Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

This is a psychological drama about identical twin girls. The 67 short chapters alternate between the story of the two girls as children, gradually progressing to adulthood, and the present day, where the twins are in their mid thirties, one in a coma and the other living in squalor.

At age six the twins, Helen and Ellie, decide to swap clothes and pretend to be each other. The problem comes when Ellie refuses to switch back. The adults don't believe Helen's protests and continue to call her Ellie. Helen's frustration mounts causing her to act out and leading to a hatred of Ellie. As an identical twin myself, I found it difficult to believe that the mother wouldn't use some sort of freckle or birth mark to tell the twins apart.

The story raises lots of issues around identity and mental health. I read it quickly, eager to find out what had happened to both girls. The chapters about the girls' childhood begin in the first person from Helen's perspective but switch to the second person from chapter 24; I found the repetition of the word you slightly annoying, but other than that I enjoyed the book.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Published in 2012, this was J.K Rowling's first adult novel. It has since been made into a BBC miniseries. In the small town of Pagford, the death of a councillor leads to a vacancy on the parish council. A sink estate know as The Fields sits within the parish boundaries of the otherwise genteel town. The council is split between those councillors who would like to see the boundaries changed so that The Fields becomes part of  neighbouring Yarvil, and those who think the people of Pagford should be doing more to help the Fielders. Particularly contentious is the fact that children who live in The Fields are eligible to go to the much sought after local school. Everyone wants the new councillor to be someone who sides with them on the boundary issue. 

The book is about privilege. It shows that bad parenting is not limited to any particular socio-economic group, and that middle class families are usually better at masking their dysfunction than working class or non-working families. 

The characters Rowling creates are both realistic and exaggerated. Hardly any of them are likeable. Teenagers hate their parents, parents bully their children, seemingly dutiful wives quietly despise their husbands; this makes the book truly unputdownable!

I created a character map to help me see where the book was going; it made who the main characters were more obvious. It's definitely something I'll do again. 

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The story is written from the perspective of Jimmy Flick. Jimmy is the autistic son of a working class Australian couple. The story begins in the late 80s when Jimmy is six.  It reflects the fact that Autism wasn't widely recognised at the time. The word is never mentioned, instead Jimmy is described as retarded, special or different.

Jimmy's mum has asthma and his father has a drink problem. Tales of domestic violence are narrated through the eyes of a child with Autism.

What makes the story special is the insight it provides into Jimmy's thought process. Jimmy sees lines joining the people he loves to one another. He is aware of his body and how it speeds up and slows down as he heads towards a meltdown or before he begins to run around in circles. I used to think that children with Autism were cold and treated people like objects; I've recently learned that they are often oversensitive and treat objects as if they had feelings. This is reflected in the book.

Mid way through the book I began to suspect that nothing much was going to happen, but that all changed and it turned out to be great read. I'll finish with an extract as you've really got to read the book to get a feel for how Jimmy sees the world. The passage below is Jimmy meeting Ned the dog.

"I touched Ned's head with my fingers and a small current entered my hand wires. We couldn't have a dog at home because its fur would clog Mum's air ducts."

"Ned sat on his back legs and I went closer. Ned didn't blink as he took in the scent of me and made his decision. I looked into his eyes and I saw myself inside them...I felt my cells slowing down until they spun at the same speed as Ned's; there was no difference."