Christopher Pike's books for adults don't read too differently than his YA novels (from what I remember of his YA novels and I was a major fan back in the day). This book is literary junk food- not necessarily a bad thing. It's a quick read although I found it ultimately unsatisfying when I was done.
I never really connected with the characters in the book which made it not so compelling for me but the plot twists & conclusion also ended up being too hokey and far fetched for me as well. ( )

November 4, 2003
The Blind Mirror
Christopher Pike

Saw this in the horror section at Borders, and although I haven’t enjoyed Christopher Pike’s adult books as much as his teen thrillers – and not even the latter of those when he started delving into stranger stuff – the synopsis was enticing.

The narrator is David, who’s just returned home to CA after two months in New York, where he’d gone to get away for a while after breaking up with his girlfriend Sienna. Upon returning to CA he goes for a walk on the beach and discovers the dead body of a woman who, although it doesn’t look like Sienna at all, turns out to be her. David’s in a heap of trouble now, of course, and things are problematic because someone who sounds just like Sienna is calling him, and he can’t remember anything that happened after having sex with Sienna one last time on the beach, exactly where her burned body was later found.

Most of the book lived up to the synopsis and kept me turning the pages, but at the end it got into some “weird science” that turned me off a little (he’s definitely into personality or soul transference theories, because it’s a theme he’s explored in several books). Still, the suspense was great and I always enjoy the “voice” of Pike’s protagonists – a little dry, slightly self-deprecating. ( )

I had expected more from this book, but was ultimately not too disappointed. Like other works by Pike, the story was abstract and paranormal. There seemed to be heavier Christian overtones to this piece than much of his other work, which has more of an Eastern Religion flavor. I was disappointed by how belabored and pedantic the actual writing was. I noticed after several chapters the absence of contractions except in dialog. Possibly this contributed to the feeling of being 'talked down to.' Metaphors seemed strained and similes bordered on ridiculous: "He was as wrinkled as a load of laundry."
It felt like Pike took one of his Young Adult titles, expanded it by a hundred pages or so and added a lot of sex and swearing. However, the idea behind the plot was good and the payoff at the climax of the text is acceptable. The first half of the book read more like a detective novel and the second half like hard core science fiction. That's a decent mix for me, but others might be put off by the rather abrupt shift.
Altogether an engaging book for fans of Pike's work.
(My husband, who was reading Pike for the first time did not like it at all. I thought it was okay.) ( )

Quite possibly the strangest book I've ever read. ( )