Customer Reviews

The Blind Mirror

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was drawn into this book immediately and had a difficult time putting it down, and must say that it is definitely unique in terms of the plot twists and ultimate resolution. Usually, that is enough to make for a very satisfying read. There are, however, just a few flaws that should be mentioned for anyone thinking about reading this book:
1. Not everything in this book appears to make sense, even at the conclusion. Once you find out "what's going on," you will still wonder why some things happened the way they did.
2. Sometimes the actions of the characters, particularly the main character, do not seem realistic, or things that someone would do if the events were really unfolding. The motivations for the actions are weak: "...He decided without actually exercising his own will. He was a puppet, he thought, his strings were silver wire, so sharp they were capable of severing his very reason. And what was worse was that no one was pulling his strings." So the characters are just wandering around "stumbling" upon clues.
3. The writing is weak at times. Sometimes Pike is surprising with a sharp and on-target metaphor, and other times he writes with such simplicity it causes the plot to wear thin.
Don't get me wrong, I liked this book. The ending will blow you away, and the way Pike lays it out throughout the book shows he has talent. It actually took me a few days to get the ending out of my head. I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not; Pike broke one of the cardinal rules of book-writing and character survival, and I think I have come to appreciate that more as time goes by.

I have read many reviews of this book, many of which were by fans of Pike on this site. Many of these reviews find fault in the "Blind Mirror" because it does not necessarily show a move forward in Pike's talents as an author. While this may very well be true, it was the fact that this novel was such classic Pike that had me turning the pages.

I've read all of Pike's books, and I have constantly been engaged and entertained by him. Pike has a way of weaving a tale that is both intriguing and surprising. Reaching the end of a Pike novel is always an exciting moment, as almost anything can happen and nine times out of ten the reader has not seen it coming. A master at twisting his plots to keep his readers hooked, Pike consistently writes exhilarating page turners. Many times novels classified as "mysteries" or "horror" have endings that are less then satisfying because the reader has remained one step ahead of the author, thus guessing the outcome before it is revealed. Rarely does this happen with Pike.

"The Blind Mirror" is no different. Yes, the prose is at times juvenile and the twists often come out of nowhere, but the overall effect is one I have come to expect from Pike, and I for one was not disappointed to find that he has stuck with what he does best - write exciting, spine-tingling, fun novels with plenty of outlandish twists and turns. As we follow our hero (or is he?) in his quest for the truth, we find that the truth is never what it seems to be and often not even what we think it might be. The ride is wild, fun, and often frivolous, and I would have it no other way. Always enjoyable, always entertaining, neither Pike nor "The Blind Mirror" disappoints.

I've always been a huge Pike fan. My absolute favorite book from *any* author is "The Season of Passage." It's on the top of my list. So I've been waiting a long time for something new.

The books starts out promising but soon begins to read just like Pike's YA novels. The characters are described as being adult, but their dialogue and actions are very juvenile.

I was disappointed by the ending. It was like a B movie; the "bad guy" spelled everything out for the lead character instead of the lead character discovering things for himself. During the book he was "stumbling" on clues entirely by chance, it seemed, and it was all laid out a bit too neatly.

If you're a Pike fan I recommend this book because even if I didn't, a true Pike fan would read it anyway. But if you're just starting to get into Pike's books, make sure you read "The Season of Passage" before you go any farther!

I too have long been a fan of Pike, particularly in high school when I devoured every book of his I could find. I agree that Pike has not made a smooth transition into "adult" fiction. The simplicity he often displays in his writing is deceptive. Younger fans will be extremely confused by the never-ending plot turns and twists, especially near the end of the book. Pike's young adult books have always dealt with taboo subjects, and this book elaborates on many of his re-occuring themes, plus a sprinkling of profanity and several sexual references.
For me, all the elements were there until a little over half way through the book. It was then that I became increasingly agitated and and confused by all the little 'sub-plots.' One thing that I have never really enjoyed about Pike's work is his insistence on having a dual story line told or made up by the characters in the book that metaphorically relates to the situation they are living in. Frankly, in this book the dual story was a waste of time. Too many secondary characters also drags it down in the second half. Because it was Pike I was reading, and I enjoy his direct style of writing, I read it fervently until the end, when I put it down, feeling disappointed and lost. I felt that "The Cold One," dealt with similar themes much better than this book.

After so much time, I realise there's been quite a bit of expectation within this novel, but I must say it's simply an extreme dissapointment.

The Christopher Pike books I know and love have a coherent and trascendent storyline, the connections between people and places and things true to the story. The beginning of the story is a slipshod composition of a standard murder history and a halfway attempt to introduce an element of the supernatural.

Near the end, "everything" comes "together" and basically the entirety of the plot and the reasons behind what happen just get thrown up in a few forced interactions between the main character(s) and the anatagonists. By this time one hardly cares because there's some innovative blurring of the character identities but ultimately the reader is given little compulsion to feel for anything in the book after the painfully detached and incoherent storyline.

Most of Pike's books have a supernatural element to it and the ideas concieved here display a smatter of interest, but they're so hardly defined and forced together to fit the boring plot that they merely seem like something Mr. Pike thought was intriguing but didn't take the time to really consider the ideas.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Mr. Pike, and there are some glimpses of the his old writing style that I loved, with the inner story of Cleo, her old confidence and compassion like the Last Vampire old fans still love and remember. There's also what could've been a beautiful moment, that would really bring at least some true emotion and core to the story near the climax, but it's snuffed out for the purposes of the plot. Worst yet, I recognise some of these story elements in other Pike books which I loved- he's simply recycling many ideas with no discernable benefit.

In the end the story was simply a plain-vanilla plot contrived for the purpose of forcing some halfway interesting supernatural ideas, some of which were already used in other novels. His writing style remains consistent, but there's definitely something missing; the humanity, the clarity of emotion that brought the reader to the core of his books is gone. All I can do is believe that this book was horrendously rushed due to publishing and financial demands on Mr. Pike because that's the only way I could see our author send out such a book after such a sabbatical to his hungry fans.

I had expected more from this book, but was ultimately not too disappointed. Like other works by Pike, the story was abstract and paranormal. There seemed to be heavier Christian overtones to this piece than much of his other work, which has more of an Eastern Religion flavor. I was disappointed by how belabored and pedantic the actual writing was. I noticed after several chapters the absence of contractions except in dialog. Possibly this contributed to the feeling of being 'talked down to.' Metaphors seemed strained and similes bordered on ridiculous: "He was as wrinkled as a load of laundry."
It felt like Pike took one of his Young Adult titles, expanded it by a hundred pages or so and added a lot of sex and swearing. However, the idea behind the plot was good and the payoff at the climax of the text is acceptable. The first half of the book read more like a detective novel and the second half like hard core science fiction. That's a decent mix for me, but others might be put off by the rather abrupt shift.
Altogether an engaging book for fans of Pike's work.
(My husband, who was reading Pike for the first time did not like it at all. I thought it was okay.)

I really don't understand so many of the negative reviews.Saying this is so different and unlike Pike,and where did their book God go?

This is my FAVORITE book by him,and yes I have read them ALL.
I devoured it and could not stop turning pages.
I had NO CLUE what was going on,or what was going to happen next!

The ending completely shocked me,and I loved how Pike once again weaved a little bit of science and little bit of religion to make you believe what you are reading could actually happen.

Every time I read this book it has me thinking for days on end about the possibilities.

Great book, as ever - I mean, it's Chris Pike, for gossakes. "The Blind Mirror", however, fell quite short of my expectations in an adult novel for this author - stress on ADULT. I've been a long-time reader of his YA novels. Especially "The Last Vampire" series - I own the first three and have read those exactly 28 times each, not exaggerating, no joke. I just love the series. But the point is, "The Last Vampire" and its sequels was more sophisticated than "The Blind Mirror".

His character seemed almost a shadow of his past character, Marvin Summer, in disposition, demeanor. But over the course of the book, I found the character's story-in-the-story more fascinating than the book itself, and wished I could read what he had written instead.

"The Blind Mirror" is typical of Pike, packed with the usual (and ever satisfying) foreshadowing and suspense, but the suspense I expected was in short supply. The novel tended to ramble and was pretty "flat" all around. I enjoyed the twist, but I was just tired of waiting for it by the time I got to the end. I did enjoy the ingenuosity of the conclusion, though - one saving grace. This book should have just been ranked YA; it would have been more suitable.

Nice cover art.

I'm a big fan of Pike's YA books and i've recently started reading his adult novels. This book is my latest read and it was thoroughly enjoyable. It had an unusual plot and I was hooked early on in the book. At first the storyline is easy to follow, a young man returns from a work-related trip in New York back to his small hometown only to discover a body on the beach arranged in a satanic fashion. More disturbing is the possibility that the dead woman is David's ex-girlfriend, Sienna Madden. However, this story provides a lot more than a "murder mystery." As the story moves along at a comfortable pace, we discover uncountable twists and turns in the plot development. Enough to keep you up all night trying to figure the book out. It all leads up to the more-than-shocking end. Maybe a little too shocking, which is why i refrained from giving this book 5 stars. The end is incredibly far-fetched (along with some of the things exposed throughout the book). I find Pike always has a sci-fi element to his stories though, so i wasn't too surprised that it leaned more towards fantasy at the end. All in all this was a great addition to my Christopher Pike collection and I reccomend it to any true fantasy/mystery fans. Prepare to get swept away.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I brought it on vacation, so it was the only thing I had to read, or it might have fallen by the wayside. Once I got into it a bit, it had me hooked, but only because it was so weird I wanted to find out just what the heck was going on with the convoluted synchronicites that where popping up everywhere in David's life.

Toward the end it began to seem a bit far fetched. Granted, I have never read any of this guy's books before and I'm not generally a fan of satanic stuff - though I like Stephen King's early work and some sci-fi. Good writing is what it comes down to, and for the most part, Pike's style is tight. It's the plot that seems a bit much.

It's really a far-out premise and then to have coordinated all these people to pop up where they did when they did and have them be someone else on top of it....and then the whole sienna/julie/cleo/vampire thing.....just a bit over the top.

As I neared the end - like the last 5 pages - I still was waiting for some kind of tie-together or mind blowing conclusion. I wanted a "wow! that was trippy!" kind of ending. Instead I said "Oh Pul-lease" and tossed the book on the floor.