The Twin

February 15, 2020
After a family tragedy, 16-year-old Ivy Mason hopes to reconnect with her aloof identical twin sister, Iris--but Iris has other plans. When Ivy's parents divorced 10 years ago, Ivy stayed with her father while Iris went to live with their mother. When their mother dies after falling off a bridge while jogging, Iris comes to live with Ivy and their father. Narrator Ivy is reeling (she even goes to therapy), but Iris seems strangely detached, only coming to life when Ivy introduces her to her best friends, Haley and Sophie, and her quarterback boyfriend, Ty. However, Ivy isn't thrilled when Iris wants to change her class schedule to match hers, and it's not long before Iris befriends Ivy's besties and even makes plans with them that don't include Ivy. Iris even joins the swim team where Ivy is a star swimmer. As Iris' strange behavior escalates, Ivy starts to suspect that their mother's death might not have been an accident. Is Iris up to no good, or is Ivy just paranoid? In the end, readers may not care. There are few surprises to be found in a narrative populated by paper-thin characters stuck fast in a derivative plot. Even a jarring final twist can't save this one. Most characters seem to be white, but there is some diversity in secondary characters. A lackluster take on a well-worn trope. (Thriller. 13-18)

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February 21, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Identical twins Ivy and Iris have never been close. When their parents divorced six years ago, Ivy stayed with her father in their quiet small town, and Iris moved to the city with their mother, who subsequently died in a tragic accident. When Iris moves back in with Ivy and their father, Ivy notices something strange about her: Iris is secretive and sneaky and doesn't seem to have any friends. At first Ivy writes off these quirks as grief, but soon it starts to feel as if Iris doesn't want to be a part of her life, she wants to take over Ivy's life: her friends, her teachers, even her spot on the swim team. As Iris gets bolder, Ivy gets more and more suspicious, but the weirder things get, the less people believe her. With a fairly straightforward plot, readers looking for multiple twists may be disappointed, but Ivy is a sympathetic character, and rooting for her makes the pages fly. Readers will either love the ending or hate it, but either way, it's memorable. VERDICT An easy sell to fans of Karen McManus's One of Us Is Lying and Ashley Elston's This Is Our Story, this fast-paced thriller will be a hit in any teen collection.-Mandy Laferriere, Fowler Middle School, Frisco, TX

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