A sad story about a very disturbed family. Inventive, but icky. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

A woman returns home to Scotland when her estranged identical twin goes missing. I always expect an Evil Twin, but they were both just kind of unpleasant. To be fair, they suffered quite a bit of trauma during their childhood and beyond. 'Mirrorland' refers to a place where they felt safe in their childhood fantasies, which the remaining twin must now go back to in order to figure out what happened to her sister.

The story didn't draw me in right away, in part I think because I found the narrator so off-putting, but I became more intrigued as the elements started to fit together and make sense, and the last section was a real page turner. A promising debut psychological thriller.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

This is one of the most twisty, different, and unpredictable thrillers I've read in a long time. It's weighty and thought-provoking with a strong sense of place and excellent character development.

Cat and El are what their mom calls "mirror twins" because their personalities are opposite. Their childhood reality was filled with stories of pirates and princesses and an imaginary world called Mirrorland filled with a wide range of rascally characters.

They’ve always been able to feel what each other feels, so when Cat gets a call that her estranged twin is missing, she’s sure she’s not dead or she’d know. When Cat begins to get scavenger hunt clues like old times, she’s sure that her sister must just be in hiding. Or is something more sinister afoot?

The author creates a real sense of place and character from the beginning. You can easily imagine the house where the twins grew up with its Clown Cafe, Kakadu Jungle, and Princess Tower.

The characters are real pieces of work. And when you discover their true natures, you find yourself with conflicting feelings. Have they made terrible decisions or are they justified?

There’s no way I would have guessed some of the twists of this novel. They really seemed to come out of left field. I thought the main story was over around 80%, but there were still far more plot twists left to unwind. I loved the very fitting comparison of some of the characters in the story to the characters in A Tale of Two Cities.

I feel like this is a book that I’m going to be thinking about for a long time to come.

This was my first time reading this author. The book held my attention and it was an interesting read. I would recommend this book. I will read this author again.

Mirrorland is a book where you’re thrown into the story. I initially had a hard time finding a rhythm but once I hit the 20% mark, I became very invested. ⁣
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After being estranged from her twin sister for 12 years, Cat finds herself back in her childhood home after she learns that El, her twin, has gone missing. Oh, and she’s in this house with Ross, her sister’s husband who she was/is in love with. Their mother did not let them watch television as children, limiting them to books, so through their imagination they created an alternate reality, Mirrorland. ⁣
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This book shifts between their time as children in Mirrorland, to present day with little to no warning. I have read some reviews where they said this book has a magical realism element, but I kind of disagree (although I can see where they’re coming from). I thought Johnstone did a wonderful job leaving hints without really knowing they were hints, until the reveal. I became very invested in Mirrorland, their childhood, what happened to El, and of course Cat and Ross.⁣
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Where the book completely lost me was the end. I thought the book was over. I was satisfied. And then there was another chapter, and then another, and then another. It felt like the book was never going to end. I kept wondering how many revelations could possibly be revealed? It felt like it was trying to do too much, and I didn’t find it effective. ⁣
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A lot of early readers thought this book was mind blowing, so if it sounds interesting, I say give it a go. This is a slower paced read, and dealt with some darker themes that I wasn’t expecting.⁣
★★★☆☆⁣
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Wow, what to say about this amazing debut thriller? I really, really enjoyed reading it and it flew right by! This is a very interesting novel of "mirror twins" Cat & El, who grew up in Scotland and lived in their own little "fantasy world" (there is a heavy "magic realism" element at play here). They grow up & one stays home in that house & one goes to Cali - but "Mirrorland" comes calling for them. Very atmospheric and creepy at times, this story really keep me flipping pages! Highly recommend. My thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the ARC.

Really enjoyed this book! It was filled with so many twists and turns, you must stay in track of the book by how fast paced it feels. I particularly liked the authors style, after only a few pages in I was interested. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this on exchange for an honest review.

All I can say about this one is HOLY HELL. I love a guilty pleasure thriller - the easy read #whodunnit - who doesn’t? This one is in an entirely different category. Think #KarinSlaughter, #GillianFlynn, and #StephenKing level, but almost better. This #psychologicalthriller #horror #suspense debut novel is an absolute masterpiece. Full body chills all the way through. I am mindblown and in awe of the brilliance of this one.

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This one hits bookstores in April, and you CANNOT miss it. This is one of the best books I have ever read in my life, and that is not an understatement. I am still recovering.

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The story follows Cat Morgan, as she returns to her childhood home following the disappearance of her estranged, identical twin sister, El. While attempting to unravel the mystery of El’s disappearance, a series of clues and anonymous emails under the subject line of “HE KNOWS” take Cat on a treasure hunt through memory lane, and as she begins to put into place the pieces of the past, the truth of her disturbing, dark, and deranged childhood threatens to return to her memory.

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In the house, Cat also rediscovers Mirrorland, the fantasy world of escape she and her sister invented to escape and mask the horrors of their childhood and home, and as memory and present collide with lies and truth, the line between imagination and reality is blurred, as Cat searched desperately for answers while trying to deny the truth she knows.

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Her unbreakable bond with her sister, their shared love for the same man, the mystery behind a cast of characters that haunt their every waking moment: the tooth fairy, clowns, bloodthirsty pirates, the infamous Witch, and more, are as haunting and terrifying as anything I have ever experienced, real or imagined.

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This is a #GoneGirl like plot that will leave you screaming in shock and your jaw dropping from start until finish. Absolute perfection.

This book was very interesting. It was all about a pair of twin sisters who were once very close in the past however they drifted apart and are no longer in touch. Then the unthinkable happens and one of the sisters (Ellice) is missing and presumed dead. This brings the other one (Catriona) back to her home town to try to find out what happened to her sister but also back to the fantasy that they once created as children. I was a little disappointed at all of the fantasy elements in this book that it took me out of the story and was not at all what I was expecting. If you like lots of dark fantasy with mystery than this thriller is your book to read. I however found this book had a little bit to much filler and it made the story a little hard to follow.

First-time book author Johnstone creates quite a story with twists and turns and head-scratching events. I suggest you stay very alert as you read, because the plot takes sharp turns and frequent swerves. The story bounces from past to present and back again, as we learn the life story of identical twin girls living in Scotland with their mother and their grandfather in a large mansion that becomes a character itself in the story. In the present, the twins are estranged, and the married one is missing and presumed dead. Stephen King's Shawshank Redemption story is quoted often, with its plot being used throughout the story. The story is a terrific mystery but is slowed a bit by the sometimes confusing plot. Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for providing an ARC.

I loved this book.! It had so much in it! Mystery, magical realism, psychological thriller, relationships, etc. This isn't a normal easy thriller read, you need to pay a little more attention than normal and it pays off to do so -it is VERY twisty and delightful to read.! If you don't think you like it at first because it's not your "style", keep reading, because you will understand why it is written the way it is as you read along and try to figure out who is truthful, who isn't, what happened to the twin girls when they were little and the people that were in their lives.. I think this book is beautifully and brilliantly written. It is a thrill ride!! I would give it 4.5 stars if there was a way to do so.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.. It was a privilege. I look forward to more novels from this author!

This book didn't grab me at first but did make me curious about where it was going. After the first 15 or 20 pages, I was totally engrossed and couldn't put it down. The twist and turns throughout kept me engaged and the ending made me both happy and sad.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This amazing debut novel opens with 11 year old twin girls cold, scared and alone late at night at a Scottish harbor in Edinburgh. All they will say are their first names and that they are waiting for a pirate ship. Twenty years later one of the twins, Catriona, is back in Scotland, for the first time in over 10 years. She is there because her twin, Ellice, has disappeared at sea and is presumed dead. Cat is sure that she would know if El is dead, even though they had not spoken in 10 years. She has come back to see what games El is now playing, because El was good at playing games and getting what she wanted. Cat’s search for answers takes her back to their childhood and the fantasy world of pirates, witches and clowns that she and El created in a hidden part of their house which they called Mirrorland. Memories which Cat thought were all part of their fantasy world suddenly become part of her current reality and in order to find out what happened to El she must finally face the reality of their tragic childhood, and separate out fiction from the facts she has refused to remember. Mirrorland is a modern day gothic where every page brings a new surprise. A surprise which will have you wondering what is real and what isn’t in this unusual, scary and surprisingly atmospheric novel which touches on horrible abuse, a mother’s desperate efforts to save her children, love, betrayal and above all else the bonds between sisters – especially twins.

A strong debut. Its an escape from reality. Mystery filled read with turns i did not expect. Would highly recommend reading .

This book did not hold my interest. Twins and one twin disappears. But I was so lost by the way the story was very slow. I did not finish this book because I lost interest. I was looking for so much more from this book. *This book was given to me for free at my request from Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review.*

This is beautifully written debut.....(combo/ infusion mix of genres) > stunning blend of literary fiction and mystery thriller. I loved the book. There are a lot of descriptions— (which often can be too much), but I found the descriptions in this book exhilarating, birthed from a wonderful imagination.
I WAS THERE...TRANSPORTED....into the different rooms > spooky, eerie, dark....with stories of clowns, witches, and pirates. What’s sooooo unusual for me is I’m just not a witchie-clownie-pirate type of girl. BUT THIS WAS DIFFERENT....( very different)... balanced with suspense...love...betrayal...revenge...and redemption.

Carole Johnstone is a writer to keep an eye on....her talent is spellbinding noticeable. An author I might compare her to is Daphne Du Maurier.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE STORY....[ but NO SPOILERS]
“Cat lives in Los Angeles, about as far away as she can get from her estranged twin sister El and No. 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing Gothic house in Edinburgh where they grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches, and clowns.
These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home,
or the fact that El now lives there with her husband”.

Cat returns home to the grand old house - after El had mysteriously disappeared after going out on a sailboat.

I loved the contrast descriptions between modern city condo living in sunny Southern California, (Venice Beach), and the grand old house, in Edinburg...with it’s landscape, windy swaying of the green orchard surrounding the mansion...
and the old house (a main character), itself.

At the beginning of the story, we get a photo of the layout of the house in the UK...
On the ground floor we see the kitchen, the pantry, the drawing room, The wash house, the exercise yard, and the orchard and grounds that surround the house.
On the rear end of the house,
there is a Princess Tower, The Clown Café, The Kakadu Jungle, The Donkshop, The Landing, and a bathroom.

THE OLD HOUSE .....LIVED LIKE A MAIN CHARACTER FOR ME

The story begins with the prologue September 5, 1998
An enchanting tidbit that tickled my pleasure bone right away was that El, was the nickname for Ellice.
I loved it.
With my name being Elyse...
I think I would have enjoyed friends calling me El sometimes ( god knows my name was dissected in so many other ways growing up)

Ok... back to our story...
I was hooked immediately!
Teeth chattering, bodies shivering, choppy waters, a loud splash, chilly winds, a sweater, a smell of blood?, a smile....
El and Cat smiled at each other. They said they would never leave each other.
“We will not leave each other”.
It was the day that their second life began.

I WAS CURIOUS....and/but....as I said before ‘because’ the descriptions were so interesting themselves ...( very creative storytelling)... I never felt rushed to need to know the final result to ‘the mystery’.... but OMG....I’m sure no reader saw that ending coming. I enjoyed being surprised....but it was the ‘entire’ crafting-storytelling I enjoyed.

So.....
After a long flight from Los Angeles to the UK ( lots of wine for Cat while on a seven hour layover)...
Cat is back home. She is greeted by Ross, El’s husband.
Ross was in London - when El took the sailboat out alone.
Ross, a clinical psychologist, was at a psychopharmacology conference. By the time he got back home, El had already been missing for at least five hours.

It was definitely odd - with mixed emotions—Cat being back in her old house - filled with childhood memories.
“The Clown Cafe was solely El’s invention: a richly imagined roadside American diner, with walls of red and white and glass tubes of pink neon. An Old record player was a jukebox playing fifties Elvis”.
As kids, Cat and El played in the Clown Cafe. It was their their favorite hiding places in the world—they played dress-up, made up stories, ate fried donuts.

As Cat looks around the house all these years later— many memories come strolling back.
Their grandpa was deaf enough that’s the entire house new every single football result by the end of a Saturday afternoon.
He listen on a radio
There was never a TV in the house only their grandpa‘s radio.
“Mum had many rules, but that we should read, that we could learn everything we ever needed to know in life from Books, was absolute and never wavered”.

Ross thinks El is dead. The search team thinks she’s dead. Cat knows she’s not.
Cat knew El ( her twin) in ways nobody did. Cat would have felt it — if she was dead.....(?)

A few facts...
....El hasn’t accessed either of her bank accounts since she disappeared.
....she hasn’t contacted anyone or turned on her phone.
....Ross found El’s passport exactly where it always is.
....El, Ellice MacAuley, was first reported missing by the Royal Forth Yacht Club’s Bomann at approximately 6:30 PM on April 3rd.

There are more few ‘questionable’ facts:
....El loved both her sister, Cat, and her husband, Ross.
....Neither shame or grief can erase Cat’s memory of El’s cleverness, her sometimes casual cruelty. Cat doesn’t trust El.
....many more ‘questionable’ to untangle.

There is an investigation. We meet Detective Inspector Rafiq ( Kate), and detective sergeant, Logan.

We contemplate Cat’s thoughts about El, often wondering if she has reliable character or not.

This is a very intelligent mystery thriller....very atmospheric & visual....
One, I think would make for a great movie.

A couple of excerpts:
“The house was more than old memories. It was like a museum, a mausoleum. Or a moment of catastrophe, preserved like a body trapped under pumice and ash”.
It’s where Cat, El, Mum, and Grandpa lived.
“I’m smiling as I look around at the wonky beige wood units. At the old boiler, it’s silver flue plugged into a hidden chimney that was forever trapping birds. Are used to listen to them, scratching and flapping, that sounds muffled as if they were underwater. Beneath the old hanging clothes rack, there’s a new Smeg fridge-freezer, an incongruent sapphire blue. I am beyond the towering Georgian window, with its many small glass panels framed with hardwood glazing bars, the old apple trees sit and sway”.

Bedrooms 12345
Every room in the house apart from the kitchen had a bell pull: a brass-and-ceramic lever connected to long copper wires hidden inside the walls.
Whenever El or Cat wanted to guess which room’s bell pull had been pulled by the other, they would stand inside the entrance hall instead.
“A rudimentary telepathy test that convinced no one because each bell also had a distinctive peal”.
They had their, “There’s a monster in this house”, games.

Towards the beginning of the book there was a quote by Alexandre Dumas from his book, “The Count of Monte Cristo” ( on my list to read this year)....
“When you compare the sorrows of real life to the pleasures of the imaginary one, you will never want to live again, only dream forever”.

5 very enjoyable stars
Thank you Scriber, Netgalley, and the talented Carole Johnstone

Mirrorland is a beautiful, complex and dizzying tale of sisterhood and coming to grips with the past via a rather horrifying trip through the present.

El and Cat – Ellice MacAuley and Catriona Morgan – were twins who lived in their own wild world when they were children.  The girls do not know who their father is – they are told that their mother destroyed her marriage, taking the twins with her to Edinburgh.

Alone, with only each other for company, the girls find themselves living in a sprawling, remote gothic estate with their mother and grandfather. The zone under the pantry stairs becomes ground zero for their wild pre-adolescent imaginations; they call it Mirrorland, a place where they can meet pirates, witches, and other fantastical characters. The intensely-bonded twins also bond intensely to the seeming fantasy of Mirrorland, and their inability to distinguish dreams from reality results in a fuzzily-drawn disaster when they are adolescents.

When they grow up, they grow apart, their estrangement solidifying them when El manipulates Cat’s boyfriend, Ross, a neighborhood boy and occasional part of their Mirrorland trips, away from Cat and into marriage with her.

The separation lasts for twelve years.  Cat escapes from the moldering world of Number 36 Westeryk Road and becomes an actress, now living far from Scotland in glitzy Los Angeles.  El never leaves, moving to the house with Ross.  But one day El disappears while sailing, and the investigation into what happened draws Cat home.  El’s medicated depression is blamed for her disappearance and she is presumed dead, but Cat knows something else is going on – and she assumes that El is seeking attention rather than intentionally trying to take her own life.  She starts finding notes – threats, really – from her sister scattered all over the estate, as well as her somewhat twisted diary.  They’re leading Cat back to the truth – back to Ross’ arms, which begins to reveal unsavory things about him – and back to the horror and wonder of Mirrorland.

Johnstone’s storytelling is an enrapturing, gorgeous thing, and she weaves such a transcendent adult fantasy that it’s easy to sink a full day into this book.  It’s an ugly, upside-down Alice in Wonderland cum We Have Always Lived in the Castle journey that’s suspenseful, repulsive and yet wonderfully alluring.  I could not put it down, even when the suspense had my stomach tied in knots. It’s a spooky story, and a unique one.

Cat is an interesting and slightly glamorous everywoman - haunted, tormented, creative, passionate, but very real and present in an unreal world.  El is more elusive - as well she should be – and their monstrous mother and jolly grandfather surprise at every turn; in several cases unpleasantly.  Ross seems the most devoted to Cat and El’s protection but – well, I will leave it to the reader to find out.

The reader will likely have difficulty untangling the fantastic from the mundane in Johnstone’s world, and fail to demarcate where dreams, delusions, fantasy and reality fork apart - which is just the way the author intends it. You will find yourself roaming the corridors of love, hatred and romance with her; you will see pirates, witches and clowns, and you will feel the awful, palpable fear that Cat goes through and suspect everyone – including her reliability as a narrator.  Mirrorland is an incredible place to visit – but you wouldn’t want to live there.  Thanks to Johnstone’s incredible sense of art, you won’t need to disappear into the cupboard under the stairs, however, to be transported.

Note: This book contains extreme violence and on-page rape and incest.

Buy it at: Amazon, Audible, or your local independent bookstore
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Cat and El are sisters in Mirrorland. Mirrorland is their safe, imaginary world.

The story starts with the twins found on a Scottish pier, alone, scared and covered in blood. We don’t know what has happened, but we know they are traumatized. The story then skips ahead twenty years, when Cat finds out that her sister Ellice is missing, and she has to return to her childhood home, which her sister and her husband Ross had bought and Cat has been avoiding for the last twenty years. El went missing while sailing, and is presumed dead. But Cat knows that she isn’t. The twin connection.

To make things more interesting, we learn that Mirrorland is a magical world that the kids would use as an escape from their very strange childhood--a very complicated, pirate-ship based world. There are imaginary characters and characters that you think are imaginary that may not be imaginary at all. I had a hard time visualizing what Mirrorland would look like—even with the floor plans included with the book. As the narrative progresses, Cat decompresses as well—she isn’t sure that her memories, and new memories that she is uncovering are real. Add in a very unwise romantic dalliance, and someone sending her threatening notes, and Cat is as vulnerable as could be as we reach the climax.

Even though things got melodramatic towards the end, with a grab-bag of tropes thrown in leading to a surprise ending, I still enjoyed this book very much and couldn’t put it down.

This deeply twisted, complex psychological thriller kept me on my toes! 12 year old mirror twins, Cat and El, showed up mysteriously on the harbor docks in Edinburgh, with no trace of a past that they’ll speak about to anyone. By 19 they were out of the system and both fighting over the same man - Ross. El won and Cat fled to America, vowing never to return or speak to her sister again.

10 years later, Cat gets a phone call from Ross, telling her that El is missing. Cat frantically returns to Scotland, knowing in the way only mirror twins know, that El has to be alive. Returning to their childhood home, where El and Ross now live, Cat begins a journey through her childhood that has been locked away for decades.

<i>Mirrorland</i> forces through the dark and twisted past of the haunted childhood the twins had with their mother, grandfather and Ross in their home. Each room has a name and a terrifying history. As children, the girls would make up games and treasure hunts for themselves. As an adult, El left one for Cat, to find her - to find the truth behind her disappearance and to help her remember what truly happened in their house on that fateful day, before they ended up on those docks.

Johnstone takes the reader on a fast-paced, haunting ride that is so gripping, you truly have to stop yourself at points and really think back because there are so many turns you don’t want to miss. This thriller is one of my first 5 star reviews of the year and I can absolutely see why it was on Goodreads top thrillers to read in 2021. I couldn’t put it down. And <b>just</b> when you think the roller coaster ride is over, you’ve got another whole set of hills to go!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for my honest review.