The Book:
Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman
Published July 30, 2024 by Ballantine Books
Date read: August 4, 2024
Find more July 2024 new releases here.
Look in the Mirror spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.
The Characters:
Nina
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The Plot (from Goodreads):
Nina, still grieving from the loss of her father, discovers that she has inherited property in the British Virgin Islands—a vacation home she had no idea existed, until now. The house is extraordinary: state-of-the-art, all glass and marble. How did her sensible father come into enough money for this? Why did he keep it from her? And what else was he hiding?
Maria, once an ambitious medical student, is a nanny for the super-rich. The money’s better, and so are the destinations where her work takes her. Just one more gig, and she’ll be set. Finally, she’ll be secure. But when her wards never show, Maria begins to make herself at home, spending her days luxuriating by the pool and in the sauna.
There’s just one rule: Don’t go in the basement. That room is off-limits. But her curiosity might just get the better of her.
And soon, she’ll wish her only worry was not getting paid.
Look in the Mirror Spoilers
The Reveal:
The house that Nina inherited wasn’t actually from her father. He had designed it, but it was for a company that would let rich people pay to come experience it as essentially a really intricate escape room. Over time, the owners stopped selling the escape room experience and began luring nonconsenting individuals there, trapping them in the house, and selling the footage of their attempted escapes.
Maria had been lured with the fake nanny job listing. She was the one person to escape, but she was killed when she tracked down Lucinda and attacked her in her home. Other victims were frequently lured with inheritance schemes. It was Lucinda’s job to choose and vet them and customize the escape room to the person. Nina was the next victim after Maria, and it was by chance that she was the daughter of the designer.
Lucinda ended up rescuing Nina, with Joe and Joon-Gi’s help.
Two years later, Nina, Joe, and Joon-Gi were all in witness protection. Nina and Joe stayed together and became a couple, having already gone through the worst thing.
The Ending:
The epilogue is from the POV of a woman called Oksana, who is watching a woman in another house like the one that Nina was in. She had bought the other house from Nina’s father, but kept her business going despite Nina’s victory.
I hope these Look in the Mirror spoilers were helpful.
The Review:
Thank you to PRH Audio for this gifted ALC.
This book was so good!! Catherine Steadman’s last two novels have knocked it out of the park. (Check out my review of The Family Game here.) Look in the Mirror has a very similar feel to The Family Game, so if you liked that one I think you’ll like this one as well. I love books about puzzles, so this modern horror was right up my alley.
I went in blind and had NO idea what I was in for, and I highly recommend reading this book with no preconceptions. It was such a blast! I flew through it–this is certainly a fast-paced story–and loved where it took me. It’s quick and bingeable, so the perfect summer read.
I did want the characters to have a little more emotion about what was going on. I can’t say much without spoilers, but Nina didn’t seem to have much of a reaction once she figured out what was going on. Maria was freakishly calm as well!
Steadman deserves all the praise for another truly unique thriller.
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