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This is a deeply riveting psychological thriller with an unreliable main character and a mind blowing twist at the end.

My brain is fried. Air fried. Deep friend. Stupefied. Name it.

I went into this book blind, never having read anything from this author, and I didn’t know what to expect or what I was getting into. And now I’m not entirely sure how to express the sheer amount of wtf going on here.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the unusual ones (especially when they’re psychological) but.. Wow.

And maybe I should have but.. I did not see that end coming.

Trigger Warning!
Neglect. Child abuse/neglect/assault. Depression. Suicide. Anorexia. Self-harm and more.

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Phantom Limb by Lucinda Berry

Standalone

First line: It was always the same phone call. Always the same desperate pleas.

Twin sisters, Emily and Elizabeth, are raised in the confines of a single room. For the first five years, they know nothing outside of those four walls and one another. Their mother, seeing them as an opportunity to further her bad habits, does the unimaginable.. She sells their ‘services’ for cash.

They are neglected, abused, and betrayed in almost every way.

A lucky break has the children removed from their unconscionable lifestyle and later adopted by a nice couple who devote themselves to the care and rehabilitation of the sisters.

Years later the girls, now young women, remain inseparable. Elizabeth has dedicated much of her life to Emily’s recovery and is still struggling to stay strong and responsible in the face of her sister’s serious depression.. But it becomes more and more difficult as the life Elizabeth has created for herself outside of the narrow, demanding world of her sister’s illness starts bleeding into their secret reality.

When one sister does the unforgivable..
Will their relationship be able to handle the added strain or will it be the final straw?

Four and a Half Stars!

Twins Emily and Elizabeth couldn’t escape the trauma of their past.. Can you?

About the Book:

There’s a lot I left out of this review. A Lot. It’s crazy twisted.

Main character: Elizabeth
Twin sister: Emily
Boyfriend: Thomas
Adopted parents: Delilah and Bob
Friend: Rose, another patient, she’s battling severe anorexia
Doctors: Lisa, their childhood therapist, and Dr. Larson, in charge of Elizabeth’s care in the psych ward.

After spending their lives in captivity, held prisoner and abused by their own mother, the girls can trust in only one good thing.. each other. After they turn five things begin to get progressively worse. Sold to their mother’s ‘special friends,’ the sisters bore the depravity of their situation with all the innocence and ignorance of the very young. Helpless against the evil being done to them.. and this becomes their new reality.

The girls grow to depend solely on one another, clinging to the only love they’ve ever experienced, never knowing to hope for better.

Later.. Elizabeth has managed to eke out some semblance of normal for herself but Emily fell beneath the weight of her depression years ago.

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Overall:

Oh boy..

This book pssed. me. off.

Not the book, per se, it was a great read (if these kinds of books can be called great) Oh no.. it was the kind of fury you get in defense of a person deeply wronged. These children. What they go through is unspeakable and, I can honestly say, it was beyond understandable to me that they ended up having so many social and mental health issues.

(And can someone tell me why their mother is still walking around? I know, I know, we’re supposed to be all evolved as a species now.. but some crimes still deserve a pretty fcking severe reaction. Child abuse being one of them.)

The author kept the twists and turns coming, completely holding my attention throughout as I sat on the edge of my metaphorical seat in anticipation of the next shoe to drop.

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Liked: The writing is on point, keeping a steady pace that spikes and dips in all the right places, it’s easy to get lost in the flow of it. The love between Elizabeth and Emily is a real, almost unsettling, thing. They’re deep connection is as beautiful as it is unhealthy. The characters are distinct and believable, the development of the storyline progressively more intense as more information is revealed, I couldn’t put it down.

That ending was something else.

Disliked: There’s a lot of disturbing content and so much wrong done to those children.. I can see it being emotionally trying for many readers. They saw no justice for the crimes against them, which sparked an anger in me so fierce, my husband was forced to sit through many a heated rant.

I stared at them as much as I stared at my cards. Their laughter seemed real and I couldn’t understand how they could be happy here. I knew by the number of wounds they carried on their bodies that their insides were filled with tremendous pain. How’d they end up in this strange land and who were they before they came here?

Recovery, discovery, growth.. Elizabeth will wade through it all before finding the courage to move forward and, perhaps, maybe even move on.

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If you like them dark? This one will do.

I hadn’t read anything by this author before.. but I will certainly be reading more from her in the future.
Are you familiar with Lucinda Berry’s work?
Have you read this book?

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