Tuesday 22 January 2019

Louis & Louise by Julie Cohen

Synopsis (from Goodreads) 

Pages: 320 
Publisher: Orion 
Released: 24th of January 2019 


ONE LIFE. LIVED TWICE.

Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final 'e'.

They have the same best friends, the same red hair, the same dream of being a writer, the same excellent whistle. They both suffer one catastrophic night, with life-changing consequences.

Thirteen years later, they are both coming home.



Trigger Warnings: rape, suicide, childbirth

What I Have to Say 

A fascinating thought exercise into how gender and the way people treat you because you are one gender or another. Louis and Louise are created carefully to be recognisably the same person, but the way that their lives have developed change the way their life goes. It's interesting how something as small as the fact that they make friends with the same gender as children, both of them making friends with a twin boy and girl, but with Louis being closer to the boy and Louise being closer to the girl. 

In the early stages, it was a little repetitive. Hearing both Louis and Louise's birth twice was a bit dull, even though they had the viewpoint from a different parent for each child. But soon it moved to either focusing on one of the Lou's at a time or talking about them both with a neutral They pronoun. 

I honestly wasn't sure what I'd think of this book when I requested it. I thought it might be interesting, but wasn't sure what it would be like, but I really enjoyed it. I thought it was well written and the two different versions of Lou were really well written and engaging. 

An interesting concept and a really engaging story. 


My thanks go to Orion and Netgalley for providing me with this copy for review. 


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