Twice Lived

Science fiction aside, this is a double story about friends, family and near future loss. Read on a whim, I liked it... until that ending.

The main character has two lives, in two completely unconnected worlds, and she physically "shifts" between the two uncontrollably, with no warning. These shifters are rare, and usually stop doing this and "settle" while much younger. Lily/Canna is a completely different person on each side of the shift, with few memories of the other side. So in addition to the story of her friends and family dealing with loss (and eventual complete loss), the main character is also dealing with future loss.

Outside of the science fiction, the world building is pretty solid. In addition to the main characters, the story takes both mother's point of views (this shifting began in utero !?). To do this, the author and publisher used different fonts. I liked the differences, but never internalized which font for which character by the end; fortunately there were other hints about the frame of reference.

Like The Twilight Zone, the science fiction may only be here to loosely disguise the actual focus. Near as I can tell this is family and loss, but I was never certain. Last year I read The Other Valley and had a similar response. My review and rating have nothing to do with how "realistic" the science fiction is, but wow, this one is out there. Shifting mid pregnancy? We've seen this character physically shift to an unknown location - tied geographically to the other place? How does that work for infants and toddlers? Perhaps a paragraph about what the characters (or their scientists) know would have helped.

This book was a quick read and around 4 stars for me until that ending. I put those thoughts behind a spoiler tag on goodreads, and will leave them off here. Suffice it to say the ending brought the rating down quite a bit.

I'm glad I read this author, who I hadn't seen before. She has one other novel available, along with a novella and perhaps some short fiction? Will likely check those out.