Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee (review)

Hailey is sunny and adventurous, while her sister Clara is sharp and wary. Ordinarily that would take them on different paths, but they’re conjoined twins, so they’re constantly negotiating their conflicting impulses. Their parents have deliberately sheltered them by raising them in a tiny town where everybody knows everybody and by planning to keep the girls at home even after high school graduation, and the girls have always been accepting. Now, though, Hailey is starting a possible relationship with a fellow artist, Sam, Clara is yearning for new boy Max, and they’re both starting to consider life outside of their bubble. Mukherjee leans overheavily on narrative device at times, but the alternating narration of the girls is thoughtful and compelling. The romantic possibilities add interest, but they’re more an engine to the girls’ contemplation of what adulthood could mean for them, with self-discovery and separation from their parents being the real plot. The dual themes of overprotectiveness and normality are well explored as the girls begin to challenge their mother’s fears of people’s reactions (in an era when everyone’s in the internet, they believe that being “those girls we saw on YouTube” is better than being a frightening unknown). There’s less nuance here than in Crossan’s One (BCCB 12/15) but more concrete exploration, and readers of that title will appreciate this; more broadly, so will anyone interested in independence and embracing one’s lack of normality.