Beautiful Lies Author: Jessica Warman Genre: Young Adult Publisher: Walker Children’s Release Date: 8-7-12 Rachel and Alice are an extremely rare kind of identical twins-so identical that even their aunt and uncle, whom they’ve lived with since their parents passed away, can’t tell them apart. But the sisters are connected in a way that goes well beyond their surfaces: when one experiences pain, the other exhibits the exact same signs of distress. So when one twin mysteriously disappears, the other immediately knows something is wrong-especially when she starts experiencing serious physical traumas, despite the fact that nobody has touched her. As the search commences to find her sister, the twin left behind must rely on their intense bond to uncover the truth. But is there anyone around her she can trust, when everyone could be a suspect? And ultimately, can she even trust herself? – Goodreads

Rachel and Alice have had somewhat tragic lives.  The loss of their parents, who were the only people that could ever really tell them apart, has somewhat defined them since one twin remembers the accident and one does not.  As a rare kind of identical twins their identity has always been a little blurred around the edges.  The book is told mostly from the perspective of only one twin and so, as a reader, you quickly realize that reading only one side of the story leaves a lot of mysterious holes in a book that is sometimes very sad, and sometimes very spooky.  The way the sisters are connected, sharing injuries as well as physical features, made the disappearance that served as the cornerstone of the book, very suspenseful.  You  know that something bad is happening, but you don’t know what it is, exactly.

Perhaps just as important as the disappearance is the voyage of self-discovery that the remaining twin embarks upon as she looks for her sister.  Even as identical twins, how well do they really know each other? Do you ever really know what the person closest to you is thinking?  The questions that arise during the search serve to dig up more mysteries and it was an aspect of the story that I really enjoyed. The narrator isn’t totally unreliable, but she isn’t exactly stable, either.  That sense of not knowing what is real or imaginary gave the book the kind of tension that keeps you up after you’ve stopped reading for the night.  The narrator’s voice and its uncertainty helped to preserve the twisty-ness of the plot.  That’s not normally my favorite kind of narrator, but it really worked with this book and kept it from being too predicable.  In the end, I was able to see how the kidnapping would resolve, but the ultimate resolution was still a surprise to me, quite frankly.  If you like plot twists and mystery wrapped in some paranormal elements, Beautiful Lies has just the right balance of both and will definitely keep you on your toes.

This book earned 4 birds:

I received this book as a galley from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Find Jessica Warman online:
Website
Twitter
Facebook

Related Posts

• Related Posts

Book Blast: Sweet Revenge by Rebecca Zanetti

Hold Me Like A Breath By Tiffany Schmidt

The Girl In The Steel Corset by Kady Cross