The Guilty Twin

by Holly Riordan

The guilt will kill you. Unless your family does first… Evan has spent the last decade trying to forget senior year—the panic when Faith Flynn disappeared, the lies she told the police, the secrets she still plans to take to her grave. After graduation, she couldn’t move away fast enough, but divorce has forced her back to her dreary hometown. As if living with her parents at almost thirty isn’t punishment enough, she’s welcomed home with messages from Faith. Or, at least, someone claiming to be her. Fiona has been receiving similar messages from Faith, her twin, the one everyone believes she murdered in cold blood. And it doesn’t feel like a coincidence that this is happening as soon as her ex-best friend Evan has arrived in town. As the ten-year anniversary of Faith’s disappearance looms closer, the encounters grow more disturbing. No one is safe from the mysterious person stirring up trouble in their small town, but Evan and Fiona will risk death to expose lies. Or to keep them.

Genres: Thriller, Audiobook

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2023

About the author

Holly Riordan is a senior staff writer for Thought Catalog.

Reviews

[Myunique Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Guilty Twin came out this year back in July, and I started reading it while sitting on my delayed Delta flight on my way to Nashville for the summer. From the first few pages, I settled in for what was building up to be one long Who Done It? It’s also listed under thriller, but I didn’t find a single thing thrilling about it. Well, not in a nail-biting, edge of your seat, kind of way, anyways.

Here’s one thing I like about Evan right off the back, she doesn’t like Faith. At all. Not even a little bit. You know how people memorialize the dead like saints? Yeah, she doesn’t have that. She never wavers from her dislike of Faith throughout the whole book, there’s not even a moment towards the end when we find out how everything unfolded that she shows any type of care about Faith. Now, while she has this disdain for Faith, she doesn’t feel the same way about Faith’s twin, Fiona, who Evan has been in love with since they were knee-high to a grasshopper.

Evan, as flawed as she is, was my favorite character.

Fiona, on the other hand, was an emotional wreck for a good 98% of the book, and her moods gave me whiplash.

I could have read the entire book from Evan’s POV, but alas, it was written in an alternating style between both Evan and Fiona. Don’t get me wrong, it was well done, the whole story flowed without missing a beat. It was just Fiona’s mood was unstable, and that’s not even touching on the fact that she has OCD.

By the end of the book, the mystery had gone on so long, I almost wanted to skip ahead and then come back to the backstory. But, I stayed the course and finished. I have to say that the ending was not as satisfying as I was hoping, though I spent most of the book trying to guess the ending (kind of how I did Forget Her), and at one point I thought I had open and shut the case. Fiona was written almost manically, and I just knew she was blacking out and having a dissociative identity crisis. Afterall, she had spent a lot of time in the psych ward. Like, did she actually have a twin? I would have probably liked that ending better, but that wasn’t it, unfortunately. Faith is real. The mystery is real. It’s all solved in about 3 pages.

I enjoyed the book for what it was. Definitely a page turner, and keeps you guessing right up until the end, just when I felt like I had it figured out, I was proven wrong. It gave me something to do on a day that I was watching paint dry at work. I recommend for readers who like a little bit of a slow burn, those interested in a sapphic main character, and OCD representation that is outstandingly written.

[Amelia Vegan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thriller with twins, queer rep and someone's OCD saves a life!
No spoilers, you should just read it, it builds up nicely and you won't guess what the plot twist is. Technically there's several plot twists, one was something I hoped would happen and it kind of did, and another one I didn't see coming at all, but as soon as I realised it was going there, I knew that the clues were there from the beginning.
This was fast paced and fun, with two POVs alternating and telling the story of one of the twins either missing or being murdered and the living twin being suspected of doing it.
Also, supportive proud parents! I was so jealous of Evan, she had the sweetest banter with her parents and they joked about her dating life and were the first ones to cheer her on when she started dating another woman. It was beautiful.
Teens with secrets grow up to be adults who will do anything to protect those secrets. There's murder mystery, there's friendship and romance, secrets buried and dug out, guilt that drives friends apart and truth that might save everyone from jail, or might get them locked up.

[Isabella McNicol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick one but a twisty ride. I definitely wasn't expecting the entire ending which I love. I also find thrillers without a journalist or law enforcement protagonist/narrator refreshing. Evan was an insufferable character but Fiona broke my heart. I burned through the audiobook in one day because I really wanted to know what happened.

[Marissa Eckel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so shocked by this book it gave me Pretty Little Liars vibes but more adult like. I was on the edge of my seat. Twists and turns around every page. I loved it. I recommend this if you liked that show it definitely gave off that vibe to me.
Thank you to the author Holly for the chance to read this edge of the seat amazing book.

[Lily | The Bi Library]

"A twisty, sapphic thriller about two ex-best friends. One woman is trying to uncover the truth about her missing sister. And the other is trying to keep that truth buried"

This sounds amazing! And it has a bi MC too!!

[Mary Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential. I wanted to like it a lot more than I did, parts just fell a bit flat for me. The characters didn't feel totally developed, as I didn't understand the twins relationship with each other. I think a better editor could have done wonders for this book.

[Brad]

Riveting! I really enjoyed the story. It was quick paced, which I liked!

However, I will say, as a mental health therapist myself, there is NO WAY Angel would have been Fiona’s therapist. #DualRelationship (you can’t therapize your husband childhood friend…)

[Kara (Books.and.salt) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sapphic thriller with OCD representation???? Heck yes!!

This was such a super twisty wild ride. I always pride myself in solving the mystery before the big reveal - and while I did have ~one~ of the baddies pinned pretty early, there were SO MANY SURPRISES. The last 20% of this book had me absolutely reeling!!

I loved these characters that I couldn't trust, and the OCD representation was phenomenal. I highly recommend this one to thriller fans!