The Third Twin by C.J. Omololu
When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia’s guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything.
The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material. Boys they’d never, ever be with in real life.
Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only one suspect—Alicia. The girl who doesn’t exist.
As she runs from the cops, Lexi has to find the truth before another boy is murdered. Because either Ava is a killer . . . or Alicia is real.
- "[An] original, riveting thriller." -- Melissa Marr, New York Times bestselling author of Made for You.
- "Delicious and deceptive, The Third Twin is a twisty-turny thrill ride! I couldn't flip the pages fast enough!" --Kimberly Derting, author of the Body Finder series and The Taking.
- "A classic whodunit."--Kirkus Reviews
Author:
CJ OMOLOLU is the author of the ALA-YALSA Quick Pick Dirty Little Secrets and several other YA novels. She loved to read but never thought to write until she discovered that the voices in her head often have interesting things to say. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their two sons.
My Review:
I won't give a summary this time, since I've got the official one above. But a few details not given are that Lexi is more of the nerdy sister. Once in awhile she enjoys being Alicia, and acting totally the opposite of how she normally is. Her sister Ava is more like Alicia, in that she is all about the boys and dressing to impress. Lexi's goal has always been to get into Stanford like their adopted father. Now, they have always lived with their adoptive father, in fact they have no idea who their real parents are. They were just left on his doorstep. But now there is someone out there pretending to be their imaginary sister. And she looks very similar to them, at least from the photos that have shown up at the different sites of the murders. Lexi wonders if it is her sister Ava and she is just not telling her. We get the story from Lexi's viewpoint. Lexi often ends up being Alicia to go out with guys that Ava is done with. Now both of them have promised they are going to stop. But it seems to keep going one more time, and one more time. Lexi meets a cute boy in a band that Ava had gone out with, and she finds even as Alicia, she likes him, But how will she ever tell him the truth?
The story was very suspenseful. While there were lots of clues that kind of gave me either glimpses into what was really happening, or else the little misleading things to keep me guessing, I kind of had an idea what was going on from one of them that happened early on. That's not a bad thing! I just want to say that it turned out even though I'd kind of guessed part of the mystery, even that took a twist I in no way saw coming to solve it! My only complaint, and this is one I have with a LOT of mystery books, tv shows, and movies, is the not telling people things. Like she doesn't want to tell the guy in the band about the danger to him in front of any witnesses. If it was me? I'd be all about making sure everyone knew what was going on so that they would be more aware of what is going on and would notice that when something happened I wasn't there or whatever. But that's me. I guess it makes for more suspense in the stories.
It's nice to have a standalone story as well. Definitely a great mystery, and one that I'll be purchasing for the high school library I work in, and promoting at the bookstore where I work part time.
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