Beside Myself – Ann Morgan

Blurb:  Helen and Ellie are identical twins – like two peas in a pod, everyone says.

The girls know this isn’t true, though: Helen is the leader and Ellie the follower.

Until they decide to swap places: just for fun, and just for one day.

But Ellie refuses to swap back…

And so begins a nightmare from which Helen cannot wake up. Her toys, her clothes, her friends, her glowing record at school, the favour of her mother and the future she had dreamed of are all gone to a sister who blossoms in the approval that used to belong to Helen. And as the years pass, she loses not only her memory of that day but also herself – until eventually only ‘Smudge’ is left.

Twenty-five years later, Smudge receives a call from out of the blue. It threatens to pull her back into her sister’s dangerous orbit, but if this is her only chance to face the past, how can she resist?

As gripping as Room, as powerful as Elizabeth is Missing, Beside Myself is the story of twin sisters, a childhood game with devastating consequences and the slippery nature of identity

Beside Myself is a compulsive and darkly brilliant psychological drama about family and identity – what makes us who we are and how very fragile it can be.

My Review: An uncomfortable and sad tale about a childish prank gone horribly wrong. When Ellie & Helen (identical twins) decide to swop identities at the age of 6 for a day and then Ellie refuses to swop back Helen’s life takes a very different, tragic and destructive path. This is a sad book with an underlying thread of mental health issues and severe depression running throughout.
With some extremely unlikeable characters (especially the mother) this is an uncomfortable but overall gripping book.

About the Author:  Ann Morgan is a freelance writer and editor. She lives in south London and continues to blog about books at http://ayearofreadingtheworld.com

Genre – Psychological Thriller – Read October 2015

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