Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: August 23rd, 2016
Synopsis: In an auction house in London, there is a mirror no one will buy. Standing seven feet tall and reaching four feet across, its size makes it unusual. Its horrific powers make it extraordinary. For centuries, the mirror has fed off the lives of humans, giving them agonizing deaths and sucking their souls into its hellish world.
When Jonathan Frazier, the wealthy owner of a furniture and antiques shop in Los Angeles, buys the mirror at an auction, he believes he is getting the bargain of a lifetime. With its age and size, it is easily worth eight times what he paid for it. At this point, the mirror has sat dormant for years. But within days of Jonathan’s purchase, the deaths begin again. One employee is crushed when the mirror falls on top of him. A few days later, the corpse of another is found in front of the mirror, brutally stabbed. A third is burned beyond all recognition. All the while, an enormous man with a scarred face is following Jonathan, demanding that he give him the mirror and killing any police officer that gets in his way.
The police are becoming desperate. As the death toll rises, Jonathan himself becomes a suspect. He knows there is something wrong with the mirror. He knows it’s dangerous. But he cannot bring himself to get rid of it. Everyday he becomes more captivated by the mirror.
For the mirror is awakening, and its powers are resurfacing.
I first became familiar with Michael Scott through his YA series The Immortal Secrets of Nicholas Flamel. It’s one of my favorite series in part because of the utterly brilliant way he takes mythological as well as real historical figures, mixes them seamlessly into a contemporary setting and creates absolutely fascinating stories with unforgettable characters. Unfortunately, what worked in those books didn’t quite mesh in Mirror Image, which made it a bit of a disappointment for me. I really enjoyed the first quarter of the book with its unique take on the cursed mirror myth. At this point it was pretty much a straight up horror story with loads of suspense and gory scenes. I liked Jonathan, the unassuming antiques dealer who finds he’s in possession of an ancient object of untold evil, and is completely bewildered as to what to do. I also liked Manny, his spunky eighteen-year-old daughter who finds herself slowly under the mirror’s sway. The scarred man menacing Jonathan, had a sympathetic backstory but lost me when he began murdering hapless police officers who had the misfortune to get in his way. Since he had no compunction about doing this, I never quite understood why he didn’t just kill Jonathan and take the mirror. After the first 100 pages or so, the historical origins of the mirror begin to emerge, told in alternating chapters. While including real-life historical figures the story is somewhat interesting, but I was never able to really buy into the characters motivations. To make matters worse, some of the scenes both in the past and the present made me a little uncomfortable. I don’t generally take issue with blood, gore, or sexual scenes, but the way these were written had me squeamish at times. And finally, there’s a huge twist near the end that made me scratch my head. I’m just going to say it involves Greek mythology and leave it at that. It was completely random and made absolutely no sense in regard to everything that previously happened, and it seemed like it was just tacked on as an afterthought. While Mirror Image wasn’t for me, it has received some good reviews on Goodreads, so if you like horror, I encourage you to check it out for yourself. Michael Scott is such a great author that even though I disliked this, I’ll definitely be reading future books by him.
By Hook Or By Book 
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