Sarah and Angus Moorcraft are devastated when an accident leaves one of their darling 6-year-old identical (monozygotic) twin girls dead. As they attempt to recover from the horrible loss of their child, they are also faced with financial problems that lead them to move to a remote lighthouse home on a Scottish island that belonged to Angus's grandmother. As they frantically try to repair the rundown place to make it habitable, winter is coming on and their marriage begins to crumble under the accumulated stresses. And then, their surviving daughter, Kirstie, tells them that she is really Lydia -- the other twin. Is it possible that they have been mourning the wrong child, and how could they possibly have mixed up the identities of their beloved twin daughters? There is definitely something wrong in this family.
Without spoiling the read for anyone, I'll say no more about the plot and action in this novel. It was creepy because, not only were the characters unlikeable, the desolation of the island -- the cold, the wet, the disrepair, THE RATS -- all led me to a type of story that is not my usual reading fare. Psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators have been a dime a dozen lately, and I'm tired of hearing that every new book is the latest GONE GIRL, or now, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN. This book is really not comparable unless you consider that both of those books feature someone who has some real mental issues. I found most of the events to be implausible and had a hard time buying into the various scenarios that are supposed to make the book suspenseful (or "terrifying") and the reader invested in finding out what REALLY happened to the twin that died, as well as to confirm which ONE it was. I would guess that people who like twisted tales set in dark atmosphere might savor this one. It was not for me after all. The conclusion was a disappointment. Every book is not a good fit even for someone who reads just about every type of fiction.
Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the e-book ARC to review.
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