So Cecilia Ahern’s review on the front of the paperback cover of this book says ‘One broke my heart and mended it’, but that’s a lie. One broke my heart and then stomped it into the ground.

Heartbreakingly beautiful is how I would describe this book, narrated by Grace. You see, Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins. And with all the medical bills around their care, their family is falling apart at the seams and they can no longer afford to be home-schooled. So Grace and Tippi are going to school for the first time.

Now this is a terrifying feeling for anyone, but imagine if you’re the person that everyone stares at everywhere you go. The person who knows that people will ask you the same questions again and again without thinking of personal boundaries. School is way more than just ‘terrifying’.

But as Grace and Tippi arrive, they quickly find two fast friends who see through the obvious and see them for who they are. They have their own problems too, just like most of the other secondary characters in the book – they’re all real people. But just as school seems to be going okay, the twins are faced with a heart-wrenching decision that will change their lives forever.

This book was devastating, but just not in the way that I expected it to be. The characters are deep and well rounded – real humans that you can feel complete empathy for. And although they are conjoined twins, each girl has a completely separate personality which is expressed beautifully.

The fact that the book was written in free verse made it much faster paced than it would have been as a traditional story, I found myself consuming the book over 2 sittings in a matter of hours. I’ve never read a book written in free verse before, but I would definitely do so again. I’ve seen a lot of reviews on Goodreads that are critical of this writing style, but I think it felt much more like a stream of consciousness like this.

We are literally joined
at the hip-
united in blood and bone.

And
this
is why
we never went to school.

– – –

Because having a twin
like Tippi is
not
The Worst
Thing
Ever. 

The only reason I didn’t give the book 5 stars is that I would have liked the ending of the book to stretch out a little longer, it ended too abruptly for me. Although I can understand why it ended why it did and it was a very poignant ending, I just wished there had been more!