S. K. Tremayne

A year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah Moorcraft move to the tiny Scottish island Angus inherited from his grandmother, hoping to put together the pieces of their shattered lives. But when their surviving daughter, Kirstie, claims they have mistaken her identity - that she, in fact, is Lydia - their world comes crashing down once again. As winter encroaches, Angus is forced to travel away from the island for work, Sarah is feeling isolated, and Kirstie (or is it Lydia?) is growing more disturbed. When a violent storm leaves Sarah and her daughter stranded, Sarah finds herself tortured by the past - what really happened on that fateful day one of her daughters died?

The Ice Twins

Moving to a tiny Scottish island a year after one of their identical twin daughters, Lydia, dies in an accident, Angus and Sarah are shattered when their surviving daughter claims they have mistaken her identity and that she is actually the twin they believed dead.

The ice twins

Colleen

3.5 Stars, but I'm rounding up to 4 Stars

I first came across The Ice Twins last year. I happened to be reading The Secrets We Keep at the time. Although the two books are actually very different, they both concern one girl from a set of identical twins being killed and the mistaken identity of the surviving twin, so I held off on reading it at the time. I circled back around to it this year though. 

The story focuses on a married couple who lost one of their six-year-old twin daughters the year before. Just when life seems to be returning to normal, the surviving daughter starts claiming that she is in fact the daughter that they believed died. This knocks down their fragile house of cards. Which twin actually died? What really happened the day she fell to her death? It was intriguing, but the opening part of the story requires a big suspension of belief. In order to enjoy the rest of the story, you have to accept that neither parent could tell their six-year-old daughters apart. The story claims that the twins were completely identical in appearance down to every single freckle and mole. Even harder for me to believe was that at no point in these girl's life were their fingerprints taken. When my nephew was born, the hospital took his hand and footprints within a hour of him being born. Is that really not a policy over in London? It was not the case in this story at least. Obviously, the entire story is built around the single fact that the parents cannot tell which daughter survived. Without that error, the story would be dead in the water. While I did find that premise farfetched, I was able to overlook it enough to enjoy the rest of the story. Anyway, it is clear from the beginning that neither parent is particularly stable, and that is more the cause of the mistaken identity than any other factor. 

The story was an interesting look at the breakdown of a grieving family. Each of them were going off the rails in their own way as grief and guilt overwhelmed them. But some of those smaller moments showing how truly destructive and dislocating dealing with grief can be were what gave the story depth. 

One of the issues I had with the book was that the writing switches between first person, present tense for wife and third person, present tense for husband. I am not a fan of alternate viewpoints, but it is particularly annoying when those viewpoints switch between first and third person. It makes the writing choppy. At least there were only two viewpoints which made the switches less jarring. As the story progressed, I was not too distracted by the alternating types of point of view. And the story was engaging.

The writing was quite atmospheric with pretty descriptions that were almost lyrical at times, and the tone was melancholy and moody. The setting greatly enhanced the haunting and chilling timbre of the book. The story was set mainly on a remote island off the Inner Hebrides in Scotland. I loved the way the setting seeped into the story much the way the fog is described as creeping across the moors. 

But sprinkled throughout the atmospheric writing were moments of sexual crudeness and vulgarity that completely wrong-footed the tone and often seemed to be put in rather gratuitously. I am not entirely certain why such crudeness became has become synonymous with the Suspense/Thriller genre, but I would likely lay most of the blame at the feet of Gillian Flynn who somehow made the masses think that Thrillers have to have sexual crudeness in order to be intense and compelling. I do not expect squeaky clean novels, but most of that vulgarity is blatantly thrown in for shock factor and does not improve the stories in any way. Granted, The Ice Twins was not nearly as uncouth as say, Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. Although it was not an outstanding book, I did enjoy it more than those two books. 

One of the things that did puzzle me while reading The Ice Twins was that I was uncertain whether this would be a supernatural story or a normal thriller. For most of the book, the plot could have swung either way and still made sense. The haunting setting and enumeration of local superstitions could easily have supported a supernatural route. On the other hand, there were more than enough triggers to set off a good ole crazy person story. While I was open to either route, I worried that the story might end up like The Night Sister which took so long to reveal whether or not it was supernatural that the ending lost all dynamism and significance. (view spoiler)[In the end, this story involved the crazy and derailed humans and nothing ghostly. I wish it would have revealed this sooner, but I suppose it did add to the question of who in this story was sane and who was not. (hide spoiler)]

I would categorize this as more of a Psychological Thriller than your standard Action Thriller. It is suspenseful, but the plot is slow burning. I was never board and finished the book quickly, but it is not plot driven. I did not have a problem with that though; I usually prefer Suspense/Thrillers that have more of a psychological angle. 

The one other thing I wanted to comment about was that I did get sick of reading the word "co-twin" the definition of which is "the birth partner of a twin" or "a twin's twin." Now, I realize that this is a legitimate scientific term, but the number of times it was used by people in everyday conversation (mainly by the mother but by others as well) was obnoxious. It seems so redundant to say, "My daughter's Co-Twin died."Why not just say, "My daughter's twin died"? What, do you think people are going to assume you are talking about a different set of twins entirely? In that context, it does not make any sense that the girl's twin could be anything other than her co-twin. So why bother sounding so pretentious. But that's just me nitpicking.

Most of the negative things listed above did not lessen my enjoyment of the story. What truly knocked my rating down was how abrupt the ending was. It was not bad, but it felt so underdeveloped and needed to be explained more. BIG SPOILER: (view spoiler)[I did not like how it cut off abruptly at the last chapter. Then it skips to the epilogue which is set months later where it slowly explains the random events that took place. This is a tactic that vexes me to no end. It really robs the ending of its steam. And the ending was so ambiguous and caused more questions than answers. You leave the mother and daughter trying to make their way to safety across the mudflats and the father searching for them in a drunken, homicidal rage. Then suddenly it is several months later and the narrative explains in an almost offhand way that the mother was found drowned clutching the daughter's coat and with strands of her daughter's hair in her fists. The father swears he saw the figures of an adult and child at that same spot in the fog with the smaller figure darting away, but then also claims to find his daughter safe and sound in their house minutes later. So what happened? A complete accident hardly seemed likely. And with the language used in the mother's last chapter, I doubt that she committed suicide. I suppose it is possible that she completely went off the deep end and tried to kill both her daughter and herself believing they would be better off, but I cannot entirely buy into that theory. I think it much more likely that the daughter was a psychopath not the fragile thing her father thought her and that she pushed her mother to her death just like she did her twin. (Side note: see how that sentense worked perfectly fine without specifying that it was her co-twin? Hmmm?) The alternate theory was that when the father set off in his druken, homicidal rage and spotted his wife and daughter on the mudflats, he gave into what he said he planned to do which was murder his wife. The bit about not knowing what he saw out there or how his daughter ended up alone back in their house could easily be either a lie or a false memory used to cover his own sins just like the mother created around the events of the death of their other daughter. The other thing I thought was odd about the epilogue was that after all of the father's sections being told in third person, the epilogue is told from his perspective in first person. Is this supposed to symbolize him taking up the mantle of craziness? Or is it simply because the other narrator was now dead? As I mentioned, those last few frustrating pages left me with far more questions than answers. (hide spoiler)] I like a certain degree of leaving things open to interpretation, but this was a large degree of deliberate obtuseness. I would have given it a higher rating if it were not for the vague ending. Still, I did enjoy the story overall.

RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 4 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 3 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 4 Stars
Originality: 3 Stars

Sade A

I want to say 3.5 stars, I mean it was gripping but then at some point It just proper confused.. Really did wish it was more sinister though

Maggie Gordon

Solid thriller that dragged a bit at times. Felt more than Gone Girl than horror, and the ghost story didn't freak me out at all. Seemed more an exploration of two adults struggling with deep interpersonal and mental health issues than a story about spirits. Still a good read though.

Khushi

I liked The Fire Child farrr more than this! None of the characters are good/ relatable and I still don’t like anything about the plot!!!
The twist wasn’t that shocking either :/

The Ice Twins

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