Book Reiew: The Third Twin by C.J. Omololu

"Sister. She is your mirror shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Somedays she is the reason you wish you were only child."

--Barbara Alpert 

They are identical twins. Comparable suspects and DNA. In this suspenseful thriller with a startling turn, Revenge meets Pretty Little Liars. Readers will be kept guessing at every turn in this gripping narrative, and they'll be left gasping at the dramatic end. Readers who enjoy suspenseful, well-developed thrillers should take this.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

When they were little, Lexi and her identical twin, Ava, made up a third sister, Alicia. If something broke? Alicia did it. Cookies got eaten? Alicia's guilty. Alicia was always to blame for everything. The game is all grown up now that the girls are seniors. They use Alicia as their cover to go out with boys who are hot but not exactly dating material. Boys they'd never, ever be with in real life.

Now one of the guys Alicia went out with has turned up dead, and Lexi wants to stop the game for good. As coincidences start piling up, Ava insists that if they follow the rules for being Alicia, everything will be fine. But when another boy is killed, the DNA evidence and surveillance photos point to only one suspect: Alicia. The girl who doesn't exist. As she runs from the cops, Lexi has to find the truth before another boy is murdered. Because either Ava is a killer…or Alicia is real.

My reaction to this novel...

The Third Twin opens with Ava and Lexi, a pair of twins who appear completely same unless you meet them. It  didn't really live up to my expectations for suspense; I had honestly expected it to be shocking and will make me stop off in the middle of it because of nervousness while reading it. There was some creepiness present, but not enough to really captivate me. Truth be told, I have a lot of problems with this tale. With the exception of Zane, I just don't like the characters. 

Lexi's representation of the main character's utter idiocy shocked me. I think it's too much for her to mess with the cops. She is an awful liar, which is why I dislike her. It was very awful. Her description as the smarter twin does not correspond to what she does in the novel. More specifically, how can an intelligent and responsible twin not think clearly enough to know that deceiving detectives by telling them lies doesn't make her good and doesn't make her get away from all the accusations? How can an intelligent and responsible twin agree to pretend as their third twin just to date boys, which was rejected by her twin sister? It was awful because there was too much lying and pretending, and the ultimate twist was not surprising enough.

I just wasn't into this book. The beginning was alright, but after I reached the middle, everything soon began to fall apart. The narrative needs to be much crisper and the culprit actually made no sense. I believe the author should have remove a couple of the teen drama and concentrated more on the murder mystery. It didn't keep my interest and just seemed silly. The resolution for the problem in this story is something out of a television show  that was terminated in the last generation because hardly anyone watched it. It's just as absurd and improbable as it is for me. I'm not sure if I'll suggest it to adult readers, but I think adolescents would appreciate it, but with discretion because it contains murder.

My Overall Rating: ⭐(1.5/5)