The Mirror Sisters by V.C. Andrews | Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

It's not at all shocking to me that during the Andrew Neiderman era of the V.C. Andrews name, his work seems to grow more and more muddled together. The Mirror Sisters, though armed with an especially dark and delicious tone and premise, does not live up to its promise. Although it is an absolute improvement on the last books I've read from his era (Whitefern, Diaries, etc) it still is simply not a good book for at least 90% of the time.

Really, I had high hopes for this one. I've always had a fascination of identical twins battling out in a good and evil power struggle. From Pretty Little Liars (Alison and Courtney DiLaurentis in the delightful books, Spencer Hastings and Alex Drake in the television adaptation) to Lois Duncan's classic Stranger With My Face and back around to the soap opera tropes that all but invented this timeless plot twist, I had an instant connection with the summary of The Mirror Sisters and was compelled to pick it up.

Because, c'mon. The entire description is twisted. I picked it up and was like, " I'm ready to be disturbed " in ways that only a good psychological thriller could do. Sadly, I had to dig around a lot (not an exaggeration) to even get to the good parts of the novel. I mean it quite literally when I say that--the vast majority of The Mirror Sisters is spent rehashing the same five paragraphs in a different variation. Beyond this, it was also choppy.


How many times can we see that the Mother is a mess? How many times do we need to be told and shown that Haylee is the evil of the two and Kaylee is undeniably naive?

That being said, the relationship between the twin sister's is intriguing. They are opposites and are deeply intertwined with one another in a way that's unhealthy and different by the hand of their mom. Which makes it pretty easy to see why Haylee grew the way she did (from the way she treats her sister and manipulates everyone, to the fact that she is so careless with many people, the very disgusting bit about sleeping with Kaylee's boyfriend all the way to the climax/big twist) and I'm a bit terrified and captivated by it.

I only wish that the novel had been from her point of view or, at the very least, rotating points of view. I do think that a lot of patience is required for the novel and how it drags on and on, but the ending is really brilliant. Anyone who reads it will have suspected the twist that is coming and will find ways to tie Haylee into one of the all-time-classic V.C. Andrews characters, Vera, from My Sweet Audrina and even I have to admit that the second novel appears to be shaping up to feel like the real V.C. Andrews.

Not only this, fans of the Pretty Little Liars book series will appreciate its creepy and campy nature for what it is, once they get passed the glacial pace of the novel. I'm compelled enough by the ending to give the second in the series ago but am proceeding with caution. My question is: what comes next, now that Kaylee has been abducted? Is Haylee going to feel any guilt? Or has she taken her twin's place?

Overall, the ending was totally worth the less than stellar quality of the book. Once it picked up speed, it really took me for a wild ride.