#138 Mirrorland

 Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone

Yet another great blog tour for @TheWriteReads gang! Thank you as ever to Dave, the publishers and the author for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. Boy oh boy was i sucked in by this one! The book follows El and Cat who are identical twins, at the beginning of the story we learn that El has gone missing whilst on a boating trip and that Cat is travelling back to Scotland from California. Cat is returning back to the home that she grew up in with her sister that El and her husband Ross later bought at auction. Cat had not been back for 12 years and the twins have been estranged in that time. We learn that Cat and El are mirror twins and Cat is convinced if something bad had happened to El that she would be able to sense it, she returned to find out what game El is playing and why she has dragged Cat back to where they grew up after all these years. 

We as readers are slowly fed drips and drabs of a place the twins invented called Mirrorland. When Cat arrives back in Scotland she is immediatley flooded with memories from the past and everything she ran away from. 

This is definitely a book to annotate and take notes for, it reads like a mystery novel as there is so many layers and things we need to discover. There are a lot of hidden details and meanings that you really need to take your time and pay attention to, the writing is so intricate and i really must applaud the author for how well thought out things were. I would find myself reading a part and thinking 'hmm thats odd not sure how that will be relevant later' on only for a few chapters later to say 'ahhh that all makes sense now!'

I really enjoyed the magical realism elements to the story and when it veered down a more fantasy route with the twins childhood imaginings. I dont tend to read a lot of contemporary so i was really glad that this book was so multi layered with its genres, it felt like there was something for everyone. I really enjoyed the world building and immediately wanted to read more from this author. 

My only critique is that the book had a very slow start, i would say it took me over 2 hours to get to 10% of the way through. It didnt begin to feel more fast paced until around 30% for me but i fully put this down to getting used to the writing style and the story itself, once i was in i was fully in and it began flowing much better.