Blog Tour | Book Review: The Twins by J.S. Lark

Hello! Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for The Twins by J.S. Lark!

The cover promises a spine-tingling thriller, doesn’t it? Let’s get right into it…

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publication date: November 20, 2020

Publisher: HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter

Blurb

If you liked Blood Orange you will love this!

From the moment they are born, twins Susan and Sarah are inseparable. Through good and bad, the girls will always be together…forever.

Until they meet Jonny.

Older, charming and handsome, Jonny offers the girls the much-needed love and attention they crave. But he can only choose one and for the first time in their lives the girls find themselves split apart – the invisible thread that binds them severed.

Set-free from her twin, Sarah builds a new life for herself, marries, has a daughter. But Susan’s life spirals further and further out of control.

And now Susan is back. And she’s determined to reclaim everything she feels Sarah has taken from her.

Her home, her husband…her life?

My Thoughts

I was filled with unease from the first chapter, where Sarah finds her identical twin, Susan, at the door after thirty years of no contact. It was not a happy reunion, despite the welcome given to Susan by Sarah’s daughter and husband. And from there on starts a malicious game of waiting, watching, and striking when the time is right. The story carries with it a sense of disquiet and tension all throughout, as if a tightly-coiled spring will unfurl at any moment.

I thought I had it all figured out by around 25%, but I was only partially right. The final twist had me dumbfounded. It is all too mind-bending and vicious for me to even think about. I feel some trigger warnings, such as rape of a minor, violence, prostitution, and drug addiction should be mentioned.

Susan and Sarah’s impoverished and violent childhood, spent unloved and largely ignored, tugged at my heartstrings. No child should have to practically raise themselves in such a manner. Their mother’s motivations remain unsaid, but I formed a poor opinion of her.

The author underlines the closeness of the twins repeatedly, and shows how separation affects them physically and mentally. So it was fascinating to watch how they moved from such closeness to a deep, dark hatred–and especially why the shift happened.

The only problem I had with the book was that it was difficult to keep track of the timelines and the narrator. The story alternates between 1985 (when the twins were teenagers) to 2018-2019 (when they are adults). Even though the years are clearly marked, sometimes there are flashbacks and it confused me. Also, I had to do some back-and-forth reading to understand who was the “I” in a certain chapter–Susan or Sarah.

Overall, The Twins is a tense, dark, gritty, and distressing novel with a cracker of a twist at the end that will leave you holding your head in your hands.

(I received a review copy from Rachel’s Random Resources in exchange for an honest review.)

Get your copy of the book from:

UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Twins-J-S-Lark-ebook/dp/B07Z5K6TPB

US – https://www.amazon.com/Twins-J-S-Lark-ebook/dp/B07Z5K6TPB

Meet J.S. Lark

Jane is a coffee, chocolate and red wine lover, and a late-night writer of compelling, passionate, and emotionally charged fiction.

Jane’s books may contain love, hate, violence, death, passion, a little swearing, and an ending you are never going to forget.

Social Media Links

Website: www.janelark.co.uk

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