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A review by whovian_reads_books
Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone
3.0
(CW: Themes of domestic and family violence)
I found it difficult to give this book a higher rating, as for me, it lacked a lot of pace in the first half of the book. Understandably for a thriller there is often a lot of back-story, scene setting and character development, but I found the pace of this part of the story a little slow and long-winded. There are a lot of flashbacks in this story that just seemed to go for ever, and often had me scratching my head wondering “why do I even need to know this?” Sadly, for some of the flashbacks I still don’t know why they were important.
That said, the last half of the book was much better. I cried. A couple of times. I grew angry. There were times where I wanted to put the book down because it was becoming too much to handle, but didn’t want to because I needed to know what was happening. The MC, Cat - I found it really hard to like her at first. She came across as spoilt, self-centred, didn’t care for anyone but herself. El was no better - I thought she was a vindictive, smug little b*!ch who needed to be knocked down a peg or two... but then you find out why. You find out about the experiences that shaped Cat and El into the people they were, and your heart pours out to them. You want to wrap them up in a warm hug and tell them they are ok.
Plot twists? There were a couple. I kinda knew where this story was going from the start, but did not pick the ending. I think if the start of the story could have been bit more cohesive and less narrative, this could have easily been a 5 star read for me.
I found it difficult to give this book a higher rating, as for me, it lacked a lot of pace in the first half of the book. Understandably for a thriller there is often a lot of back-story, scene setting and character development, but I found the pace of this part of the story a little slow and long-winded. There are a lot of flashbacks in this story that just seemed to go for ever, and often had me scratching my head wondering “why do I even need to know this?” Sadly, for some of the flashbacks I still don’t know why they were important.
That said, the last half of the book was much better. I cried. A couple of times. I grew angry. There were times where I wanted to put the book down because it was becoming too much to handle, but didn’t want to because I needed to know what was happening. The MC, Cat - I found it really hard to like her at first. She came across as spoilt, self-centred, didn’t care for anyone but herself. El was no better - I thought she was a vindictive, smug little b*!ch who needed to be knocked down a peg or two... but then you find out why. You find out about the experiences that shaped Cat and El into the people they were, and your heart pours out to them. You want to wrap them up in a warm hug and tell them they are ok.
Plot twists? There were a couple. I kinda knew where this story was going from the start, but did not pick the ending. I think if the start of the story could have been bit more cohesive and less narrative, this could have easily been a 5 star read for me.