Haunted Sister

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AUG 31, 1998

Part ghost story, part psychological drama, this eerie account of a near-death experience is sure to draw teenage thrill-seekers. Beginning with the sentence, "It was raining on the day I died," narrator Janine recounts how, following a car accident, she is taken to a place filled with "mists and fog," where she is reunited with her dead twin sister, Lenore. When Janine returns to the world of the living, Lenore is there with her, invading her thoughts and learning to control her body. Lenore, who was always the more mischievous of the two, makes Janine do things against her will, like snubbing her boyfriend, Scott, while he recovers from the same car accident; flirting with Scott's hospital roommate, football-hero Rafe; and shoplifting a bracelet. Janine's doctor attributes her patient's belief in Lenore to a temporary multiple-personality disorder caused by head injuries. Janine's problem, however, is more complicated. Lenore is forcing a buried memory--a secret behind Janine's mixed-up identity--to the surface. Despite her heavy-handed foreshadowing and less than subtle rendering of the B-movie good twin/evil twin theme, Littke (The Watcher) manages to make the improbable seem just plausible (and engrossing) enough to encourage readers to suspend their disbelief. Ages 11-14.