Book Review: First Born by Will Dean

“THE LAST THING A TWIN EXPECTS IS TO BE ALONE…”

Set to be released on 14th April, First Born by Will Dean follows Molly who lives a quiet, contained life in London. Naturally risk-averse, she gains comfort from security and structure. Her identical twin Katie is her exact opposite: gregarious and spontaneous. They used to be inseparable, until Katie moved to New York a year ago. Molly still speaks to her daily without fail. But when Molly learns that Katie has died suddenly in New York, she is thrown into unfamiliar territory. Katie is part of her DNA. As terrifying as it is, she must go there and find out what happened. As she tracks her twin’s last movements, cracks begin to emerge. Nothing is what it seems. And a web of deceit is closing around her.

Rating:

Thank you to NetGalley for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated reads this year after discovering Will Dean last year and loving The Last Thing To Burn and one of his Tuva Moodyson books. But First Born… where do I begin? A three-star rating is being generous because I have so much love for this author, but this book just did not work for me.

I suppose it doesn’t help that I read a similar book about twins earlier this year, so I had predicted most of the plot in the first few chapters. And there are some great twists thrown in, but it’s one of those books where nothing makes sense until everything makes sense. Does that make sense?

For the first 90%, the plot really annoyed me. There were no reasons for the actions taking place. And then everything finally clicks into place, but I had already given up. There was so much that was left feeling unnecessary, too. Nothing came of the parts of the plot that I was excited by, and instead the focus was on a part of the story that I had no interest in.

I’m really sad that I feel this way because I would love nothing more than to shout Will Dean’s praises from the rooftop. I will most definitely be looking forward to what he writes next and forever recommend his other work, but I’m just going to erase this one from my memory.