Wednesday, April 4, 2018

The Window by Amelia Brunskill-- Twins, Secrets, and a Mysterious Death

The Window

When Anna falls while sneaking out of her bedroom window, her twin-sister Jess is at a loss.  She's just lost her twin, but she also since she has no idea why Anna would be sneaking out of the window-- among other things-- it feels like maybe she lost her a long time ago.

Jess decides she has to know the details surrounding Anna's choice to sneak out for her own sanity-- and soon she realizes that the secrets and lies are leading her to something much bigger than she originally expected.














The first thing that struck me about this book was the awesome cover!!  I just love the simplicity of it and think that it screams MYSTERY.  Next was the twins thing.  I love books featuring twins (PLL, The Lying Game, I'll Give You the Sun, Fangirl), so I was eager to read about Anna and Jess's relationship.

Jess and Anna are twins who have recently drifted apart, not by Jess's choice.  When Anna tragically dies from a fall while trying to sneak out, Jess has no idea where she would've been going or why.  She takes it upon herself to unravel the loose ends-- it doesn't matter to her that the case is closed, she still needs to know the answers to every question.

This book was SLOW, and I kind of liked that??  What I mean is that while waiting for answers about Anna, we got to know Jess and go with her while she figured out who she was without her twin.  I also liked that all of the side characters got developed along the way-- even the adults had full backstories and purposes.  The slowness had me making a million and one guesses as to what was going on, which made it more thrilling to read as well.

I didn't really thing this book was going to get to me emotionally because of the how serious and factual Jess is, but I was wrong.  All of a sudden, I was immersed in all these feelings and I didn't even know where they came from.  It's definitely a testament to good writing that the feels can just creep up on me!!

What I wanted more of: Jess.  I liked that we got to know her, but I also felt like there were allusions to a personality disorder and things that made her completely different from Anna, and we never got to see that.  There were incidents that happened when she was a kid, some of it she grew out of/learned to manage it better, but we never got to know what IT was.  The parents made this worse because they were always acting like they were afraid of Jess, and I really wanted to know the why behind the dynamic.  We also never got to know who Jess was with Anna or what their relationship was really like beyond "they were close".

I did figure out the ending before I got there, but I was okay with that because it was still interesting to read how it all played out.  It was even more satisfying because the book didn't rush us there.

OVERALL: Really, really liked it!!  It's about TWINS and a semi-mysterious death, and I totally think you should read it.  It's an A+ debut and I will be reading more from this author in the future!!

Date Published: 4/3/2018
How I got this book: Thanks to Delacorte Press/Penguin for sending me an advanced copy to read and honestly review
Publisher: Delacorte Press


Add it to your To-Read List!!



My Rating: 4/5








Character: Jess 
Book: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

  • I think the only person smart enough for Jess is Maggie.





4 comments:

  1. The whole time reading this book I felt like Jess might be on the autism spectrum. That's the feeling I got from her. It's just a shame they couldn't go deeper into her personality and WHAT it was that made her so "different". But overall I did enjoy this.

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    1. Yes!! I don't know why I didnt think autism. I was thinking more Antisocial Personality Disorder or something like that, but the not wanting to be touched thing seems more Sensory, so you're probably right. But I wish we got to know what was going on.

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  2. I love books about twins so will definitely check this out!
    Jen Ryland Reviews

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    1. YAY for twins!! I'm reading LOSING LEAH now and it's another twin book :)

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