Mirrorland: A Novel

This book started off very slowly with a description of something I couldn’t grasp right away. Two girls, twins, are running away from something bad. Then it fast-forwards to adulthood for the girls and Cat, the younger of the twins, has been in L.A. for the past twelve years, leaving her sister, El, behind in Edinburgh. The story is a bit choppy at times and goes back and forth from past to present and back again. What we know is that Cat has come back to Edinburgh because El is missing. She is presumed dead, but Cat knows deep down inside that she would feel it in her gut and her soul if El was dead.

Mirrorland has an air of horror about it. It is in Mirrorland that El and Cat are “safe” from Bluebeard and the Witch and other monstrous characters. It’s hard to tell if these characters are real or not due to Cat’s unreliable memory. I enjoyed reading this book starting about two-thirds of the way through when things became really creative and interesting. Carole Johnstone does a fantastic job of bringing Mirrorland to life and giving the reader a story with excellent twists and turns. I recommend it for fans of light horror and suspense.