LOOK IN THE MIRROR by Catherine Steadman

Catherine Steadman's book, Look in the Mirror, is more than a thriller. It is a creepy, chilling, unputdownable horror story. The plot revolves around a house that is built like a Rubiks cube —  a chamber of horrors where unsuspecting visitors are forced to play a game that plunges them into a life and death nightmare where few survive.

Steadman's writing is extraordinarily cinematic, reflecting her background as a screenwriter. It is easy to visualize the panic and desperation as Maria and Nina, the two central characters, are forced to use their survival skills in order to emerge from this house of torture. As a reader, I cheered them on and wanted to watch them succeed at breaking through the barriers, survive the torture and find the answer that would free them from this malevolent game.

Steadman's plot is deeply original, incorporating human trafficking, sophisticated gamesmanship and the cruel pleasure of gladiator sport. In this case, the private spectators are among the very wealthy who pay to observe the Darwinian fight of participants' struggle to survive.

This is not typical genre fiction. It is a literary approach to exploring morality, the intrinsic value of life and the evil that continues to exist in a world where the powerful victimize and abuse the powerless.