SYNOPSIS:
Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police as a Super Recogniser, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.
At least she has Rob. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health, in his high-tech, modernist house in the Cornish coast. When she's with him, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.
Until, one day, Kate looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an imposter. A doppelgänger. Is she right? Have her old recognition skills returned? Or is it all in her damaged mind?
Gripping, emotive,original and complex, The Other You is a psychological thriller that explores memory and identity, paranoia and pretence - and asks whether we ever truly know the people we love.
MY THOUGHTS: I loved this book from the settings to the characters, to the thrilling plot.
A doppelgänger: an apparition or double of a living person. What an intriguing premise for a novel. Especially if that doppelgänger is an evil version of yourself. What a mind blowing and scary thought. I was completely hooked by the notion that Rob's evil double was invading the life of Kate and felt for her safety, especially as she was in such a vulnerable state. Her willingness to trust and put her faith in another human being whilst she was still recovering from her accident made her, in my opinion, rather foolish and naive. From the high-tech home in Cornwall with it's high security left me screaming with conviction that something wasn't right and that Kate needed to escape as quickly as possible. Was Rob the loving man Kate saw him as or a controlling, domineering force? Or was the possibility of Rob's doppelgänger really living and breathing in the bed beside Kate?
Another fascinating aspect to the novel was the notion of super recognisers: a person born with the ability to remember a face forever, even from a single glance. I think we can all relate to passing someone on the street and knowing that their face is familiar but cannot immediately identify them. Imagine being able to hunt through hours of CCTV looking for just one face amongst the millions of passers-by. What added to my complete enjoyment of this novel was when Kate suddenly had a feeling that something wasn't quite right with 'Rob' and her ability and skill as a super recogniser was slowly coming back.
I loved the characters in this book, especially Silas and Strover, the two detectives who Kate used to work for before her accident. The alternating chapters from the different character's point of view made the book fast paced and quite the page-turner. There was a lot going on in the book, from Silas' own personal life to Kate's ex boyfriend's houseboat being destroyed and of course the mystery surrounding Rob and his doppelgänger. Although the plot was complex it never felt overwhelming and flowed beautifully. There were so many twists and turns in this novel; some heartbreaking, some far-fetched and some that truly shocked me. I was completely taken in by this psychological thriller and couldn't put it down.
Many thanks to Head of Zeus for my gifted copy and to J.S. Monroe for one hell of a read. Loved it. A 5 star, imaginative and captivating read.
AUTHOR:
J.S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. His psychological thriller Find Me became a bestseller in 2017, and, under the name Jon Stock, he is also the author of five spy thrillers. He lives in Wiltshire, with his wife and children.
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