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A review by abookwormwithwine
Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone
3.0
Book: 3/5
Audiobook: 4/5
Well this is a hard review to write. I went into [b:Mirrorland|54304146|Mirrorland|Carole Johnstone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616939598l/54304146._SY75_.jpg|68977004] by [a:Carole Johnstone|3008545|Carole Johnstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1612555956p2/3008545.jpg] very excited because I had heard it was a super creepy and shocking read. It was definitely both of those things, but for some reason didn't resonate the way I had hoped it would. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Katie Leung and I definitely had to listen to it slower than normal because of how thick her accent was. It actually kind of surprised me since she was supposed to have lived in the states for quite a while and I wasn't sure how true her accent was to the character and the point she was at. That aside, I did really enjoy the audio and thought Leung did a great job bringing this creepy story to life. She was also fantastic with all the different accents she had to do for other characters, and I was impressed by how well she did them.
Mirrorland is a slow burn which made me especially happy I was doing audio, and I really enjoyed the fact that Cat had to go searching for clues that "El" had left for her. Mirrorland was an especially creepy place that the sisters had created, and at times I did get a little confused and had a hard time separating this place from the present time period. I just think the mix of magical realism was done in a confusing way, and I wish it had been clearer to the reader. This actually might be a good book to read instead of listening to, and maybe you wouldn't be as confused as I was in parts. There are also a lot of parts that are very gripping and had me dying to know what was going to happen next, so it is a hard book to try to recommend to people. I would say if you like magical realism and the sounds of the synopsis that you should check it out, but also keep in mind that it does end up getting very dark and I would imagine it being triggering for certain readers. This is Johnstone's debut novel, and I will still definitely check out her sophomore novel whenever it comes out.
Thank you to the publisher and Libro.fm for my advanced listening and digital copies. All opinions and thoughts are my own.
Audiobook: 4/5
Well this is a hard review to write. I went into [b:Mirrorland|54304146|Mirrorland|Carole Johnstone|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1616939598l/54304146._SY75_.jpg|68977004] by [a:Carole Johnstone|3008545|Carole Johnstone|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1612555956p2/3008545.jpg] very excited because I had heard it was a super creepy and shocking read. It was definitely both of those things, but for some reason didn't resonate the way I had hoped it would. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Katie Leung and I definitely had to listen to it slower than normal because of how thick her accent was. It actually kind of surprised me since she was supposed to have lived in the states for quite a while and I wasn't sure how true her accent was to the character and the point she was at. That aside, I did really enjoy the audio and thought Leung did a great job bringing this creepy story to life. She was also fantastic with all the different accents she had to do for other characters, and I was impressed by how well she did them.
Mirrorland is a slow burn which made me especially happy I was doing audio, and I really enjoyed the fact that Cat had to go searching for clues that "El" had left for her. Mirrorland was an especially creepy place that the sisters had created, and at times I did get a little confused and had a hard time separating this place from the present time period. I just think the mix of magical realism was done in a confusing way, and I wish it had been clearer to the reader. This actually might be a good book to read instead of listening to, and maybe you wouldn't be as confused as I was in parts. There are also a lot of parts that are very gripping and had me dying to know what was going to happen next, so it is a hard book to try to recommend to people. I would say if you like magical realism and the sounds of the synopsis that you should check it out, but also keep in mind that it does end up getting very dark and I would imagine it being triggering for certain readers. This is Johnstone's debut novel, and I will still definitely check out her sophomore novel whenever it comes out.
Thank you to the publisher and Libro.fm for my advanced listening and digital copies. All opinions and thoughts are my own.