The twin by Natasha Preston

Random House, 2020. ISBN: 9780593124963. 336pp.
(Age: 15+) Recommended. Ivy and Iris are twins, separated when their parents divorced, Ivy staying with her father, and Iris going with her mother. They still saw each other intermittently, but now they are thrown back together again, when their mother dies in an accident whilst jogging across a bridge. It's six years since they were all living together - and it feels really strange. They were never close as sisters - too dissimilar to feel a real connection despite being twins. Ivy feels uneasy about the way Iris wants to step into her life, wear her clothes, attend all the same classes at school, and meet up with her friends. What happened to Iris's last lot of friends? Iris ranges from cool aloofness to sudden tears that she seems able to conveniently turn on like a tap. The tension builds as Iris gains in popularity regularly sidelining Ivy, and isolating her. Her manipulations lead to Ivy losing the trust of her friends, and even her father. At least she still has her boyfriend and her counsellor . . . for now.
This is a thrilling page-turner that will keep you reading, wondering about what is going on with Iris - could she be a psychopath? Why is she intent on infiltrating and destroying Ivy's relationships? What happened the night their mother died? Readers of mystery thrillers will enjoy the twists of this story until the very last page. Themes: Mystery, Grief, Psychopath.
Helen Eddy