It can feel a little confusing at parts, but stick with it and everything will come together in ways you didn’t expect. Fans of twist-filled thrillers, look no further than Johnstone's tale of estranged twins who invented their own dark and imaginary world. Carole Johnstone’s award-winning short fiction has been reprinted in many annual ‘Best of’ anthologies in the UK and US. Using a pinch of fantasy to overcome the trauma of long-buried memories, the story is both haunting and compelling, and I absolutely loved the spooky adventure that it took me on. But until then I will try and post more as I have so much to update you on and I’m finally coming out of my reading slump.

This may sounds like the blurb of a thriller you’ve read a thousand times, but it was actually a surprisingly original, imaginative tale which I don’t want to spoil too much.I was compelled by Cat’s struggle to mine the fragments of her memories, and by the contrasting landscape of Cat and El’s make-believe world with the gradually revealed realities of their childhood. While the story comes down clearly on the side of all-encompassing love, Mallery has struck a careful balance: There is just enough sex to be spicy, just enough swearing to be naughty, and just enough heartbreak to avoid being cloying. We also get to meet El through flashbacks, though these are told from Cat’s POV and so are slightly skewed, but we also get to read a little of her POV through diary notes and letters that she has left for Cat to find round the house. This ambitious blend of psychological suspense and horror casts a powerful light on the liberating power of imagination.

A dark and twisty thriller told with thumping heart and extraordinary tenderness— Mirrorland is as much a celebration of imagination and its escapism as an examination of trauma and its echoes. A dread that I don’t want to examine any more than anything else that’s gone through my mind since all those voice mail messages began filling up my inbox.

As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs, full of pirates, witches, and clowns. I then remembered that someone in our blog tour chat group mentioned that they wanted the book to end around 85% in and I think I agree. The girls do not know who their father is – they are told that their mother destroyed her marriage, taking the twins with her to Edinburgh.