Book Review: Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

If you love a book filled with twists and turns, you are going to love Mirrorland.

Goodreads Blurb

Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, 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 Ross.

But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which has scarcely changed in twenty years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past. Because someone—El?—has left Cat clues in almost every room: a treasure hunt that leads right back to Mirrorland, where she knows the truth lies crouched and waiting…

Review

Mirrorland is one of those books that I appreciated more after I finished and had the chance to reflect on what I had read. While reading it, I wasn’t too keen on the flashbacks to Mirrorland. It felt all a bit too fantastical to me and I was more concerned with finding out what had happened El. However, once I had a full overview of everything that happened, I truly appreciated these scenes and the subtle messages that the author was providing.

Still, the present-day scenes were my favourite. I enjoyed the character development of Cat, figuring out what kind of person she truly was. There are many eye-opening scenes that you get to go through with Cat as a reader and they are amazingly well-crafted. I also very much enjoyed Ross’s character development. Despite the reader never encountering him in the first person, the author provides a pretty good three-dimensional account of who he truly is.

The sense of dread that the author sets up is wonderful. With Cat’s thoughts and actions, the reader very much feels how alone and confused she is, putting her very much at risk. Pair that with the dreariness of 36 Westeryk Road and you have a book that can chill you to the bone at times, even when nothing much is happening.

Mirrorland sounds like your kind of book? Pick up a copy here.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.