When She Was Me by Marlee Bush
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
When She Was Me is an enticing, and compulsively-readable Psychological Thriller centered around twin sisters.
Cassie and Lenora are permanent residents at a campground in rural Tennessee, Cabin Two to be exact. For the most part, their day-to-day life is peaceful, and they can almost…almost…forget the events of their troubled past.
After the death of the long-time campground owner, a new woman, Sarah, takes ownership and charge. Cassie and Lenora are initially concerned that Sarah will want to change things, thus disrupting their quiet life.
Much to their surprise, she actually seems pretty cool, implementing only minor changes, and Cassie, in particular, ends up interacting with Sarah more. Their life does end up disrupted though, after a teen girl, who’d checked into the cabin next door with her family, goes missing.
The girl, and the unsettling circumstances under which she disappeared, brings back a lot of memories for the mysterious sisters. Both Cassie and Lenora suspects that the other may know more about the events surrounding the disappearance then they’re letting on.
The narrative cycles between the two sisters, filtering in a past perspective as well and with a past that eerily mirrors the present, and everyone’s motivations a little unclear, this story is rife with unreliable narrators.
Both sisters try to figure out what happened to the missing girl, but it feels like a helpless race against the clock, as well as their own personal demons.
When She Was Me is a very promising debut from Marlee Bush. Even though the writing style wasn’t great for me, I still found the story to be incredibly compelling; I couldn’t stop. The characters were well done and I appreciated the way Bush delivered the twists!
When I mention writing style, it’s no shade against the author, it’s just preference. It was more obscure, more stream of consciousness narrative than I tend to prefer.
Nevertheless, the content and the character work kept me flying through. The atmospheric setting was fantastic as well. I loved the isolating feel, not just of the campground itself, but also of the sisters’ way of life.
They had essentially cut themselves off from the outside world and as the intensity increased, you could really truly feel their solitude.
The characters were all so interesting. I had a ton of theories over the course of the story about what was really going on; some panned out, others didn’t. I always appreciate it when an author can keep me on my toes.
Ultimately, I didn’t see the final resolution coming by a mile. It was clever and unexpected, leaving me with a big, sinister grin on my face. I had fun and definitely recommend the audiobook as the format for taking in this story. The narration fit it so well.
Thank you to the publisher, Dreamscape Media, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m really looking forward to reading more from Marlee Bush!