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Synopsis: A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity—that she, in fact, is Lydia—their world comes crashing down once again. As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past—what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?
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Review: Even though I thought this book was... pretty bad, 1 star still feels a little harsh. I am, however, going by the Goodreads rating system, and 2 stars would mean 'it was okay'. It was not okay.
I had read so many rave reviews about this book that I thought I was in for a real treat. I really liked the concept behind it - the idea of not knowing which daughter is alive - and I was interested to see whether it would go down the supernatural route or the psychological route. That was ultimately answered, but everything was just so weakly executed that it didn't make for a particularly exciting revelation.
The main thing that annoyed me about this novel was how extreme and unlikely everything was. I understand wanting a clean break after a life-altering tragedy - moving to a run-down rural island is probably a bad way to do it. The remaining twin had absolutely zero personality outside of her abnormal behavior - I really didn't care which twin it was. As for her parents, their personalities were insanely mismatched and the only thing they seemed to have in common was the occasional desire for sex. Beyond that, most of the book is spent with each parent speculating about the thought process going on in the other's head and jumping to extremely dramatic conclusions, without ever actually communicating with each other. Angus, particularly, seemed somewhat sociopathic.
In short, I found the whole thing flimsy and far-fetched. Couldn't honestly recommend it.
Rating: 1/5
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