Last week a friend was discussing in one of the forums about how if a plot had identical twins, then it somehow it involves a case of mistaken identity in most regional movies for ages now. We though proved to him otherwise, had to agree it was the case of the majority. Now if there were identical twins, it could be acceptable that there could be some confusions due to their appearances, but how different can they be based on their interests, personalities or habits. If you have ever wondered how siblings who are born and brought in similar conditions have entirely different personalities, can twins vary so much given that they have been together even prior to birth? This precisely brings us to the crux of this book Mummy’s Little Angel by JW Lawson.Book Name: Mummy’s Little Angel
Author: JW Lawson
Genre: Fiction Thriller
Characters: Annie, Maggie, Joanne (Kristy) Stokes, Jonathan Davies
Setting: The USA
Disclaimer: Thanks to the iRead Tour for the free copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.
The story begins with the confused diary entries of the mother Joanna and followed by the twins Annie and Maggie, all talking about mis-fortunate and horrific events that has blown the family apart. Joanna is mobility impaired, her husband is shot and is labeled a pedophile, one of her twin is disfigured and suffers from amnesia due to a fire accident and the other twin is blamed for it all and is imprisoned. Both the daughters love their mother and the mother loves both of them unconditionally and equally, though the daughters do not agree on that. They both have been competing for being ‘Mummy’s Little Angel’ all through their lives, even while they were particularly close to and fond of each other – or were they really?
Joanna does not want to seek the truth but she is pushed to, because one of the twin is lying and the other is innocent but how does one find out when both her daughters have the capability to manipulate everyone around them and get away with it as well? Or are they both equally guilty and trying to hide some more dark secrets? Timing could not be any worse for her schizophrenic mother who had abandoned her twenty years ago, to come back to their lives. Is the Gran somehow connected to all these incidents? It is up to Joanna and her brother Rob to face theirs fears and find the true culprit.
The writing alternates between the diary entries and narrations of the the main characters and their mother . It took me a while to get into the story because of the variations in the voices and these changeovers were too soon for my taste. But once I got into the plot after about 30 pages, I did not drop the book even once for the next two hours. The story thrusts upon the reader mystery after mystery and holds the same suspense and thrill till the last page. More than once I changed my guess on the guiltier person, and the plot thickened even after I completed about 80% of the book, which is highly commendable.
I felt the book could have had some dates to help the reader to form a timeline of the events in his mind, especially since these were diary entries. Though the author had the clarity regarding her plot, there were some untied knots or rather some knots needed better explanation. I wish there had been a clearer narration of what happened on the fateful, yet all I received was biased view from both the sides. Okay, now I am just nitpicking, the last chapter or epilogue could have been done away with and a slightly open ended narration could have let the reader’s imagination run riot.
There may have been places that made me feel the writing could have better but hey the making-me-sit-on-the-edge-of-my-seat plot makes up for everything else. Also be warned of the explicit contents like gory violence and rape, scenes related to pedophilia, ritualism and BDSM and mildly abusive language involved. The first book that I could relate this book to is the Gone Girl, though the plots and the writing are nothing similar. If you liked the Gone Girl and you are in the look out for your next psychological thriller, then here is your next book.
Watch out the space for the review of a popular memoir soon!
Pleasure was mine. Looking forward to reading more of yours.
Thank you very much for your wonderfully comprehensive review of Mummy's Little Angel. I'm thrilled you enjoyed the story. Thanks again!