A mirror that feeds on human souls wreaks destruction on those around it in Mirror Image, the new novel from internationally bestselling author Michael Scott and Melanie Ruth Rose. 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 of the lives of humans, giving them agonizing deaths and sucking their souls into its hellish world. When Jonathan Frazer, 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.
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Los Angeles antiques dealer Jonathan Frazer attends an auction in London, England where he ends up seeing this giant standing mirror he suspects is several centuries old. The mirror is not particularly pretty, but is eye-catching in its sheer size, not to mention Jonathan feeling a strange, strong pull toward the piece. Figuring he can make a decent profit on it back home, he buys it for a song and has it shipped back to California.
Though the mirror gave no hint of its evil secrets back in London, once the piece is in Frazer's workshop things start to turn weird almost instantly. In less than 10 chapters, we already have what... three deaths, I think it was? And not normal, sad but understandable freak accident kind of deaths... oh no, this story is full of total Final Destination-style candle snuffings.
*Note to animal lovers: one of the deaths sadly involves the gruesome execution of a K-9 dog. I'm still bothered by that part. Yep, I'm one of those people who can watch / read horror and be disturbed but also quickly okay again with human characters being killed off... for some reason, my mind can say "it's just a story" in that scenario... but when the author does something to an innocent animal in the name of plot points... ugh, that messes me up for ages after I finish the story.
After the first death, that of Jonathan's close friend and antiques restorer, Tony Farren, a tall, noticeably disfigured man starts making visits to Jonathan, insisting that the mirror belongs to him, but Jonathan absolutely refuses to sell. The story later explains that this disfigured man is Edmund Talbott, a descendant of the family who has been guarding the mirror, keeping it out of the public eye, for centuries. Edmund is positive the evil power trapped within the mirror is responsible for the deaths of his wife and young son. Though he doesn't understand how the mirror came to fall out of the family's possession, he just wants to get it back under lock and key before any more people have to suffer. Tired of the death and destruction the mirror seems to incite, Edmund is hoping he can convince Jonathan to hand it back over before the pull becomes too strong for Frazer himself to resist. Edmund's arrival may be too little too late. Jonathan has already spotted the face of a beautiful woman behind the glass. Once he catches this glimpse, he begins to slowly go mad with the need to free her. The night he discovers the mirror's response to blood sacrifices is the moment the plot truly takes a spiraling dive into dark, dark places of paranormal fiction.
Though paranormal fiction is one of my favorite genres, I'll admit I've not spent a lot of time with the horror genre in quite awhile, so my brain was a little unprepared for where this story was headed. To say the story gets weird doesn't even begin to cover it, but man, it was a fun ride! I found myself doing all the book version reactions of classic horror movie viewing: gasping, cringing, OMG-ing, covering my mouth but still frantically reading... the works!
The writing style reminded me of classic Stephen King seasoned with a little CSI / Law & Order. Periodically, the plot will do a throwback chapter to a piece of the mirror's Elizabethan-era origin story, presented in the form of Jonathan's fevered dreams (the reader is typically informed that it was a dream in the following chapter). Essentially these dreams tell us that the mirror is old even in the Elizabethan era. John Dee, an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, comes into possession of the mirror. Though he's not fully informed regarding its provenance, he does learn that the mirror has the means to foretell futures --- either possible or definitive --- through the use of intense human emotions experienced in its presence or bodily fluids rubbed over the glass surface. In short: intense anger, sadness, orgasms, blood, sperm, sweat... any of these will cause the mirror to share its secrets. But the offerings are brief and it quickly becomes evident the mirror needs constant "feedings" if one is to get any information from it.
In addition to the paranormal elements, this story also incorporates the topics of remote viewing, scrying, and astral projection. The author's note at the end mentions that the novel was inspired by a bizarre true story involving Queen Elizabeth, John Dee, and a mirror she refused to look at unless he agreed to have it moved to his garden.
Because of the legend developed around the mirror that it --- whatever "it" is that was put inside the mirror --- feeds off high human emotion and bodily fluid, yes, sex is mentioned in this story. OFTEN. And it's often in weird scenarios... sometimes a tad rapey, sometimes ending in murder as some of our MCs get further off the deep end under the influence of the mirror. I'm warning you now, it gets especially graphic and gruesome in the later chapters.... but even so, the writing itself is very well-written, gripping, creepy, and just plain GOOD.
I don't know that I loved the ending though... and the very last line left me confused and with questions... but wow, it certainly made me interested to get into more of Michael Scott's work in the future!
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