The Dopple Ganger Chronicles by G P Taylor (From Worcester News)

Book Review - THE DOPPLE GANGER CHRONICLES (The First Escape) by G.P. Taylor
Review by Jennifer Collins

The opening of this book starts with a setting description and already you get the gloomy feel of the book. You almost immediately meet the main characters, Sadie and Saskia. G.P. Taylor gives you a very clear image of the twins, with pictures to help. It is a clever description as the twins are like mirror images of each other and it is clear that they are very close. They have their enemies and one of these is the Miss Rimmer, who runs the orphanage.
Miss Rimmer immediately jumps to the opportunity to get rid of the twins, as an old lady who funds this orphanage, Muzz Elliot, wants to take them away. Little does Miss Rimmer know, she only wants to take one, but if she doesn’t she will no longer fund the orphanage and it will be forced to shut down. The twins decide it is for the best, but they are both upset inside, and Saskia is forced to leave.
After this point in the story, many clever parallel story lines start to occur, there are murder attempts, another set of twins is found and other things too. There are confusing points to this book, that took me personally a while to understand, there are lots of characters and you can get mixed up with, and the plot is a very strange one, but this does add some gloom to the book.
Overall I would recommend this book to twelve to thirteen year olds, as I found it a bit young for me (nearly fourteen birthday 23rd July 2008, so I may be 14 when it is published) with all the pictures and some pages with only three or four words on. The story line is very clever and if anything a little confusing, but it was a good story once you have read it all, as things come together at the end.