I'll Be You
‘Absolutely delicious . . . Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up’
Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here
‘You won’t be able to put this novel down and you won’t want to’
Laura Dave, no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
‘One of those books you’ll devour’
Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
‘Janelle Brown has done it again. She has created a deliciously twisty page-turner you won’t be able to put down’
Angie Kim, Edgar Award-winning author of Miracle Creek
‘You be me, and I’ll be you’ I whispered.
As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.
But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years.
Sam hasn’t spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli’s life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she’s stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli’s baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.
Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here
‘You won’t be able to put this novel down and you won’t want to’
Laura Dave, no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
‘One of those books you’ll devour’
Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
‘Janelle Brown has done it again. She has created a deliciously twisty page-turner you won’t be able to put down’
Angie Kim, Edgar Award-winning author of Miracle Creek
‘You be me, and I’ll be you’ I whispered.
As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn’t even tell them apart. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.
But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years.
Sam hasn’t spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli’s life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she’s stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli’s baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.
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Reviews
Absolutely delicious . . . Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up
Janelle Brown is a terrific storyteller and stylist, and I'll Be You is one of those books you'll devour. It has a hot mess of a narrator - actually two hot messes, twins - both of whom you will root for, even as you are screaming at them to get a grip. Also? The novel has more twists and turns than the canyon roads that snake up and around Los Angeles
Janelle Brown stands out for her surprise-filled plots, insights into contemporary life and willingness to plumb the depths of family dysfunction . . . [she] consistently keeps readers guessing about her characters . . . I'll Be You becomes less a story about estrangement, guilt and regret and more of an addictive thriller that will keep readers burning through pages to find out what happened. When the narration shifts to Elli's point of view at a critical juncture in the novel, a twist genuinely surprises, as do Brown's insights into the very different psychological makeup, perspective and needs of the missing twin . . . a sneakily hypnotic thriller that turns on how Elli's naïve beliefs have been twisted and whether it's possible for an estranged family to reclaim their lives and futures
Addictive . . . after you've started, hard to stop until it's all gone. Generously sprinkled with witty word choice and tasty twists, I'll Be You is a page-turner . . . the kind to read on the beach and pass the time snacking away on it . . . The choice to go along with whatever wild turn is around the corner is made easier because each one is so interesting and exciting
In Janelle Brown's latest twisty, propulsive mystery, estranged twin sisters must confront shocking pieces of their past when one of them goes missing. From the first sentence, these women will have you in their grips. You won't be able to put this novel down, and you won't want to
Pretty Things author Janelle Brown returns with I'll Be You, a taut new thriller
Janelle Brown has done it again, creating a deliciously twisty page-turner you won't be able to put down. But I'll Be You is much more than a riveting thriller; it's a powerful and moving portrait of the fiercely tenacious bonds of familial love. With her trademark beautiful writing, depth of emotion, and sharp insights, Brown explores the dangers that lurk behind the seductive worlds of Hollywood child stardom and self-help culture. I loved this novel
Her twistiest and tightest work yet . . . a cleverly crafted and psychologically nuanced yin and yang, complete with crackling observations about celebrity, California cults, wellness culture, the fertility industry, and the undertow of addiction . . . the book calls to mind a tentpole of the genre, Gillian Flynn's 2012 hit Gone Girl
Bestseller Brown infuses this twist-packed mystery with an intense story of creating one's identity, rife with deep family trauma and a low-key, creepy depiction of the dark side of twin intimacy. . . . Brown has upped her game with this one
A delicious work of intrigue and suspense . . . You won't want to stop reading until you find out what's happened