31st January 2013, Simon and Schuster
288 pages, Paperback
Review copy
Themes: mystery, family secrets, losing friends, feeling alone, having medicine without knowing what it's for, new friendship, accepting people as they are, parents at odds with each other, hating birthdays, making mistakes, moving on from the past, lots of tension and thrills, tissues most definitely needed,
A year ago ten-year-old Emma's twin sister Laura choked to death on a slice of birthday cake. Or did she?
Since
then life has not been the same, her parents are always arguing , her
Mum is over protective and her little brother Rory seems to get all the
attention. Emma thinks she's become invisible, she hates school and
despite the fact that she is super bright and has a photographic memory
she thinks she's really dull. She's even started to hear her sister's
voice before she goes to sleep, who tries to help her face up to her
problems, but without Laura really by her side Emma still feels like the
loneliest girl in school. Then, someone totally different steps into
her world or rather their two worlds collide.
Lexi is an
unpredictable force of nature. She has wild, curly red hair and she
wears an eye patch. But why? What happened to her? Where is she from?
She's a mystery to Emma, a mystery which slowly unravels when they
become friends. Their friendship won't happen overnight and it won't
happen easily but, it will be unique because they have both lost
something. They have both lost something that they have to learn to live
without.
Nayuleska's thoughts
I was gripped throughout the entire book. There's something intriguing about a character who's living through a major loss in their life. The way Emma shut herself away from life is heartbreaking. I can see why she does it but I can see she wants to be comforted. Lexi was an enigma who made me smile a lot. It was interesting the way they didn't gel with each other, and the way they become friends made me go 'aww'. The major twist at the end was something I hadn't expected at all in this 10/10 read.
To read my theory, highlight this paragraph. Ignore it if you don't want a minor spoiler. I've read a vaguely similar book to this in the past, which made me think that Laura was part of Emma's imagination. The pill she is given each day by her parents made me think that Emma was suffering from a mental illness, where she totally imagined Laura. My theory wobbled a little when certain things about Laura were mentioned (including her death), but the way others treated Emma seemed to confirm my suspicions (few at school talkd about Laura directly). I was very wrong in this suspicion. I did speak to Suzi about my thoughts, and she wished she could have done something like it.
Suggested read
It gives me great pleasure to present a guest blog post by Suzi about writing.
I’d been writing picture books for a year when my
agent suggested I try writing a novel. I spent a great deal of time just
thinking and playing around with various fantasies but nothing felt right. “I’m
stuck.” I sulkily complained to my husband one evening. “I just can’t think of
anything that a ten year old girl would like to read.” He listened to all my
crazy ideas and said, “Well what were you like when you were ten years
old?” I thought about it with a bit of a
shudder. I suddenly saw myself all alone at school, shy, nervous and
uncomfortable in the very itchy scratchy uniform. A whole load of memories came
back to me. The shiny black shoes that were too big, the girl next door who
died when a tree fell on her car, the playground squabbles and the smell of the
classroom, my grandfather and his twin sister picking me up from school in his
ancient car which blew out big clouds of black smoke and how I felt the day my
grandmother died. I put down my knife and fork, ran upstairs to my office and
wrote the first chapter of Lexiland.
My sister died on March the first
which was really annoying because it was my birthday.
Actually it was our birthday.
Laura was my identical twin.
It happened very quickly and the doctor said ‘: ‘It didn’t hurt.’ ’. I
said: ‘At least she got to open all her presents first.’ Mum didn’t think that
was funny. I told her that I wasn’t trying to be funny, but I thought that, if
it had been me, if I had choked on a slice of birthday cake, if it had been my
very last birthday ever, I would have at least liked to have opened my presents
first.
But, that doesn’t really matter now, because I don’t like birthdays any
more.
I don’t like Christmas any more either. We’ve had one Christmas without
Laura and my Mum was miserable. She cries a lot now. My parents argue a lot and my little brother,
Rory, talks to the wallpaper.
Sometimes, I hear my parents shouting late at night and once I heard my
Mum say: ‘Emma (that’s me by the way) looks so like Laura that some days I find
it hard to look at her. Sometimes, I think I’m looking at a ghost.’
The morning after that I went into the bathroom and, using the sharpest
pair of scissors I could find, I cut off all my hair. All of it. But I couldn’t
reach the back so I was left with two dark, brown tufts. I thought they looked
a bit like mouse ears so, with a black felt tip I drew a nose and six black
whiskers on my face. I showed Rory and he laughed so loud that Mum came into
the bathroom to see what we were doing.
Mum: Oh my God! What have you
done?”
I wriggled my nose and smiled.
Me: Squeak! Squeak!
Rory was still laughing.
Rory: I wanna be a mouse too
Mummy! Can I? Can I? Please?
But Mum just cried and cried.
Me: What’s wrong? Do I
still look like a ghost?
Many thanks for this insightful read and the first part of Lexiland Suzi!
