Read from Aug 16th 2017 - Aug 21st 2017.
Published July 3rd 2017 by Orenda Books.
Format Paperback - 260 pages.
Synopsis - Taken from Goodreads - When India falls to her death from a bridge over a railway, her sister Poppy returns home to Brighton for the first time in years. Unconvinced by official explanations, Poppy begins her own investigation into India’s death. But the deeper she digs, the closer she comes to uncovering deeply buried secrets. Could Matthew Temple, the boyfriend she abandoned, be involved? And what of his powerful and wealthy parents, and his twin sister, Ana? Enter the mysterious and ethereal Jenny: the girl Poppy discovers after hacking into India’s laptop. What is exactly is she hiding, and what did India find out about her? Taking the reader on a breathless ride through the winding lanes of Brighton, into its vibrant party scene and inside the homes of its well-heeled families, The Other Twin is a startling and up-to-the-minute thriller about the social-media world, where resentments and accusations are played out online, where identities are made and remade, and where there is no such thing as truth.
My Review - Ooo, ooo, ooo, oodles of wonderfulness between a subtle but eye catching book cover with a title font that is definitely a bit of a grabber. It certainly attracted me.
Little did I realised when I first looked at this cover how many meanings it actually portrayed, whether or not the writer Lucy Hay, and the cover designer initially planned it to be this way or whether it is just my over imagination going off on a tangent as per usual.
I am going to presume, reading my review, that you have read the synopsis?
The hand on the cover, is it the hand of letting go? the hand of a push, the last thing India saw or as I thought, is it a hand of what you can't see. The answer being right in front of your face? just to put a little more complexity into an already complex story.
This story powers straight in with no hesitation and puts the reader in his head, his thoughts and follows his actions but who is he and who is she? and to be honest, it isn't at all clear and had me a bit flummoxed but on I read believing like most things, all will become clear. I don't think the writer intended any of that electrifying beginning to be clear.
The writer hadn't introduced them to us yet.
Chapter two finally reveals two names, India and Jenny. Ok,these must be the twins I thought. It was like eeking blood out of a stone. Are we being drip fed, slowly?
Chapter three then changes tack and the story takes off all in first person. The reader finds out that this first person is Poppy and she is the sister of India who died (that was in the blurb). Jenny? no.Still need to figure this out. The book hits hard but slows with a few pages to give you back ground of when India was alive and her and Poppy were younger. This gives the story substance and depth. Much needed in a book which you don't always need with T.V.
The Other Twin is only the second book I have read that has incorporated the social media age into it's style and format keeping the story very up to date. In fact, it is in more ways than one where other literature have failed. This book has it all in spades. Riddled with deception and lies and it's impact upon a small community, in particular two main families. It has diversity in every way, sexuality orientation, race and gender amongst affluence and prejudice making this read an invigorating one.
If I had to knock Lucy's work in any way here, it would be such a tiny tap. A tap which I did feel enough to note, so I shall share. She is funnily descriptive, i.e-'.........with a proud green Mohawk' (pg 29), made me think of a peacock, but some of her descriptions just ramble a little bit and she seems to feel she has to keep at it. This gets a little word excessive and takes the imagination away from the reader.
This story is full of levels, like playing one of them old 90's computer games where your character makes their way to the top or bottom of the screen. Each level leads off somewhere else and opens up another dark twisted opening into this psychological thriller.
The characters are very strong and flawed at the same time and as a reader, they have all struck with me in one way or another. Never in a book has so many characters had so much of an effect. Very clever Lucy, very clever. They will stay with me for a long time to come. This book was a surprise from beginning to end but I didn't realise how much of a surprise until I had got to the end. Many a time I thought I knew what had happened only to find, I hadn't a clue and couldn't have been more wrong.
A book that keeps you guessing continuously but whatever you think happened.............think again.
5 out of 5 stars.
