A review by bookishcatsavant
Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

4.0

Thank you to the author, publisher & Dart Frogg Comm for gifting me a copy of Mirrorland.

Mirrorland is a fantasy thriller (is there such a genre?) centering around two twin sisters. El is the “elder” twin born 4 minutes before Cat and has been the ruling sister of the two. As life would have it, when the sisters become adults, they grow continents apart with Cat moving away from Edinburgh to Los Angeles while El stays behind.

Cat is forced to return to her hometown however, when El disappears under mysterious circumstances. Cat is convinced El hasn’t disappeared and is only playing mind games with her. On top of it, someone’s leaving clues galore for Cat which sounds just like what El would do. With the police suspecting her, Cat must quickly solve her sister’s disappearance confronting skeletons of the sisters’ past, by revisiting a magical and mysterious world called Mirrorland, created by the twins when they were children.

Where do I begin? This book wasn’t like any thriller I’ve ever read...which is an understatement. The story was slow to set in motion but then it starts creeping up on you, and before you know it, it becomes unputdownable! Another thing that I found very unique is that normally thrillers have clear cut likeable or unlikeable characters. With this one, I found to change my opinion of the sisters, Cat particularly, a lot. Honestly this entire book was a mindfuck up until the final explosive ending, once I got past the very slow initial pages. I highly recommend Mirrorland to thriller fans who are looking for a book different from the usual norm.