The Other Twin – L V Hay, Orenda Books, 2017
It takes two things to write a novel that’s experimental in tone, with a narrative technique that employs first person present, deep third person, and multiple social media postings, and does so within the context of a crime novel that actually makes sense, with a logical plot and characters with motivations you can empathise with. It takes bravery, confidence, that sort of thing. But most of all, if it’s going to work, it takes talent. And if this book is anything to by, L V Hay has that in spades.
The Other Twin takes its central protagonist, Poppy, back to her home town of Brighton following the death of her younger sister India. But India’s apparent suicide doesn’t make sense. There are too many loose ends, too many things that don’t quite add up, and the more discrepancies Poppy stumbles across, the more determined she becomes to find out the truth.
There is a lot to love about this book. The plot works perfectly; the mysteries, the blind alleys, the red herrings which have important truths in them, too. There are questions raised – there were plenty of moments when I found myself thinking “wouldn’t it be easier if she just asked?”; but every time, the book came through with a satisfactory answer. The secondary characters are well-drawn and wonderfully individual, and Poppy is both realistic and likeable, for all that she occasionally dislikes herself. But best of all, I think, is the way the book merges form and content so seamlessly: that narrative style, first one thing and then something different, those plot twists, which direct you first one way and then another, they work perfectly in a book which is, at its heart, about the fluidity of identity, about people who are ultimately more than their biology or genetics or race or the gender they were born into.
This is a remarkable debut from an author with a fresh, intriguing voice and a rare mastery of the art of storytelling.