Dark Thrill reviews; Her Perfect Twin by Sarah Bonner

 



Gone Girl is my favorite thriller of the last decade, and it seems I am not the only one who thinks so because it has become the template for most suspense thrillers that concentrate on marriages. And Her Perfect Twin is an excellent riff on what has become a genre. 

Megan and Leah are twins, and the symbiosis between these two disadvantages Megan in every which way. They hate each other. Leah has become rich and famous, and Megan has stopped talking to her. Leah has written a tell-all book about their dad, who had two families, parading around their dirty laundry has destroyed their mother. 

So when Megan finds a photo of what she initially thinks is herself in lingerie on her husband's phone but soon discovers it is her twin, you can imagine her reaction.

What follows is a relentless and cruel cat-and-mouse play between Megan, her twin sister, and Megan's despicable husband. This takes place during the pandemic, and I loved how well the lockdown is woven into the plot. One of the devices used in this genre is the switch in POV, where the story gets turned completely around. Here it is employed to great effect; the only issue is that Megan has such a strong voice; she is funny, endearing, and unhinged that when we switch to her husband, she is sorely missed. Her husband's voice and later the lawyer's voice are blunt and onesided, and I missed the multifacet, intriguing Megan. But the switch does wonders for the plot and the twist and turns that keep coming, so it is a necessary compromise and leads to the satisfying gut-punch of an ending.