Sunday, 24 January 2016

Guy Portman

Guy always writes something to make you think. A rather different twin story here.


Symbiosis

Amazon.com

My review -

Twins often grow very close, sharing their own secret language, and Talulah and Taliah are considered by their own mother to be so close as to be two halves of a whole. They are not equal, though. Talulah leads, even walking ahead of her sister, but Taliah is better academically. Their speech continues to be idiosyncratic and they are moved to a special school. While in special education, they come into the orbit of an anarchist student who influences Talulah and, of course, Taliah is drawn along in her wake.

This is compelling stuff. We watch the girls as they grow up and we see Taliah's struggle to become her own person. I found the relationship between the twins with its 'almost mind-reading' closeness utterly convincing. The tension between the girls’ competing and incompatible needs grew as the book progressed and led inexorable to the story’s climax. A great read.



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