The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown

 
The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown

My Rating: ★★★

Isabel and Jane were identical twins that were born connected at the torso. Sold to the traveling freak show carnival owner by their parents, their new guardian forced them to become the “Siamese Twins” at his carnival. Everything changes when a surgeon trying to make a name for himself convinces Isabel and Jane to undergo surgery to separate them. The surgery goes wrong and Jane dies, leaving Isabel alone for the first time in her life. However, she quickly discovers that she’s not entirely alone because the late Jane’s ghost comes and goes as she pleases.

This graphic novel tells the sad tale of Isabel and Jane through Isabel’s perspective in the present as well as a series of flashbacks. Both Jane and Isabel are rather naive when it comes to trusting people, which sadly leads to Jane’s demise with the surgery. It also leads Isobel in some hot water later even though it is not entirely her fault. I think that their naivety is very accurate given their age, especially the part where they ignore the advice of older people.

The overall story is pretty sad and sheds a light on the harsh reality of how prejudicial people can be. Lisa Brown did an excellent job bringing the freak show carnival to life with a variety of characters that were there for different reasons. I like that Brown worked to show who these characters really were as people and had some of them talk about what brought them there.

While the story itself is sad, it does have a happy ending for some of the characters. It is a young adult novel that isn’t meant to bring its readers down and leave them there. While Jane couldn’t have a happy ending due to her passing, Isabel is able to discover how to live on her own and find happiness.

I also like that Brown provides some information on why she wrote the book, her initial fascination with freak shows throughout history, and provides a short list of nonfiction books that she recommends reading. I could tell the story had been well researched beforehand, so I was happy to see her touch on that in her author’s note as well as give a list of some of the books she used as sources in her research.

My review was originally found at Beachbum Bookworm where I was a guest book reviewer in 2020.