The Other Sister
The Other Sister
By: Jessica R. Patch
[Fulfilled ‘A book published in 2025’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
“I assumed I was walking into a happily-ever-after, but now… now I can’t help but think I might have walked into a horror film.”
Gasp. That was intense! What a brilliantly crafted thriller!
I loved this book. Although it had dark themes, I thought Patch did a great job shaping it into a redemption story and bringing the light into the darkness (just like she did with The Garden Girls). And the twists were spot on! I did suspect some of them, but there were also ones I didn’t see coming! Even the ones I figured out, I’m not mad about it. I would have been mad if she didn’t go that direction.
The title is perfect, the premise compelling, and the execution thrilling.
The basic premise is this:
Charlotte has been in and out of foster homes due to her mother’s drug addiction. When her mother dies of overdose, Charlotte receives a box of her mother’s things, including the surprising knowledge that Charlotte has an identical twin.
Charlotte finds and contacts her twin, Acelynn, to meet up with her in Chicago, but when they’re together, Charlotte’s foster brother and close friend gets himself in trouble with a mobster. Things go bad fast and Charlotte witnesses the murder of not only her friend, Tommy, but also Acelynn. Her only escape route now is to lay low at Acelynn’s house, using her funds to help her find a more permanent way to disappear.
But of course, she is spotted and forced to fess up to her true identity or play the part of Acelynn until she can figure a way out. Charlotte’s own sketchy past has given her the skills to pull it off.
“We all keep certain things about ourselves locked deep down. No one knows every single thing about us or our thoughts. I even try to hide truths from my own self.”
But instead of a dream life, it’s a nightmare. There’s a serial killer on the loose nearby and apparently Acelynn was in a bit of a mess before she went to Chicago.
“I’m not sure I’ve met a single person in Acelynn’s life who isn’t pretending to be someone they aren’t. And that includes me.”
Charlotte’s abilities and street smarts are put to the test as she maneuvers a life and circle she doesn’t know, a suspicious circle Acelynn was at the middle of… with a target on her back.
“I’ve survived a lot. But can I survive this many secrets and knives plunging into my back?”
Though there is no swearing in this book, the darkness is real. There are no graphic descriptions or grisly scenes, but one of the themes in this book is about the evil in our hearts— what are we really capable of?
“Maybe we’re all coexisting, both sides fighting against each other. Sometimes the beauty wins, and sometimes it loses to the beast.”
“I’m believing more than ever that maybe it’s not our upbringing or financial status or even education that shapes us, but our hearts. And our hearts seem to all be dark and wicked to the core.”
Patch uses this identical twin trope to explore the similarities and differences (nature or nurture) between Charlotte and Acelynn— born from the same drug addict mother, but one was a product of the system and the other was adopted, now living a life of luxury and influence.
As Charlotte finds out more and more about Acelynn’s life and the people who fear her, she finds herself introspective, knowing the things she, herself, is capable of, and wondering what’s in their DNA and can she escape the evil intent she finds in her own heart?
Throughout the book we also get chapters titled ‘Then’ where a woman is sharing about her disturbing daughter:
“Other parents would judge me if they knew how terrified of my daughter I am. But they don’t know the evil I live with. The fear that always haunts me, forcing me to keep my mouth shut. They don’t have a child like mine. Vindictive. Evil. A monster. A child they fear.”
These are the darkest parts of the book as we learn the extent to which this daughter is a sociopath, doing evil things and blaming others for it and gaining power by gaining secrets, while the mother is drugged and always on the precipice of being sent away to a psychiatric facility.
As readers we are trying to identify who this sociopathic girl is and what the fallout will be when she strikes in the present.
That’s the true question of this book: how is this all connected? Or is it?
The web woven in this book was phenomenal and strong. Perhaps after sitting with it longer I might think of a loose end, but my first and second thoughts are that no, Patch covered everything and she did a fantastic job!
I wish I could read it for the first time again!
Was it too dark?
Patch actually addresses this question as she talks about one reviewer’s negative thoughts on the book saying it needed more mention of God. I found the blog post HERE and if this is a question you’re asking, her defense may be helpful for you to read.
I’ve read a lot of secular thrillers and some that are really dark, sometimes making me feel disturbed when I’m done. I did not feel that with this book at all. This book does have light and hope and truth that other dark thrillers don’t.
In most secular thrillers there may be a ‘good ending’ to some extent but there isn’t usually any sort of redemption. You’re just stuck with the twisted story.
The reality is that there is darkness in the world. And there is darkness in our hearts.
“No one’s life is filtered on the inside. We’re all a bunch of messy, broken people pretending. Except for those who are free.”
Patch uses the detective character, Christian Patrick, as the light-bringer, almost a Christ figure. In a genre where distrust is a key element, I found it nice to have a character I could trust. Christian is that character.
“He saved me in spite of my failures and flaws, and has kept the door open for confession and truth.”
I liked the illustration Christian gives Charlotte at some point in the book when he’s investigating her and she’s trying to obtain information from him. She is using Acelynn’s interior design job as a way to infiltrate Christian’s house and access his notes on the case. They are discussing new paint colors for his house.
Charlotte- “You know you can paint over wallpaper. Saves time.”
Christian- “I could. But when you paint over another layer like that, it eventually peels, and what’s underneath is revealed. I find stripping away the old, even if it appears pretty, is the right way to go about it. It’s so much easier to work with a completely bare source. It’s fresh and clean and ready for color. I don’t mind the time it takes. I’ll be happier with the results.”
Such a good illustration and a natural way to introduce truth into the story without making it preachy. The only way to break free from the chains of darkness in our hearts is to become a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. We can’t just ‘cover it up’ and make it look nice on the outside. We need a complete overhaul.
Patch doesn’t share the gospel message word for word, so I would bet that some people reading this book may not fully get where she’s going with some of the subtle hints (it’s hard for me to know what they’ll think) but I think the light is hard to miss.
Along these same lines, we have Charlotte’s discontent with her own life and her desire for what others have. I thought this was a really profound line Patch wrote in regards to that:
“Want is an open grave that needs to be constantly filled.”
So yes, we have wickedness in this story, but we also have light and truth and I can attest that this reads different than your typical secular twisted psychological thriller even if God isn’t mentioned on every page.
Patch says in that blog that instead of telling: “I’d rather SHOW the brokenness. I’d rather use other characters to reveal parts of her heart–corruption, lies, justification of sin, wickedness and even depravity.”
I think Patch’s message is clear: Each of us has brokenness in our hearts, a depraved nature regardless of our upbringing, because we are all sinners. Sin is a path of destruction, an open grave that wants more and more. But we are not without hope. Even when we feel we have done too much and that we are outside the reach of grace, we find an outstretched hand beckoning us to come clean, to free ourselves from the chains of our sin.
And I would agree with Patch when she says, “[My God] is an all consuming fire whether he’s spoken of once or 8 times or 800.”
If you feel convicted to not read this book, by all means, stick to your convictions, but I think Patch’s writing has a great quality to it that invites readers who would not normally pick up a ‘Christian’ book to take in a story that is not afraid to enter into the real mess that we know is in the world, and offer light and hope in a way they may be more willing to hear.
It offers opportunities for us as readers to consider and wrestle with the darkness in our own hearts and the things like discontent, lies, and justification for our sin that we may need to come to terms with.
Recommendation
If you enjoy a good thriller, I would definitely recommend this book! Even if you’re generally put-off by Christian fiction, I would give this book a chance.
If you really try to avoid books that have some dark themes, then it may not be the book for you, but even with the darkness I will reiterate that there is no swearing or graphic scenes and there is plenty of light that contrasts with the darkness.
Jessica Patch is up there for some of my favorite authors and I look forward to reading more of her work!
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
[Content Advisory: no swearing; dark themes of a sociopathic child, a serial killer, abuse, infidelity; nothing graphic is described in detail, no sex scenes but sexual things are referenced]
This book releases April 22, 2025. You can pre-order/order using my affiliate link below.
Share this book review to your social media!