Carole Johnstone has a pretty great writing style, she created a very vivid world in Mirrorland and the level of suspense that was created was just perfect.

Read my interview with Carole Johnstone HERE.

The plot of this story is a little difficult to talk about as it is a thriller novel with some extremely dark themes (check out the content warning below)

There was so much happening in this story from the very start, we begin at the Airport where Cat is just about to go back home after her twin has gone missing and after she arrives back to her old home, we follow her solving the clues left behind by her sister to figure out what happened to her.

The first half of the book is kinda slow though part two was where the book is where the book really started to get interesting as things start falling into place, with the truth of the girls past life is being revealed.

It is heart breaking to see what they and their mother went through in the past and you just kinda wanna keep reading to be sure that things will be fine for Cat.

I really enjoyed the treasure hunt since as the Cat keeps on solving the clues things from her past are revealed and we see what the sisters’ lives were. Mirrorland was also such a fun place full of the girls’ imagination and was their safe haven.

The ending was so messed up but I liked how things went down and as much as I liked the ending the very last reveal didn’t make that much sense to me.

Cat, was a broken character you could see that in her given the trauma of her childhood and everything that went down with her sister she is in a lot of mental turmoil, she is also emotional stronger than she is given credit for and I really liked following her perspective.

Overall this was a great thriller to read and kept me turning pages, I finished the 70% of the book in one day.

I would recommend it to anyone who likes to read thrillers but please be aware of the content warnings

Content Warning:
Domestic abuse, Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Assault, Emotional Abuse, Manipulation, Emotional Manipulation, Incest, Parental Abuse, Murder, Suicide, Death of a Parent, Death of a Sibling, Drowning.

Mirrorland perfectly captures Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Catriona’s persona. Since she narrates the story, the audience witnesses how the mystery unravels from Cat’s addled mind. She takes us with her back to the place where her trauma is the strongest, reliving painful events and then disassociating herself using her fantasies. Through the limitation of the first person point of view, the identity of the antagonists is perfectly hidden, and only through connecting Bluebeard and Blackbeard to the characters’ behavior can readers distinguish fantasies from reality.

I had a hard time with this book. I loved that fantasy aspect in it but at the same time it felt a little strange with the thriller tied into it. I also was not prepared for the abuse in the story. I guess that is what happens when you go into a story blind

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone is mystery thriller. Cat and El are twins who have gone no contact for years. Cat returns home when El disappears and is believed to be lost at sea. Back in the house she grew up in where her and El created Mirrorland. Cat must deal delve back into her history to solve the mystery of El.

This was an intriguing novel. Parts were great and page turning. Parts were confusing. Some parts dragged. Overall I think this was a solid novel. The twists were interesting but I never really found a character I really liked.

Three stars for a solid thriller, but I never felt any connection to the characters which meant I felt disconnected from the story. Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and Carole Johnstone for the free copy. This was an honest review.

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a mystery or thriller but after reading this, I am instantly hooked back on the genre. What started off a bit slow and confusing for me, quickly turned into a book that kept me on the edge of my seat, biting my nails and not being able to put it down until I found out the truth.

Mirrorland is a fantasy world created by twin girls, El and Cat during their dark and troublesome childhood. After 12 years of not speaking to one another after a big falling out, Cat returns to Edinburgh after her sister is reported missing. Is this actually the case or another one of El’s attention-seeking ideas? This is one of the many other questions you will constantly ask yourself through the book. The surprising twists will constantly keep you on your toes and force you to read on so you get every bit of information possible out of this book.

The suspense-filled story is written exceptionally well to the point where I couldn’t place what was real and what was a fantasy sometimes. With the vivid descriptions of Mirrorland and the grand house, it felt like I could be there, which was definitely frightening at times.

Overall, there are so many thoughts and feelings you will experience throughout reading this book, I was even holding my breath in parts. It’s an extremely gripping dark and suspenseful thriller that is sure to pull you into the world and make it very hard to get out.

Rating: 4.5/5

So, I have mixed feelings about Mirrorland. I love the idea and there are parts of the story that really grabbed my attention. My only thing is that this is a slow-burn thriller so there are a few times I wound up losing interest. Don't get me wrong though the story is great and I'm sure readers who love slow-burn books would absolutely love this story but I do kind of wish the pacing was a bit faster!

“A memory, after all, just like a belief, can still be a lie.”

At university, gothic fiction was one of my favourite genres but not one that I really read much of as part of my general reading habits, almost 10 years on. I am slowly discovering that there is such a thing as well-written modern, gothic fiction and this book definitely falls into this category.

This is a gripping story that explores the present, the recent past and the childhood of the two main characters: El and Cat. This ensured that the characters were complex and well-developed, though I didn’t find either of them, nor their love interest Ross, particularly likeable at all.

Despite this, I was still ultimately hooked on the story and wanted to find out what had happened to El, and what memories they’d buried from their possibly traumatic childhood.

This is definitely a dark story with some possible triggers, including discussions about abuse and suicide. I felt like these topics were handled well by the author.

The ending was unexpected for a number of reasons and rounded things off quite neatly, which I also didn’t expect.

Overall, this has been a dark and dramatic book that is quite addictive and definitely intriguing.

Good Night To Read Review

Scottish writer Carole Johnstone’s debut psychological thriller is devilishly clever and mind melting. Disturbing and intriguing, it is a slow burner that deliberately sets out to confuse the reader through the voice of an unstable narrator. So twisted and absorbed with an invented world entered through a secret door and created as a means of escape, it defies explanation until the reader is so discombobulated they are unaware what is real or imagined.

A tale of identical twins, it explores the trauma of childhood abuse and the dangers of obsessional, toxic love with the tension stretched as taut as a piece of string. It has a real sense of place with its setting in Leith and the atmospheric scenes by the docks where you can smell the briny sea. The forbidding house located at Westeryk Road is a character in itself with its maze of rooms and array of bells. It opens with a map that invites the reader inside. As Cat searches for her sister Ellice, convinced that she is still alive, spurred on by mysterious messages, she takes part in a terrifyingly crazy treasure hunt which unlocks painful memories. Spiralling down a rabbit hole of self denial, she struggles with addiction, guilt and PTSD.

Her fear is further ignited by sinister discoveries and a realisation that she is her own worst enemy. Trapped in the past can she free herself to live in the future? Is her sister’s husband Ross part of the problem or the solution?

The series of flashbacks into Mirrorland is further heightened by Johnstone’s slick use of literary intertextuality which is a clue in itself with references to Shawshank, The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities and other key texts the twins’ mother shared with them when they were children. Were the strange characters who populated Mirrorland real or invented? Why does Cat have memories of Blackbeard, Bluebeard and a witch?

Mirrorland presents infinite mysteries to the reader with more twists and turns than a complicated corkscrew. With echoes of Rebecca, it’s a deeply unsettling read but there is no doubting Johnstone’s narrative skill and deft use of tropes.

Book Chocoholic Rating- 4 Chocolate Libraries
Thanks to #Net Galley for making an ARC available and @The_WriteReads @WriteReadsTours @ScribnerBooks @C_L_Johnstone for including Good Night To Read in their ultimate blog tour for #Mirrorland.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Title: Mirrorland
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Author: Carole Johnstone
Publisher: Scribner (April 20, 2021)
Length: 320 pages
ISBN13: 9781982136352

This book was an interesting read- not my normal genre type (and i have a wide range). There was a lot of fantasy in it that I was not expecting. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Yikes … what a story. As a blogger I crave a unique storyline and this is what I got with Mirrorland.

Twins Cat and Eli invented an imaginary place called Mirrorland when they were younger. When Eli goes missing Cat returns home where forgotten memories come back to haunt her. We also read of the girls in the past in Mirrorland.

This was a very interesting page turner that I thoroughly enjoyed. I kept reading as I needed to know more.

This is a well written story with plenty of twists and turns. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

The Characters:
This book follows Cat as she travels back from LA to Edinburgh following the disappearance of her estranged twin sister El, who she has not seen for more than a decade. Cat returns to the childhood home she left when she was 12 years old, where old memories are buried, and old secrets come to life. Cat begins to receive clues to unlocking the past, and potentially the mystery surrounding El’s disappearance, with everything leading back to Cat and El’s made up world: Mirrorland. Cat and El were both interesting characters to learn about, and I wasn’t always sure what to believe, from Cat’s memories to El’s diary entries, or who to trust. It was also interesting to read about Ross, El’s husband, who is someone both sisters have known for a long time, and who has secrets of his own. The characters were all really well written and I wasn’t sure who to trust throughout, which made for an interesting read.

The Story
It took me a while to get into this book but by the end, my heart was racing and I needed to keep reading. There was a lot uncovered in this book that I didn’t expect, especially as more of El’s diary pages were discovered. It got to a point in this book that I didn’t want to stop reading but at the same time I physically couldn’t keep reading before bed because I felt really stressed out and needed to go to sleep. As I mentioned at the beginning, this book deals with a lot of heavy topics, so definitely check those out before picking this one up. I had no idea what this book was going to be out or contain, and didn’t know where the story was going to go. I didn’t guess a lot of what happened in this book, so I had a good few ‘shocked’ moments.

Overall Thoughts:
This book had my heart pounding in my chest unlike any book I’ve read before. I was gripped by this book, although not instantly, but in the end I didn’t want to stop reading as I needed to know what happened next. At the beginning of the book I had no idea what to expect. There were some ‘fantastical’ elements peppered throughout that I was unsure of going into this book, which turned out to be really interesting to learn more about as the story progressed. At the beginning I really thought that this was going to be a fantasy/thriller book because of the different things mentioned at the start, but I wasn’t expecting the direction the story took – I don’t want to say too much as I don’t want to spoil anything! Overall I ended up giving this book a 4/5 star review, which surprised me as I wasn’t sure whether I was going to DNF this at the beginning or not.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for this arc to review.

I don’t know what to say about this book. I was lured in by the hype on Instagram but honestly, this book wasn’t for me. I was confused throughout the book and had to pause at times to try and make sense of what I was reading. Part one was the most confusing. The flashbacks to imaginary friends sometimes had me thinking what was real and what wasn’t. The characters weren’t unlikeable and sometimes it works for me but not with this book. Part two was better but still, it wasn’t for me. It was not a page-turner as I have hoped and read. All in all, I give it ⭐️⭐️

My review can be viewed at www.instagram.com/newbookmeplease and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3984479386

This book is full of unexpected twists and turns and really keeps you hooked and wanting to turn those pages.

I love stories based on twins as I love that twin thing that they do when they just know something isnt right.

Looking forward to reading more by this author.
⭐⭐⭐⭐

There’s something intoxicating and malevolent about this book from the very first pages. I was instantly drawn in by the opening chapters and in places. Charmed by the creative and imaginary stories of Cat and El’s childhood and but with a constant feeling that something sinister was lurking within the coming pages. Very cleverly written to play on a variety of emotions and send the reader’s brain into a spin, this is a unique and fascinating thriller.
The narrative is told over two timelines, childhood and now.
In the past we learn about the girls’ childhood home and how they create the ultimate imaginative games and spaces to play until their heart is content. In theory it sounds delightful and innocent but there’s a constant niggle that things are not all as they seem. In the present timeline El is missing, (presumed dead by everyone except Cat) and Cat has returned to their childhood home to deal with things.
The past and present are plaited together to create an intense story of family, revenge and grudges. Slowly in each timeline things are revealed to create an intriguing but intense thriller where nothing is ever as it seems. It’s like nothing I have read before and the second half really picked up pace and began to mess with me.

Twin sisters El and Cat are estranged, with El remaining in Edinburgh, even moving into their childhood home, while Cat lives in Los Angeles. As children they were inseparable, spending most of their time in Mirrorland, an imagery place full of fun and danger. When El disappears, Cat returns home, comforting the grieving widower Ross, a man both women loved. But there’s more in the house, including clues left behind by El, clues Cat must untangle to discover the truth.

Mirrorland is a really engrossing read, crossing the line back and forth between fantasy and reality, constantly making the reader question the truth and keeping them engaged, keen to find out what really happened between the two sisters. The story is full of twists, but twists that work and make sense, rather than feeling forced.

There were points where this book hovered around the 3 or 4 star mark for me, but ultimately the writing, plot and characters made for a solid 5 stars. Cat makes for a really interesting main character, the twin who, it seems, was always left in the shadows of El’s shining light. The quieter, shier twin, but someone who never quite got over the events that led her to leaving Scotland.

She quickly becomes entangled with her past once more, realising as she discovers El’s dairy entries, that she has forgotten more than she remembered. There’s a constant uncertainty to El’s perspective, and Johnstone uses this unreliability to keep the reader on their toes, allowing them, at times, to read between the lines and understand things perhaps on a deeper level than El really does.

We get hints scattered throughout the book, as El dives deeper, tries to untangle what actually happened during their time in Mirrorland. It’s handled really cleverly, and the story definitely has a strong, Gothic feel to it, a sense of horror and haunted houses throughout. In a really good way, it had echoes of the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. I really liked the unreliable aspect, the way fantasy and reality are blurred, and the way the reality is slowly revealed to the reader.

Cat makes some really not good decisions, but each one gets you deeper under her skin, learning more about her and the effect El and Mirrorland, as well as her mother, really had on her life. At times, she is flawed and unlikeable, and the story is that much stronger for it.

If you’re looking for a dark, twisty thriller that keeps you begging for answers, Mirrorland is here for you. It’s a fantastic book that I thoroughly enjoyed, and as always, I am so grateful to The Write Reads for including me on this tour, and to Scribner for providing me an ARC via NetGalley.

Thank you to Netflix for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I am so excited to be invited onto the book tour! Mirrorland is available now.
Mirrorland is disorienting and unsettling, the sort of book that will keep you up at night. It is a harsh book, but it is also an incredibly interesting look at the secrets and the horror that has hidden itself away in Mirrorland, waiting to be revisited.

The book follows Cat, one half of a set of twins. She’s hasn’t seen her twin sister, El, or her sister’s husband in years. Their relationship has gone from strained to nonexistent and Cat has avoided visiting her childhood home, only returning when she learns that her sister is missing. The police think El is dead, but Cat knows better. She would know if her twin had died, right? Plus, Cat suddenly begins receiving clues- the kind that El would leave- that lead her on a hunt for answers. But Cat might not like what she finds…

Mirrorland was unique in that, while I was sometimes left confused, it was done intentionally by the author. There’s a sense of uncertainty throughout the book that left me off balance and wanting to know more. I felt like I was putting together the clues right along with Cat. It made it hard to put the book down: I needed to know where the trail would lead next! I figured it out just a teensy bit before the big reveal and felt a huge sense of accomplishment when it turned out that my guesses were right. The suspense, though! I loved that the book moved at a breakneck pace, without giving the characters (or the readers) a chance to breathe.

There was a small cast of characters and their personalities were revealed in bits and pieces, left to fit together like a puzzle. I didn’t like Cat, the main character, all that much, but I can’t deny she was interesting. The author painted a picture of an unsure person who was desperate for approval. She waffled between anger, bitterness, and jealousy, which is always an interesting combination in a character. Where this book shines, though, is in its mysteries and how they’re revealed.

I do think I need to give a heads-up: this book is very disturbing. Enthralling, but disturbing. If you can handle a harsher storyline, definitely give this book a read. Mirrorland is a fascinating psychological thriller, one that kept me engrossed from beginning to end.

Okay, does anyone else feel conflicted about this one?!?

Don't get me wrong there was a lot of suspense, especially towards the end, but the first half was extremely slow for me. I struggled with the abrupt placement of stories from Cat and El's imagination from childhood in the beginning and I sometimes wondered what the heck was happening.

It was like this for about 60% of the book, but then I reached the last half and BOOM. It all made sense once we learned about the absolute tragic childhood of Cat and El. Once the pieces starting falling into place the suspense was full on!

If you are a fan of psychological thrillers this will be a perfect read for you. If you enjoy completing 1000+ piece puzzles then this book is for you.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review.

The stories we’re told as children often have, at their heart, a lesson, or a darkness that that has been diluted, made easier to digest. Johnstone’s Mirrorland takes both these elements for her central elements, creating a modern thriller which taps into the fears and dangers of childhood. When Cat learns that her twin sister, El, is missing, she returns to the childhood home they fled 12 years earlier in order to support El’s husband, Ross, in the search. It’s clear from the outset that the girls had run away from this home all those years earlier, and Johnstone does an excellent job of slowly feeding us information about Cat’s past.

What I particularly loved about this read, the many twists and turns aside, was the layers of narratives the girls and their mother have created for themselves as Cat and El grew up. Captain Henry, The Tooth Fairy, clowns, Andy Dufresne, and Bluebeard all feature in the girls’ childhood stories. The house itself, ‘Mirrorland’, becomes a character in itself, becoming a space of both imaginative escape and fear. On her return, Cat learns, much to her surprise, that El and Ross chose to buy the house back when it came on the market and it is where the grown-up version of their childhood games will now play out.

And let’s just talk about those twists and turns – without actually talking about those twists and turns! Man, this is tense at times – the issue with stories is that you never quite know whose story to believe, but you know the narrative has a reason, a point to it, and this is another strand Johnstone does so well. Like Cat, you’re forced to become sleuth, to piece things together, and it all makes for a very gripping read. Highly recommended for all those who like their stories dark and twisted.

ONE-SENTENCE REVIEW:
Dark and imaginative; Mirrorland is a page-turner that will take ahold of you and suck you deep in its twisted world right from the start.

“There’s a monster in this house."

I usually avoid books like this. Books about siblings that I’m not sure if the siblings will betray each other. I hate siblings betraying each other. But this book was for a blog tour and for blog tours, I don’t really read the blurbs before accepting. Thankfully, I didn’t read the blurb for this, I would’ve skipped this one if I did. I would’ve missed this amazing book.

Mirrorland hooked me in right from the prologue. I was instantly curious what happened to the 12-year old twins, Cath and El. Then it opened again with Cath and El as estranged sisters and El went missing so Cath had to come back to UK, specifically to the house where they grew up and had another life.

The story was very addictive. It sucked me into its twisted world right from the start. Mirrorland itself was very imaginative. I wasn’t expecting it to be like that. In fact, I still can’t explain Mirrorland, except it’s a fantasy world Cath and El created when they were kids and somehow became this place of weird and evil stuff. Mirrorland (the place, not the book) is a nightmare. But it was very imaginative. It was genius.

Everything was confusing almost three quarters of the book but my confusion was one of the reasons I kept going. I wanted to know the answers and see what happen next. Most of the time, I don’t really understand what’s happening or where I am but somehow, I was too immersed in the story, I didn’t want to put it down. I did put it down few times because I buddy read this with one of the bloggers for the blog tour. Mirrorland itself is very confusing. You really don’t know what is it while reading, or the things and people in it. Aside from that, Cath is a very unreliable narrator. You just don’t know what’s real with her. Or is she even saying the truth?

As Cath unearth the truths of El’s disappearance and rediscover the secrets of Mirrorland, my brain felt like exploding the whole time. The clues that might’ve been El’s doings were very thrilling. It was so suspenseful as Cath deals with them. I enjoyed the intrigues and drama with El’s disappearance along with the relationship of the twins. It also felt sad knowing that the twins had a fall out and because of a guy. Ugh! the worst reason sisters should have a fall out. But since Cath is very unreliable, I was so intrigued and excited to know El’s side of the story. I couldn’t say I’m completely happy with the reveals but they were fine.

As for the characters…Despite Cath flaws, I still liked her character, not as a person, just as a character. I thought the book would read different if the narrator wasn’t like Cath. El…I ended up liking El more than Cath. For the most part, she was just a name but I liked her character even if most of the things I knew about her was through Cath and Ross’s words about her. On the other hand, I never liked Ross. I never connected with him.

At the end, I enjoyed most parts of this story. I really like it when all of my brain is involved in my reading. I was so awake when I read this. But there are some parts I would prefer different but still, I highly recommend this book to everyone who enjoy suspense and thrillers, drama and intrigues.

When I read the blurb of this book I was so excited to dive in to it. This is not my usual type of book and seemed an unusual blend of fantasy and reality. I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy it and found the unreliable narration frustrating and confusing at times. It is worth pushing on with this story though as the author gradually reveals all the reader needs to know...

Brilliantly written and well paced, overall I enjoyed this very dark and mysterious story which is ultimately about sisterly love and the power this has to help children endure anything.