Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman

*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Publication Date: July 30, 2024

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Pages: 320

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 4/5

Look in the Mirror is about a two women, Nina and Maria, who through different circumstances and in different timelines find themselves staying at an ultra modern mansion on an island in the British Virgin Isles. Nina’s dad recently passed away and she is surprised by a phone call letting her know about a vacation house her dad owned that seems way out of his budget. Maria is a nanny for wealthy clients and she shows up at the house to take care of a couple of kids but the family never shows.

I absolutely loved the adventure this book took me on. The interweaving storylines of Maria and Nina were so well placed together that they really helped build up the tension of the story. I could not predict a lot of where this story went which led to me frantically turning the pages because I just had to know what was going to happen next.

The setting of this book was probably my favorite part. I love a story where the house is a major feature and I was pleasantly surprised by how important the house was to this story. I loved how unsettling the house was despite (or maybe because of) how modern and rich everything was. The more we learned about the house the more claustrophobic the isolation felt.

Along with getting Maria and Nina’s perspectives we did get the story told from a few side characters as well. It did help to give the story a bigger picture perspective but I don’t know if it was always necessary. I also found parts of the story too unbelievable that it took me out of the story. The pacing builds up to a frenetic pace but then a few over the top things happened that shook me out of that tension.

However, when I look back on the story I did think it was overall a fun time and would make a fantastic movie.