The Twin by Natasha Preston
Release: March 3rd 2020
Format: Kindle
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Amazon
Synopsis:
In this twisty psychological thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Cellar, Ivy finds out that her twin sister, Iris, is trying to push her out of her own life—and might be responsible for their mother’s death.
After their parents divorced, 10-year-old twins Ivyand Iris were split up—Ivy lived with Dad, Iris with Mom. Now, after a tragic accident takes their mom’s life, the twins are reunited and Iris moves in with Ivy and their dad. Devastated over Mom’s death, Iris spends the first few weeks in almost total silence—the only person she will speak to is Emmy. Iris feels her life is over and she doesn’t know what to do. Emmy promises her twin that she can share her life now. After all, they’re sisters. Twins.
It’s a promise that Iris takes seriously. And before long, Ivy’s friends, her life at school, and her boyfriend, Tyler, fall under Iris’s spell. Slowly, Ivy realizes she’s being pushed out of her own life. But she’s just being paranoid, right? And Mom’s accident was . . . just an accident. Right? It’s not like she—or Dad—or Tyler—are in any danger.
The Twin Review:
I loved reading this book! It is always fun reading a story of good twin vs. the evil twin. It is one of those books that is somewhat predictable, but at the same time, it is so gripping that you want to keep reading. Iris is conniving, manipulative, and unpredictable, so you really don’t know how she is going to bring Ivy down. At times, I really felt annoyed at Ivy because she vows to get back at Iris at the end of each chapter, but then goes back to being her old scared self in the following chapter. There are many instances where Ivy could have easily taken town Iris, but she decides to take the high road and give Iris another chance to bring her down. So frankly, I liked Iris more as the main character because Ivy came off as the weaker emotional character.
The supporting characters are there, but I didn’t find any of them to be very memorable, including Ty. In fact, the only thing which I found a bit unbelievable when reading this story was how Ivy’s friends and family easily turned away from her and took Iris’ side. I mean, they have known Ivy all her life, and should have given her the benefit of the doubt, rather than blindly believing Iris. But apart from that, I loved reading this book. The ending, especially was shocking as I did not expect the story to end like that! I am not going to give away spoilers, but the ending blew me away and made me feel frustrated but also satisfied in a strange way.
Moreover, I also enjoyed the author’s style of writing. It reminded me a lot of the “Fear Street” books by R.L. Stine that I loved to read back in the day, albeit this was a more toned down version. The pacing is decent and atmospheric, and the author builds up the suspense smoothly. Overall, “The Twin” by Natasha Preston is a thrilling YA novel that I enjoyed reading.
