I’ve been curious about the marketing decisions around this novel because my own forthcoming debut, Sugar and Snails, also contains an intriguing twist. But mostly it’s about family and particularly the strong emotional bond between siblings, an intense mélange of love, jealousy and rivalry with potentially devastating consequences. It’s a wonderful exploration of developmental psychology, research ethics, memory, coming-of-age and what it means to be human. Rosemary’s voice is fresh and lively, addressing the reader directly as “you” without any self-conscious stolen-head artifice. This is a page-turning novel that is both moving and amusing. Rosemary and Fern have been part of such an experiment since infancy, growing up not only with their brother and parents but with a large coterie of graduate students attending to their every utterance and move. It reminded me of my own university studies in the late 1970s, a period of great innovation in experimental psychology. Like most book bloggers of my acquaintance, I don’t intend to give the game away here although I seem to be in the minority in that it was the spoiler that drew me to the novel. Even if you haven’t yet read this novel, you might nevertheless have some notion of the plot, either from the publicity about the Booker-prize shortlist or the concerns expressed in the blogosphere about those professional reviews that have prematurely revealed the twist.
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