Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

The Last Word Review

A dark story that creeps under your skin. Brilliantly written. Chilling, the stuff of nightmares

Rarely does a book get under my skin the way that Beside Myself by Ann Morgan does. Very quickly you realise that this is a story that you cannot leave alone if you try you just end up going back to it. It is dark very dark and it does creep under your skin.

The story is basically about Helen and Ellie they are identical twins. At the age of six both are very different. Helen being the popular of the twin’s lots of friends and always doing well at School whereas Ellie is completely the opposite some may say rebellious not many friends, you could say a loner compared to Helen and always having to face some sort of punishment for her bad behaviour.

I am sure we have all thought what would happen if identical twins swapped places or mistaken one for another. Well here is that story. One day the twins decide to play a game of just that except there is a catch that will have profound consequences for both of them. Ellie refuses to go back to themselves. Things go dramatically wrong and the consequences for Helen are life changing.

Fast forward twenty-five years and the bright and bubbly Helen is destroyed by her twin her life is in ruins now suffering from mental health problems she has cut all ties with her family and hears voices in her head. She asks herself about the switch did it actually happen? Rarely seen out in public. Ellie on the other hand is now the famous actress.

The story switches back and forth from the time the twins were young to the present day and the hellish life that the bright and bubbly Helen now has a complete and real nightmare that has no end. She has hit the rocks and alcohol seems to be her only real friend. The story of how mental illness takes its toll on the individual is hard going. Having a friend who suffers from Bi-Polar I know how at first hand the devastating effects this has on everyone around them and how the world treats the subject.

The one person she does not want to in her life is Ellie. What if something were to happen and that the twins were re-united with all that the past holds?

Beside Myself is brilliantly written, it is chilling and so dark it made the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. As every new chapter started it brought to life new issues that just knocked you off your feet. I must credit Ann Morgan for the characters, each and every one left me cold in some way, they all have their own issues.

My thanks to Philippa Cotton at Bloomsbury Books for a review copy.

Beside Myself written by Ann Morgan is published by Bloomsbury Books and is now available in all good bookshops.