....Clown Cafe being one of them..
A house almost like Narnia but a creepy Narnia...
I think the author created a story where I felt nothing was as it seemed...
We meet Cat in this story. Her twin sister El has gone missing from a boat trip and having lived away from their childhood home for a number of years, Cat must make her way back.
Feeling slightly apprehensive about what lays ahead of her, Cat knows that her trip home will bring back up many memories she thought she had dealt with.
You do wonder does she know her sister as well as she thinks and that thought kept recurring for me throughout.
So very well worth your time.
This book has everything in it. Great characters, a good mystery, quite creepy and oh so very dark...You will definitely enjoy it...
Thank you kindly to author Carole Johnstone and her publisher Borough Press for my copy of this book. Much appreciated.

I really struggled with this one to start with and almost DNFd it. I found the parallel storylines a bit confusing and the childhood ones were strange. Once I got used to it, and found the rythym, it was better. I wasn't particularly enamoured by any of the characters, nor was I shocked by the ending - bits of it suprised me but the ultimate end was what I thought. Overall it was a clever story and it hooked me from about halfway....worth picking up 💜

Cat and El are twins. Actually, they are Mirror Twins – “rare, special, two in one hundred thousand” -, their mother would dress them in identical clothes so that when Cat looked at El it was like looking in a mirror. Their childhood was far from ordinary, living with their mother and grandfather in no. 36 Westeryk Road, in a house where each room had a name and they had created a world of fantasy full of adventures called Mirrorland.

Now in their thirties, Cat and El haven’t spoken and seen each other in twelve years, but when El suddenly disappears, Cat hops on the first plane back home. El’s husband is distraught, the police is convinced that El is dead, but Cat knows she is alive and thinks that this is just another trick of her sister to get attention. And when Cat starts to get emails full of clues, her search for her sister turns into a treasure hunt and she is forced to face her past and her childhood.

I really enjoyed Mirrorland. It is stimulating, engaging, intense, and compelling with complex and multi-layered characters. It is not always easy to follow the story as the fantasy merges with the reality and the past mixes with the present, but I found myself completely immersed in the world of Mirroland and its characters and in the story of the two sisters. As you read, you realize that Mirrorland is not simply a world invented by two very creative children and their mother, but the truth is much more disturbing and darker than you expect: how much of Mirrorland is fantasy? And, is El disappearance connected to Mirrorland? Is her husband involved? And why the two sisters haven’t spoken to each other for twelve years? The truth is slowly unraveled and it is completely unexpected.

Slow-paced, well-written, and carefully-plotted, Mirrorland is a twisty and thrilling story that will keep you hooked from the first to the last page. Highly recommended!

It’s amazing what can be created by a child’s imagination… but by doubling it with twins with that psychic twin intuition thing that only twins seem to have, it’s got to be something special. And Mirrorland is a pretty darn special place!

Cat’s return to the UK dredges up long forgotten memories for this grieving twin. The memories of happier times with her mirror image beside her and some Cat would rather be left in the past. I was intrigued what had come between the two sisters, why had Cat left with no intention of return?

As the investigation in to El’s disappearance developed, my mind began to mistrust everyone. Had El been the subject of a tragic boating accident or was something more sinister afoot? I was desperate for Cat to get closure but as the emails leading her on her sister’s treasure hunt uncovered more from the past, I didn’t know what to think. The past was coming back to haunt Cat but what was it hiding? The reminiscing that this treasure hunt instigated in Cat’s mind was fascinating. I didn’t know how much of Mirrorland was real – the twins’ imagination was brilliant.

This debut totally blindsided me at every turn. As the chapters gradually revealed what happened to El, I thought I had it sussed. But no, Johnstone totally pulled a magical rabbit out of a very twisted hat followed by a multitude of scarves that left me reeling as I finished. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I think this was beautifully written but unfortunately the story just wasn't for me and I really couldn't get into it. Gorgeous book for those who like magical realism.

Although this was a very original and clever plot it was also very complicated and made my head hurt at times. I'm not really a fan of fantasy and those sections of the book concerning the make believe world of Mirrorland were very confusing and also rather long. I wasn't keen on any of the characters and some were truly awful. I'm grateful for the opportunity of reading it but it wasn't really for me I'm afraid.

When El goes missing, sister Cat, returns home to discover the truth, the truth of what has happened to El and also the truth of their past.

This is a story with lots of twists and turns and lots of information from the past.
It took me a little while to get into, to get used to how the story of their past was being told. But once you get into this, you will get hooked!
Your gut will tell you one thing, but the facts suggest something else!!
This will keep you up into the night as you try to figure out just what has happened in their past and how that could possibly affect Els disappearance.
I found it quite a long read, but definitely worth it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and most importantly the author, for the chance to read this book, in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve read and loved some of the author’s short fiction, but this is her debut novel. Mirrorland is a corker, part thriller, part mystery with some gothic fiction thrown in for good measure. I knew I want to read it when I read the blurb. It sounded like the kind of book I’d love to get lost in. Thankfully, my expectations were spot on. Mirrorland is very rich and detailed and reminds me of some of the works by Joyce Carol Oates. I loved the setting in Edinburgh, Scotland, a town not far from where I live and somewhere I’ve visited many times. I have a soft spot for book set in my country. I also enjoyed the flashbacks into Carol and her sister’s past. This is a great book to get lost in.

Sadly I didn’t connect to this at all and dnf’d at 25 . I can see this working well for the right reader, but I wasn’t that reader at the moment. I’ll not be reviewing this extensively as it’s a case of wrong book at the wrong time rather than any flaws that I can put a finger on.

For some reason, this novel was totally not what I expected. Not that I am sure what I did expect- but what I did find was an addictive, breathless read

At one stage I felt quite overwhelmed and confused by the fantasy elements of the story, but , with hindsight, this is an important part of the story, where fact and fiction blur and only serve to show the depth of imagination and mystery in identical twins El & Cat's lives

Some of the storylines are disturbing, there is a lot which makes the reader feel unsettled but ultimately there is a great finish with all loose ends tied up neatly.

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone is a riveting psychological suspense novel with a cover that doesn't just hint at the darkness inside the pages it showcases it.
Catriona and Ellice are identical or 'mirror' twins who their mother always called rare and special. As adults they aren't close as they previously were. Cat returns to their childhood home due to the news of El being missing-presumed drowned by either suicide or a sailing accident. Cat feels El is still alive as she feels she would just 'know' if her mirror twin was gone.
Their childhood home is now El's home with her husband Ross. Cat arrives back to the place that was their 'Mirrorland'. Their own safe space that they boarded ships and they created their own characters such as pirates, clowns , a witch and tooth fairy. They sailed the high seas and had adventures like no other. Carole Johnstone has nailed it with the imagery that is evoked with her descriptions of these girls highly detailed and complex imaginary world. I can just picture them playing out the scenes together.
Cat tells the pice she doesn't think El is dead as she would most certainly feel it as a twin. She tells the police, she in convinced that El is not dead, believing that she would somehow know if she were. This seems to become more and more likely as she begins to receive emails directing her to revisit parts of their fantasy world and seek out clues clearly left for her. Everything starts spiralling out of control as she revisits Mirrorland and is pulled back into the past of their imaginary world that exists for those who know where to look for it.
A stunning novel that pulls you into the girls fantasy world of the past and also runs with the police investigation of the present. A psychological suspense thriller that begins to appear out of the fantasy. As things from the past start to slowly unravel it shows not all is as it seemed then and the way in which you see certain people alters.
A multi-layered story that is a dark and really twisted one. The ingenuity of Carole Johnstone is crystal clear. The skill upon which she has crafted this plot is undeniable. As the book begins it makes you wonder what you are actually reading but she pulls you in with each individual plot thread and certainly pulls everything together to reveal this atmospheric, clever, moving but at times horrific story. The characters are really believable and the twins relationship is a difficult one and Carole Johnstone has depicted that so well.
A book that I feel my review does not even do justice to, but I have tried!
Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on this tour, Carole Johnstone and Netgalley for my copy of the book.

https://lynns-books.com/2021/04/22/mirrorland-by-carole-johnstone/
3.5 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review : This was a mixed experience

Okay, here’s the thing, I actually enjoyed this, it’s quite a compelling read, unusually dark, twisted and, well, strange.

For the avoidance of doubt this is a thriller. Two identical twins, one of them missing, suspected drowned in a boating accident. El and Cat haven’t spoken for years, they were so close as children but past events have driven them apart and they haven’t seen each other for quite some time. With El’s disappearance Cat returns to her childhood home, something of a gothic monstrosity that holds many unusual memories. She never expected to return and although her visit is at first a little on the reluctant side she soon enough finds herself becoming embroiled with the investigation, especially once she starts to receive strange threats and even stranger secret clues.

Now, I can’t really talk about the plot because it would be so easy to give things away so this is probably going to be a little bit of a teaser of a review.

Where to begin. Let’s start with the characters. So, obviously Cat plays a key role, El is absent but through flashbacks to the two’s childhood we gradually build up a picture of their relationship and trust me when I say their childhood was not the most straightforward. Ross is El’s husband, handsome and charismatic, distraught about his missing wife and anxious that the police are about to give up the search. Now the thing here is there’s a ‘history’ between these two – but I won’t say more. We also have a few peripheral characters, friends to El before she went missing that serve to illuminate that maybe everything in the marriage was less than perfect. Gradually, we start to build up a picture and it’s a little bleak.

Setting. This is where things become a little bit surreal. We do spend the majority of the time in the girl’s childhood home, a lot of that time in particular through flashbacks and it can feel a little surreal. Let me be clear, this is not magical realism – or at least it isn’t in my mind – what this is about is escapism and childhood imagination working overtime to block things out (although clowns?). On top of this there’s a certain aspect of unreliable narrator taking place here not to mention some squashing of memories which helps to spin an overall sense of confusion.

In terms of criticisms. I think that there is definitely an element of feeling confused at certain points with this one, part of that is there is also an element of busyness and part is the slow reveal of things past and present. On top of this there are certain aspects to the story that definitely made it difficult for me to connect to a couple of the characters.

All that being said, I did enjoy this. It was a quick read, it was gripping and original and undeniable twisted.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks, the above is my own opinion.

Carole Johnstone has written a cracking story set in an imposing gothic house in Edinburgh.

Ellice and Catriona, El and Cat, are estranged identical twin sisters. When they were nineteen, something happened that caused an irreparable rift between them, resulting in Cat leaving 36 Westeryk Road, the old Gothic house in Edinburgh where they grew up, and heading for a new life in Los Angeles. They haven’t spoken to each other since, and Cat hadn’t planned on ever going back. That is until a shocking and unexpected phone call changes everything.

Now, Cat is back at her childhood home, trying to sort out her feelings, after El's husband, Ross relayed the news that El had gone out sailing in her boat and never returned. Ross is trying to find her, though the authorities have reason to believe that she had an accident at sea and drowned. Cat does not accept that El is dead. As children, they shared a connection with each other, and Cat is certain that if something terrible had happened to her twin, she would have felt it.

Mirrorland drew me into the original and creative plot and it soon became very difficult to put down. It is a very atmospheric tale, exceedingly creepy and Carole Johnstone adeptly merges the childhood fantasy of Mirrorland with the nightmare of the present day. With an intense claustrophobic tone, as the truth gradually emerges it’s shocks galore and some of the revelations are brutal. A novel of childhood fantasies and their causes and impact on adulthood, as well as family sacrifice, deception, and subterfuge it’s grippingly tense and unsparing and the final twist is excellent. Mirrorland is a humdinger of a psychological thriller, so steel yourself and take a leap in.

I read Mirrorland in staves with other Pigeonholers as part of a group. A special thank you to Borough Press, Carole Johnstone, NetGalley and The Pigeonhole for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request. This review is my unbiased opinion.

Actual rating 2.5/5 stars.

Cat and El are twins who were once as close in body and soul as they were in looks. But that was a long time ago, and Cat moved far away for twelve long years without once coming back. Now, however, she has been forced to. El has disappeared and the police are involved in hunting for her body. Cat thinks El is still out there somewhere, still playing games with the sister she dominated over, after all this time.

I remained sucked into this thriller throughout, especially as the concept of Mirrorland was introduced. This was the world of make-believe that the twins created to help them cope with the trauma of their home-lives. For me, the execution of this other world remained a little confusing and I might have perhaps preferred the focus to remain on the real-world, even if the chronological order continued to skip from childhood to present-day. I guessed at one of the major reveals but remained invested and intrigued with the events unfolding, regardless of this.

Woah! This book is amazing! It was such a wild ride I don't even know how to describe what I just read!

Ok so I'll admit, the first 10% of this book had me struggling. I was confused and found it slow. But a few people told me to stick with it and I'm so glad I did because by the halfway mark I was gripped!

Ellice and Catriona are mirror image twins, special, they have a connection. As children they invented wonderful, magical places and games in their old creepy gothic house. They invented places like The Clown Cafe and Mirrorland.

At first I think the story gets a bit overwhelmed by all the make believe but as you read on everything begins to become clearer and wow, this book goes to some dark places! I read the last half in an evening and my mind was blown!!

And that's all I'm going to say about that because really you're best off going into this one eyes wide shut. You won't have a clue what's going on for most of the book but that's all part of the craziness that is Mirrorland.

Carole Johnstone, I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Catriona/Cat is returning to her childhood home in Scotland from California after her twin sister Ellice/El goes missing, after going out on a sailboat alone. Catriona knowing El better than anyone knows she is just playing another one of her games.

With a dual time line you learn of their childhood at number 36 where they lived with their mother and grandfather. Retreating into the fantasy world of Mirrorland created in their imagination, featuring every child’s stereotype of clowns, pirates and witches to name just a few. But here they are safe!

Look beneath the surface…. you will discover toxicity behind every adventure, cruelty and betrayal behind love and nothing and nobody are as they seem.

This book has taught me a valuable lesson, never assume a genre isn’t for you. This is a mind meltingly, gloriously clever blend of gothic thriller with a dream ridden nightmare of the magical world the twins created. While at its heart it still contains a mystery and investigation.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall watching the author plot this book. I hope she has shares in the post it note company. It’s so brilliantly executed that you really have to pay attention to even the smallest of details. The clues are masterfully hidden if you care to look for them. So for this to be a debut is as mind melting as the story itself. An author to watch!

Thrillers have always been one of my favourite genres but lately none have really held my interest long enough. That was until I read this unsettling and extremely cleverly written book. This is such a hard book to review due to possible spoilers!

The mix of present and past events works perfectly to make this a twisty and highly imaginative story. It starts off quite slowly but it is needed to get enough background to set the scene for the shocking events that await you deeper into the book. My brain was at times thinking, what the HELL is going on? It is baffling at times but when it all comes together - WOW!

This is one very complex, layered, dark, atmospheric thriller that has a lot of information for your brain to process but its worth all the puzzlement.

Thank you to @theboroughpress & @netgalley for letting me read the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I couldn't put this dow. It took me a while to get into but it kept drawing me back. It's about twins, but not just any, special twins who are mirror images of each other Cat and El. They have a fantasy world called Mirrorland which they escape to through a door in their pantry. Their mum reads them stories and makes them afraid of the Tooth Fairy and Bluebeard the pirat e as well as the Witch. They bring in a friend called Ross who lived next door but is all as it seems? And which is make believe and what is reality?
Cat has been living in America for 12_years and comes back when El goes missing from her boat, presumed dead. This brings up demons from the past that Cat cant/won't face. There are lots of twists and turns in this and the ending is a complete surprise so unexpected.

Many thanks to Net galley and the publishers for letting me read this will be recommending to friends and family

As soon as I heard about this book I was desperate to read it and an endorsement from Stephen King - consider me totally on board!

Ellice and Catriona are twins but not just any old type, they are mirror twins which are very rare and very special according to their mum. We meet the twins as they wait at the docks for a pirate ship to come and rescue them and so begins a detailed journey into their highly imaginative childhoods and the consequences as they become adults.

I'll admit to struggling with this book initially as it does concentrate on the twins imagined play world called Mirrorland. A place so intricately imaginative it is hard to work out what is real and what isn't, something that Cat struggles with when after 12 years in California she is faced with returning home to Scotland after Ellice (El) goes missing. Mirrorland is inhabited by the terrifying Blackbeard, an evil witch and a creepy tooth fairy amongst others. A lot of the time it does not seem like a fun place to be at all! There is a good reason for the reader to have a glimpse of the girls history as things begin to make more sense the more you explore.

Although evidence suggests otherwise Cat is convinced that El is alive, she thinks she would feel if anything had happened to her. Even after having a massive fallout years ago she refuses to accept her sister may be dead. She then begins to receive clues around their family home...what will the treasure be at the end and who has set them?

I loved how dark this novel was and I was absolutely gripped once I'd got a handle on the "fantasy" element of it. I was left agog so many times and did not see which way the story was going to go at all.

A fantastic debut and I look forward to what's next from this author!

This was fab. Honestly that’s all I really need to say but netgalley has a word count I have to reach so I’ll say more...

I’ve read a lot of thrillers (a LOT) and sometimes they’re a bit predictable, or implausible, or just boring. This was none of those things. There are twists upon twists. I’ll admit I predicted one of the final twists fairly early on but then thought I was wrong after a few reveals- and then was proved right!- not that I was expecting to be proved right.

I adored the use of the twins’ imaginary play in the novel. Their world of “Mirrorland” was so well fleshed out and actually brought back a lot of memories of the games I used to play with my friends as a child. But their Mirrorland was hiding many, many more dark secrets than my own imaginary world ever could. Absolutely would recommend this one.