Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone @scribnerbooks @netgalley #fiction #fantasy #bookreview

Kaceey’s Review:

Twin sisters Cat and El have been estranged for years. Living in separate parts of the world trying to put their past behind them.

Until El goes missing….

Cat quickly returns home to Edinburgh from California. She refuses to believe that something has happened to El. But the investigation of her disappearance is underway. Could El’s husband be responsible? A man they both have a history with.

I admittedly had a hard time connecting with this book. There were parts I enjoyed such as the actual investigation. But when the storyline switched to their playhouse of Mirrorland I found myself lost and confused. The book included a bit too much emphasis on magical realism such that I had trouble following it.  

There are a lot of mixed reviews for this book. I hope your connection with the characters and storyline will be stronger than mine.

A buddy read with Susanne.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an ARC to read and review.

Susanne’s Review:

Smoke and Mirrors, Fiction and Fantasy.

“Mirrorland” is a world created by Identical twins, El and Cat as children growing up in a Manse in Scotland.  It’s a marvelous, outlandish, and wondrous world where El and Cat could hide, safe from harm, even though it was inhabited by clowns, witches, and pirates.  

Call me crazy, but I personally would have been hiding from Mirrorland, not the other way around!

Once best friends, the two sisters had a falling out as adults with El staying in Edinburgh and Cat moving to California. Now however it’s too late to make amends.  El has gone missing and Cat must return to Scotland and the one place she swore she’d never return to try and find her:  “Mirrorland.”   

Cat’s apprehension about returning and being home is palpable and had me wondering if Mirrorland would swallow her whole.  Admittedly, her stepping foot into a room called “The Clown Cafe” was enough to give this gal pause.  

As the police investigation into El’s disappearance ensues, it becomes clear that all is not what it seems.  

Suspenseful, tense, and truly fantastical – there is a whole lot going on in this dark, atmospheric tale. While parts of this story involving El’s disappearance were truly gripping, some of the fantastical elements were a bit too much for me.  The ending however was stupendous!  

A buddy read with Kaceey that gave us much to discuss.

Thank you to Mimi Chan and the team at Goodreads, as well as NetGalley and Scribner for the arc.

Published on Goodreads and Twitter.