Book Review: Phantom Limb by Lucinda Berry

Oh. My. God! What a darkly twisted yet hauntingly brilliant book! Thank you so much to Amy @ Novel Gossip for the recommendation and assisting me in getting a copy of this book.

Book Description:

Emily and Elizabeth spend their childhood locked in a bedroom and terrorized by a mother who drinks too much and disappears for days. The identical twins are rescued by a family determined to be their saviors.

But there’s some horrors love can’t erase…

Elizabeth wakes in a hospital, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak. The last thing she remembers is finding Emily’s body in their bathroom. Days before, she was falling in love and starting college. Now, she’s surrounded by men who talk to themselves and women who pull out their eyebrows.

As she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding Emily’s death, she discovers shocking secrets and holes in her memory that force her to remember what she’s worked so hard to forget—the beatings, the blood, the special friends. Her life spins out of control at a terrifying speed as she desperately tries to unravel the psychological puzzle of her past before it’s too late.

Phantom Limb is a character-driven mystery that begs to be read in a single setting. The shocking and shattering conclusion will make you go back and read it again.

My Thoughts:

Oh my word, what twisted beauty did I just read!? If you haven’t figured already, I loved this book! The synopsis grabbed me as soon as I read it and I was glued to the mystery between the pages.

From the very first pages, this story is intense and that intensity remains until the very last page! After one of the most horrific starts in life, twins, Elizabeth and Emily have one of the closest bonds siblings can have – one cannot exist without the other… until Elizabeth is forced to.

Set mainly in a psychiatric hospital, Berry has crafted an intricate account of Elizabeth’s stay in hospital. The plot is highly character driven – and the twins are so well developed, you’re right there alongside Elizabeth in that hospital wing as she struggles to come to terms with losing her twin. This intensity, almost claustrophobic feeling is created, and despite some very dark and disturbing moments, I found myself glued to the pages.

If you’re looking for a psychological thriller with a huge emphasis on the psychological element, you need to read this book. Berry takes us so deep into the human psyche, you might need a short stay in a psychiatric wing to recover – with themes some may find upsetting (child abuse, self-harm, eating disorders), it seems wrong to say I enjoyed this one; it was more Elizabeth’s likeability that grabbed hold of me, the need for her to recover, that had me flying through the pages. Berry has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, specialising in trauma and children and that is evident in her writing, the plot is realistic and the themes entwined in this novel are authentic and never offensive.

In 260 pages, Berry created plot twists that make this anything but your average psychological thriller; I won’t go into any details about the ending, except to say, it was the right one and I, for sure, will be reading more of Berry’s books. I can’t recommend this one enough.

This book is available to buy from: Amazon UK / Book Depository

*My thanks to the author (Lucinda Berry) and publisher (Rise Press) for providing me with a digital copy of this book*