I’ll Be You by Janelle Brown
Publisher: Random House
Pub Date: 4/26/2022

Thank you to Random House for the free finished copy and PRH Audio for the free audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review. 

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

GoodReads Synopsis: Two identical twin sisters and former child actors have grown apart—until one disappears, and the other is forced to confront the secrets they’ve kept from each other in this twisty suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things.

“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. They fell asleep to the sound of each other’s breath at night, holding hands in the dark. 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.

I’ll Be You shows Janelle Brown at the top of her game: a story packed with surprising revelations and sharp insights about the choices that define our families and our lives—and could just as easily destroy them

Review: I’ll Be You is the second book I’ve read from Janelle Brown. This psychological thriller dives into former child actor lives, twins, strained relationships, and secrets. Overall, I really enjoyed this one! From the first page, I had no idea where the story was going to go. The twists and turns of each page has me curious what the end game was going to be. This is definitely a character driven story and it is a bit of a slow burn. I really loved that not only we got read perspectives from the twins (Sam and Ellie), but there were also now and then chapters within each perspective. I mostly listened the audiobook which Julia Whelan and Kate Rudd narrate. I loved their narrations which helped me get invested in the story further. The only part I wasn’t sure how I felt was the ending, but I won’t mention any spoilers. The author discusses a lot of heavy subjects in this book so read with care if you decide to pick up (I won’t list them here as some of the subjects may be spoilers). Highly recommend picking up I’ll Be You if you like twisted thrillers!