I am back with another review, This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis!
This story follows Sasha, a girl with a fairly normal life and an equally normal boyfriend. They're together because it makes sense. But when she finds out that she had a twin sister, one she absorbed in the womb, her life gets flipped upside down. There is a dark part of her that is wrecking her life - sneaking out with Isaac the bad boy, making rude comments and living life completely against how Sasha does. Sasha believes that her heart, the one that is failing her, is actually a remnant from Shanna's life and that by causing it to stop working, she is going to take control of Sasha's life and get revenge.
Now, I can definitely tell you right off the bat that this book will not be for everyone. I think that is perhaps why it has such polarizing reviews. I personally love when McGinnis gives in to that darkness, like in The Female of the Species (which I adored and will NEVER NOT recommend). But I think for many people, this darkness is too strange and bizarre to really grasp and accept enough to enjoy the story fully.
Regardless of whether or not you are on board with the premise, you can't argue that McGinnis has a phenomenal way with words. The way she crafts this story, the descriptions and plot alike, it is some sort of magic. Right from the very first page, when she is describing Sasha pulling splinters out of her gums, you get that sense of horrified awe that only comes around every once in a while. I was disturbed but instantly hooked.
I'm not really sure I would call this a book about mental illness or a particularly thrilling psychological thriller, but I will say that it sucked me in. If I wasn't so tired, I would have finished it in one sitting before bed. Whatever genre this book is, its one of those ones that once you are invested early on, you have no choice but to keep going until the very end.
There were a few things I didn't necessarily appreciate. While Sasha's friends are just about as dark as she is, they said and did some really mean things, Sasha included. There were also some more uncomfortable racial comments, mentioned briefly in passing, but still there. I'm not really too sure what they added to the story, but they were a part of it.
Overall, I'm glad I picked it up, despite all the comments about it being a weird book - because I guess I was just in the mood for a weird book!