Carole Johnstone
Author of Mirrorland
Works by Carole Johnstone
God Of The Gaps 2 copies
The Morning After 1 copy
Dead Loss 1 copy
The Blind Man 1 copy
The Claife Crier 1 copy
Associated Works
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction (2018) — Contributor — 87 copies
Black Static 18 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Johnstone, Carole
- Legal name
- Johnstone, Carole
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Short biography
- Carole Johnstone is a writer of speculative fiction: mostly horror, some fantasy, sci-fi, historical and slipstream.
Since early 2008 her short stories have been published in various anthologies and magazines: Morrigan Books' Voices, Dead Souls, and Grants Pass; In Bad Dreams Vol. 2, From The Asylum, and Black Static among others.
In 2010, she is due to appear in PS Publishing's apocalyptic anthology, Catastrophia.
Her first novella, Frenzy was recently released by Eternal Press, and is also available in paperback at Amazon.com
Members
Reviews
Mirrorland : a novel by Carole Johnstone
There are several implausibilities in the plot, but it was so strange and gothic, so atmospheric, so dark and twisted, that I didn’t mind at all. Mirrorland is a dark and strange world of childhood make-believe, and how Cat’s memories of that make-believe world of the past color her present, however implausibly, is fascinating reading. The ending was a little weak, a whimper rather than a bang, but I enjoyed the numerous surprises on the voyage to get there, some of which I foresaw and some I didn’t. I listened to the audiobook, and Katie Leung’s Scottish narration was melodic and really enhanced the story (though it really muddled her attempts at foreign accents to my American ear).… (more)
½audio fiction (12 hrs 38min) - a woman (Catriona/Cat) returns to Ireland from California in order to find out what happened to her identical twin (Ellice/El), presumed lost at sea by authorities and El's husband Ross (about whom Cat has conflicting feelings). CW/TW: all sorts of childhood trauma and abuse, El's potential suicide or murder, gaslighting and manipulation, mother with mental illness/delusions, abusive/murderous father/grandfather, memories repressed for a reason
A spellbinding and immersive story brilliantly narrated in Leung's lovely Irish accent. It's pretty murky and twisty and confusing (lots of complex relationships and old unspeakable secrets) with the details unfolding (very) slowly over time. This can be kind of frustrating, as thehorribly extremely unreliable narrator means that everything keeps getting turned over on its head without Cat making much progress, but all the twists and turns are entertaining nonetheless, if increasingly improbable/unbelievable, at least until the last 8 chapters/couple hours when the story sort of refuses to end. from https://charlottesbookspoilers.blogspot.com/2021/04/spoilers-for-mirrorland-by-c...: "Their grandfather kept their mother, and the twins, hostage. He was really their father, too.
"Mouse was El and Cat's triplet sister. The Witch was their mother's sister and took Mouse as her own out of a weird jealousy thing. Cat killed their grandfather trying to protect El. Their mother killed herself after sending the girls out of the house.
"Ross blocked their escape that night when their grandfather died because he didn't want them to leave him. This is also why he became abusive towards El, he didn't want her to leave him.
"El was not dead. She escaped to the Caribbean. But they convicted Ross of her murder. The body found was Mouse, who had OD'd on Ross' pills at the same time as El's planned suicide/escape on the boat, presumably to provide a body so that El wouldn't have to die herself.
bingo 2024: includes a prologue, published April 1 2021, focus on sibling relationship, stormy weather/power outage, very old house with bell clappers/bell pulls seemingly alive with memories.character is not really dead … (more)
A spellbinding and immersive story brilliantly narrated in Leung's lovely Irish accent. It's pretty murky and twisty and confusing (lots of complex relationships and old unspeakable secrets) with the details unfolding (very) slowly over time. This can be kind of frustrating, as the
"Mouse was El and Cat's triplet sister. The Witch was their mother's sister and took Mouse as her own out of a weird jealousy thing. Cat killed their grandfather trying to protect El. Their mother killed herself after sending the girls out of the house.
"Ross blocked their escape that night when their grandfather died because he didn't want them to leave him. This is also why he became abusive towards El, he didn't want her to leave him.
"El was not dead. She escaped to the Caribbean. But they convicted Ross of her murder. The body found was Mouse, who had OD'd on Ross' pills at the same time as El's planned suicide/escape on the boat, presumably to provide a body so that El wouldn't have to die herself.
bingo 2024: includes a prologue, published April 1 2021, focus on sibling relationship, stormy weather/power outage, very old house with bell clappers/bell pulls seemingly alive with memories.
I gave this book more than 100 pages. I just didn't feel the suspense or drama that would have helped me continue. I got tired of the twin mind set and the messages and Mirrorland itself. So I let it go.
Well, this book certainly wasn't boring! The story was fantastic, but the writing was a bit murky. It blended Cat (the main character's) current reality with her imagination world from childhood. It was a bit confusing. I really think if it was written as "Present" and "Past" (every other chapter maybe), it would have been much more clear. I had never heard of the term "magical realism" until I came across this book and read a few of the other reviews - but that's definitely what it is!
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Statistics
- Works
- 11
- Also by
- 27
- Members
- 532
- Popularity
- #46,804
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 38
- ISBNs
- 38
- Languages
- 5
