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beanie_reads 's review for:
The Third Twin
by C.J. Omololu
Probably a low 3 star for me, which is odd because I stayed up late into the night to finish this book. I think the reason can be explained quite easily.
I adored the concept of this book. I am a huge psychological fan, and I am a huge fan of seeing how people deal with feeling like they aren't good enough who they are. So you got this made-up twin, Alicia, being who the mc, Lexi, thinks would be cool. There is definitely a theme of accepting yourself for who you are throughout this that I adored. That honestly is probably what left me the most entranced with the book.
Which is sad to say because the YA part of the book shouldn't be the main thing I want to talk about when it is a YA Mystery/Thriller. When you mix YA with other genres, yes, you expect those YA elements, but you are doing another genre with it, so you expect that genre to have impact.
And I did enjoy that side of the story in ways, but overall, it for the most part fell flat. I knew the motivation of the killer right away, and I will admit I got the killer wrong, but that is entirely because who the killer was... just didn't make sense? It's like there was a snap of the finger where the villain went from being normal to being crazy.
Look, there is creating fabulous confusion in your readers because so many people could be the culprit. There is making them uneasy. There is building tension in them. Then there is thinking you're smart because there is no way they saw this coming! Newsflash... We should have evidence that it was coming...
The police force also just made some very questionable decisions (never even questioned the twin just because the MC said it wasn't the twin... Not like sisters protect each other). Like, they were better portrayed than in some things I saw, but also just not in other ways.
There is also this scene where a character is suddenly stabbed and I have no idea how.
So I read this book so vigorously because I loved the YA concept of it and I loved the Mystery/Thriller concept. However, I am rating this as a low 3 because only one of those concepts really seemed to feel fleshed well.
I genuinely think I would have enjoyed this book more as a psychological exploration of a girl who felt like this made up version of her was so much better than her original self and those around her helping her see she was good as she was.
I adored the concept of this book. I am a huge psychological fan, and I am a huge fan of seeing how people deal with feeling like they aren't good enough who they are. So you got this made-up twin, Alicia, being who the mc, Lexi, thinks would be cool. There is definitely a theme of accepting yourself for who you are throughout this that I adored. That honestly is probably what left me the most entranced with the book.
Which is sad to say because the YA part of the book shouldn't be the main thing I want to talk about when it is a YA Mystery/Thriller. When you mix YA with other genres, yes, you expect those YA elements, but you are doing another genre with it, so you expect that genre to have impact.
And I did enjoy that side of the story in ways, but overall, it for the most part fell flat. I knew the motivation of the killer right away, and I will admit I got the killer wrong, but that is entirely because who the killer was... just didn't make sense? It's like there was a snap of the finger where the villain went from being normal to being crazy.
Look, there is creating fabulous confusion in your readers because so many people could be the culprit. There is making them uneasy. There is building tension in them. Then there is thinking you're smart because there is no way they saw this coming! Newsflash... We should have evidence that it was coming...
The police force also just made some very questionable decisions (never even questioned the twin just because the MC said it wasn't the twin... Not like sisters protect each other). Like, they were better portrayed than in some things I saw, but also just not in other ways.
There is also this scene where a character is suddenly stabbed and I have no idea how.
So I read this book so vigorously because I loved the YA concept of it and I loved the Mystery/Thriller concept. However, I am rating this as a low 3 because only one of those concepts really seemed to feel fleshed well.
I genuinely think I would have enjoyed this book more as a psychological exploration of a girl who felt like this made up version of her was so much better than her original self and those around her helping her see she was good as she was.