'You be me, and I'll be you' I whispered.
As children, Sam and Elli were two halves of a perfect whole: gorgeous identical twins whose parents sometimes couldn't even tell them apart. And once Hollywood discovered them, they became B-list child TV stars, often inhabiting the same role.
But as adults, their lives have splintered. After leaving acting, Elli reinvented herself as the perfect homemaker: married to a real estate lawyer, living in a house just blocks from the beach. Meanwhile, Sam has never recovered from her failed Hollywood career, or from her addiction to the pills and booze that have propped her up for the last fifteen years.
Sam hasn't spoken to her sister since her destructive behavior finally drove a wedge between them. So when her father calls out of the blue, Sam is shocked to learn that Elli's life has been in turmoil: her husband moved out, and Elli just adopted a two-year-old girl. Now she's stopped answering her phone and checked in to a mysterious spa in Ojai. Is her sister just decompressing, or is she in trouble? Could she have possibly joined a cult? As Sam works to connect the dots left by Elli's baffling disappearance, she realizes that the bond between her and her sister is more complicated than she ever knew.
About the Author
Janelle Brown is the author of Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and This Is Where We Live. An essayist and journalist, she has written for Vogue, The New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, and numerous other publications.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children.
Industry Reviews
'Absolutely delicious . . . Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up'
Emma Straub New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here
'You won't be able to put this novel down and you won't want to'
Laura Dave no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
'One of those books you'll devour'
Chris Bohjalian New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant
'Janelle Brown has done it again. She has created a deliciously twisty page-turner you won't be able to put down'
Angie Kim Edgar Award-winning author of Miracle Creek
Bestseller Brown infuses this twist-packed mystery with an intense story of creating one's identity, rife with deep family trauma and a low-key, creepy depiction of the dark side of twin intimacy. . . . Brown has upped her game with this one
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A delicious work of intrigue and suspense . . . You won't want to stop reading until you find out what's happened
Kirkus Reviews
Janelle Brown stands out for her surprise-filled plots, insights into contemporary life and willingness to plumb the depths of family dysfunction . . . [she] consistently keeps readers guessing about her characters . . . I'll Be You becomes less a story about estrangement, guilt and regret and more of an addictive thriller that will keep readers burning through pages to find out what happened. When the narration shifts to Elli's point of view at a critical juncture in the novel, a twist genuinely surprises, as do Brown's insights into the very different psychological makeup, perspective and needs of the missing twin . . . a sneakily hypnotic thriller that turns on how Elli's naive beliefs have been twisted and whether it's possible for an estranged family to reclaim their lives and futures
Los Angeles Times
Addictive . . . after you've started, hard to stop until it's all gone. Generously sprinkled with witty word choice and tasty twists, I'll Be You is a page-turner . . . the kind to read on the beach and pass the time snacking away on it . . . The choice to go along with whatever wild turn is around the corner is made easier because each one is so interesting and exciting
ABC News
Her twistiest and tightest work yet . . . a cleverly crafted and psychologically nuanced yin and yang, complete with crackling observations about celebrity, California cults, wellness culture, the fertility industry, and the undertow of addiction . . . the book calls to mind a tentpole of the genre, Gillian Flynn's 2012 hit Gone Girl
Time
Pretty Things author Janelle Brown returns with I'll Be You , a taut new thriller
Bustle, The Most Anticipated Books Of April 2022
