Looking Glass

by A.J. Matthews and Rick Hautala

Book Overview

A new reflection of fear, from the author of The White Room... The Irelands have just moved to the country. They're thankful they can no longer hear the city's noise. But when a hideously scarred woman begins appearing in reflections all over their new house, Brenda Ireland realizes that no one can hear her scream, either.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425190994
• ISBN13: 9780425190999
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.3" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable

Matt and Brenda Ireland have just moved to a new house in the country when two unrelated events take place: Brenda's elderly mother passes away in a nursing home, and Matt's mentally unstable ex-wife shows up out of nowhere to lay claim to the daughter she hasn't seen in 14 years (and who thinks her mother is dead). Meanwhile, an ex-con newly out of prison is stalking the Ireland family for reasons the reader isn't sure of until the end of the story. Brenda Ireland is the primary protagonist of this tale, although we do get POV's from Matt, her husband, and Emily, her stepdaughter. Brenda is grieving over her mother's death, at least partly because there were so many unresolved issues between them, when she begins to see reflections of an old woman with a badly scarred face in mirrored surfaces like darkened windows and the aluminum tea-kettle. The apparition resembles her just-passed mother, but then again it doesn't, and Brenda knows for certain that her mother never had a scar like the one she sees in these reflections. This visage seems to want to communicate something to Brenda, and when she finally realizes this she tries to let go of her fear and understand. What she learns holds the key to saving herself and her family from a tragic fate, if only she can hold strong and follow her instincts. The way this primary thread plays out is fantastic and I loved it! The only downside to this story was the sidebar about Matt's ex-wife and her quest to get to Emily. I assumed it was going to tie in to the main storyline in some way, but it didn't. I think the only purpose of this secondary thread was to underline some family tensions and relationships. It wasn't a terrible distraction, but I didn't think it fit and should have been saved for another book, maybe. A.J. Matthews is a pseudonym of Rick Hautala, and there's another mystery: why have a pseudonym for writing in the same genre? All in all, a very engaging story and I enjoyed it.

Really Good

This book was a really good modern horror book. I love horror books of all kinds, and this one is awesome. The only bad part is when in the wife's point of veiw, she has too many mental breakdowns. But other than that, its a really great book with an ending you would never guess.

Tense and Suspenseful Fiction

A. Matthews aka Rick Hautala's second horror offering is obstensibly a ghost story. A family moves into their dream house to live an idylic existence in the country. Of course it being in the horror genre this doesn't happen, as their place seems haunted.I said it was obstensibly a ghost story because reading it and thinking back, looking for inspiration for this review I would be just as apt to label it a sociological novel studying the nuclear family of the 21st century. The step-mother and daughter have a strained relationship loaded with friction, the 14(or 15) year old daughter Emily has a barely tolerated relationship with her little brother. The father toils away at a law firm trying to reconcile work and family. If Matthews had given Brenda a career(or implied more detail and described it more) I would have tried to figure out how many families in North America were pretty much excatly as this one is imagined. Two things can happen when parents re-marry and raise a step family, either they gel and cohere in a familiar unit or they break apart at the seams. Matthews does an exceptional job keeping the reader wondering which side of the tight-rope this family is going to land on as he heaps adversity after adversity on them, and relentlessly twists and turns the plot so I don't think anyone can forsee how this one is going to end. Very well done, hopefully Matthew's writing quality remains at this obvious peak in future novels.

Buy this book

I bought this book on a whim, and I'm glad I did. I found the book to be hard to put down, I enjoyed reading it that much. I plan to buy the authors 1st book too.

A much better second book

I read A.J. Matthews' first book, The White Room. It was pretty good. but Looking Glass is leaps and bounds ahead of it. The story has a twist on the traditional ghost story that I have never seen done before. The characters are real and likeable, especially Brenda, the heroine. I don't want to give any spoilers away, but the ending will rock you. If you like good original ghost stories, buy this book.