A review by mandikaye
The Mirror House Girls by Faith Gardner

challenging fast-paced

4.5

This was a quick read—I tore through it in one sitting—but it left a mark. The Mirror House Girls is one of those quietly unsettling stories that creeps up on you and doesn't let go. 

The story follows Winona, who, after a deep personal loss, finds herself renting a room in the strange and idyllic Mirror House. At first, it seems like a fresh start. A group of girls, a charismatic leader, a so-called path to healing. But the deeper she gets, the more off it all feels—until it’s clear this isn’t just a self-improvement community. It’s a cult. 

Faith Gardner does an incredible job exploring cult dynamics—not with big dramatic flourishes, but through slow, believable shifts. The portrayal of the girls’ gradual acceptance of the cult’s rules and language is both disturbing and heartbreakingly real. You can see exactly how it happens. The longing for belonging. The craving for structure. The manipulation wrapped in kindness. It’s all there, and it’s done with care. 

Simon Spellmeyer, the group’s leader, is quietly terrifying in the way many real-world cult figures are: calm, controlled, charismatic. And the house itself—Mirror House—is both cozy and suffocating at once, which adds to the creeping sense of dread. 

It’s brutal at times, emotionally heavy, and very hard to put down. A powerful, unsettling look at the psychology of coercion and what it means to be vulnerable. 

This one will stick with me.