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Monsters in the Mirror

Author: Sarah Pinborough

What does a house full of mutilated bodies, broken mirrors, and occult symbols have to do with one children’s book editor, happily sleeping in her cozy apartment? Everything . . .

Rachel Wright gets up from a night of bad dreams, goes to the bathroom, and sees something soul shattering in the mirror. When she wakes up in the hospital, she has no memory of it, or of her previous life. The twist? Rachel likes her amnesia. Going around her apartment, she finds her old sensible clothes boring, her job as a children’s book editor stultifying, and her dead love life enervating. Post amnesia Rachel is sexy, confident, and has already turned the next-door neighbor, Michael, into her passionate love interest. Why remember the old life?

Meanwhile, Detective Murray has been called back from bereavement leave to investigate the house full of bodies. As more strange murders occur, all involving broken mirrors, Murray begins to suspect a connection. When he begins to read the diary of the murder house’s dead owner, Elizabeth Ray, he starts to build a terrifying connection. Surely, what Elizabeth claims can’t be done . . . but what if it did happen . . . and what if her deed has opened a portal that something hungry and vengeful wants to crawl through? What if that something is now looking through a mirror in his own house at his own children?

The first (and only up until this point) book of Sarah Pinborough’s that I read was Breeding Ground. I liked the premise (nothing is more terrifying than spiders, after all) but not the characters, including the weak man who immediately presumed that his partner was conveniently dead and began pursing a steamy-love interest amongst the carnage. I didn’t hate Breeding Ground, but it was pretty mid. The Hidden, on the other hand, has a wind range of emotions and horror, and just enough of a gut punch (literally and figuratively) to keep you going. While it’s Sarah Pinborough’s first book, and not very acclaimed by her fans, I found that it hit the Goldilocks’ just right feels from beginning to end.

Now, admittedly, there are a lot of characters and there is a lot of playing with time, plus some of that man-getting-over-wife instantly stuff (although this time, the new love interest is super, super weird and very discomfiting to readers). But, despite so much going on here, it really works.

I was invested in everyone, from the people who existed only long enough to be mirror monster chow to the main characters. Murray’s grief is palpable, Rachel’s new lease on life and residual fear is both alienating and understandable at the same time – a really great writing achievement. Mike, the boyfriend, is just ok, but at least he hits all the “good guy” vibes, even if his actions in the end aren’t entirely believable.

The monsters – well. Let’s say that Sarah Pinborough is not afraid of some hardcore gore and absolutely terrifying us. If you thought Freddy invading your dreams was bad, wait until you see the Inferno-esque nightmares that plague Rachel or the tortures of the mirror creatures. Don’t read before bed, because you will be deliciously disturbed.

The ending unravels the entire mystery and leaves us with complicated emotions – just as intended. Elizabeth’s character in particular has us thinking, and we are both happy and sad about her fate, just like we should be at the conclusion of a good, emotionally heart wrecking novel.

Now it does get a bit fast as things go down, but that’s to be expected. In the end, all the threads are tired in a nice, grisly knot and we’re left to wonder what else lives outside of our ken, what is secretly looking back from the other side of the mirror, and what sinister secrets hide in seemingly innocent, average houses. Highly recommended.

 

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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