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3.09 AVERAGE
3.09 AVERAGE
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book started out strong at first. I wanted to know explicitly what happened to Eden at the lake the day of her drowning, but by the middle part of the book, you can tell you'll never truly get answer and that you'll have to put the pieces in yourself. And that's another thing - these characters don't have conversations with each other. Each one is left unfinished, interrupted, or unsaid. It's frustrating because it continues throughout the book until the end. No one has fully fledged out conversations which would've added more momentum to this novel. Clearly, Eli put the underwear in his dad's car for the mom to find along with the Google searches, but why not just tell your mom straight up that you saw him cheating a day prior to the drowning? Why all the secrecy? After reading the blur in the back of the book, it's stated that this is Barker-White's first novel, and you can clearly tell. It entices you with the first two chapters then drags on and on, only to have 25% of things answered in the epilogue by a now-dead character. Just disappointing.
Anyways heres my interpretation of what happened...
Eden's mom continuously mentions throughout the novel how Eden would have quick personality changes that was uncharacteristic to her. Clearly, she's trying to hint that maybe Eli has been inside of Eden all along trying to claw himself out. When Eden finds her dad cheating on her mom with Tia, the dad's colleague, she avoids her dad that night, the next morning, and before going home, so to forget her troubles, she takes a bunch of pills and goes for a swim. The swim leads to her almost drowning, and causing a personality shift to entirely include Eli only. Eli has finally broken free. Eden is now gone. Eden loved the dad, hated the mom; now, Eli loves the Mom, and hates the dad (partly due to the cheating, but also personality differences.) Despite the mom continuously finding evidence of her husband's infidelity, he gaslights her into believing nothing is going on and that he has nothing to hide. All the while, he's planning to kill her, have it look like a suicide, and live happily ever after with Tia, to which Eli somehow finds out this is his plan, and tinkers with his car, that then blows up while the dad and Tia are together. He purposefully pushed his wife to go to therapy, have anti-depressant pills prescribed in her name, all to make it look like she had a history of mental health issues, and finally get his *real* child, Eden, back. I'm glad this plan didn't end up working out, but this family has serious, dysfunctional tendencies; both Eli and the Mom need extensive therapy since they're both murderers, more so Eli, whereas the Mom just had violent intrusive thoughts, anger issues, and OCD.
Anyways heres my interpretation of what happened...
Eden's mom continuously mentions throughout the novel how Eden would have quick personality changes that was uncharacteristic to her. Clearly, she's trying to hint that maybe Eli has been inside of Eden all along trying to claw himself out. When Eden finds her dad cheating on her mom with Tia, the dad's colleague, she avoids her dad that night, the next morning, and before going home, so to forget her troubles, she takes a bunch of pills and goes for a swim. The swim leads to her almost drowning, and causing a personality shift to entirely include Eli only. Eli has finally broken free. Eden is now gone. Eden loved the dad, hated the mom; now, Eli loves the Mom, and hates the dad (partly due to the cheating, but also personality differences.) Despite the mom continuously finding evidence of her husband's infidelity, he gaslights her into believing nothing is going on and that he has nothing to hide. All the while, he's planning to kill her, have it look like a suicide, and live happily ever after with Tia, to which Eli somehow finds out this is his plan, and tinkers with his car, that then blows up while the dad and Tia are together. He purposefully pushed his wife to go to therapy, have anti-depressant pills prescribed in her name, all to make it look like she had a history of mental health issues, and finally get his *real* child, Eden, back. I'm glad this plan didn't end up working out, but this family has serious, dysfunctional tendencies; both Eli and the Mom need extensive therapy since they're both murderers, more so Eli, whereas the Mom just had violent intrusive thoughts, anger issues, and OCD.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Deadnaming, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Rape
Short Synopsis:
I’m sure you’ve heard of vanishing twin syndrome - where one twin disappears or is absorbed in utero. This book is that. But make it creepy. And you can trust nobody.
My Thoughts:
The concept of this book was fantastic. I haven’t ever heard a good excuse about vanishing twin syndrome, so this was fun to explore that. But also it ended up being a bit too much for me. Too much death - especially in kids.
The last couple chapters and epilogue were great though. If you’re a fan of The Push, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
I’m sure you’ve heard of vanishing twin syndrome - where one twin disappears or is absorbed in utero. This book is that. But make it creepy. And you can trust nobody.
My Thoughts:
The concept of this book was fantastic. I haven’t ever heard a good excuse about vanishing twin syndrome, so this was fun to explore that. But also it ended up being a bit too much for me. Too much death - especially in kids.
The last couple chapters and epilogue were great though. If you’re a fan of The Push, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
This was going to be a 4 star book, but the ending knocked it down a bit for me.
I have more questions than answers after finishing this one. Solid first half and then it gets a little redundant.
Lucy is desperate to have a baby and thrilled when she falls pregnant with twins, however very quickly it’s clear that one of the twins is no longer present on her scans and she is informed she has experienced vanishing twin syndrome. Fast forward 13 years and we follow Lucy’s journey as her surviving twin Eden has a tragic near death experience and wakes up claiming to be her vanished twin brother, Eli.
Here’s the thing, I was so certain until about the 50% mark that I was going to rate this highly. Psychopathic tendencies in children is a buzz word for me in thrillers (not sure what that says about me, but here we are!) and the whole premise of this book is just so unique and creative. I just feel once we passed the middle, the book became repetitive and unnecessarily long winded. I didn’t enjoy the resolution of the book and could certainly have done without that epilogue!! I do think this would have been better if it was around half the length because the premise was so brilliant and it started out so strongly.
Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
Here’s the thing, I was so certain until about the 50% mark that I was going to rate this highly. Psychopathic tendencies in children is a buzz word for me in thrillers (not sure what that says about me, but here we are!) and the whole premise of this book is just so unique and creative. I just feel once we passed the middle, the book became repetitive and unnecessarily long winded. I didn’t enjoy the resolution of the book and could certainly have done without that epilogue!! I do think this would have been better if it was around half the length because the premise was so brilliant and it started out so strongly.
Thank you to the publisher, author and netgalley for the ebook in exchange for an honest review.
This was an interesting story and definitely a little creepy. I enjoyed the short chapters and multiple points of views. The main characters are complex and interesting but I can't honestly say I like any of them and the suspense is heavy. The whole time you are wondering whos actually craz and who isn't! There are plenty of twists and the ending was a surprise! Thank you Bibliolifestyle, William Morrow and Eleanor Barker-White for sharing this book with me!
mysterious
fast-paced
Crazy twist at the end made it better but lots of plot holes and not enough was explained properly. Not really scary or thrilling.