- Books
- Young Adult Fiction
- Both of Me
Both of Me
Author(s)
Publisher
Age Range
12+
Release Date
December 23, 2014
ISBN
978-0310731887
Buy This Book
It was supposed to be just another flight, another escape into a foreign place where she could forget her past, forget her attachments. Until Clara found herself seated next to an alluring boy named Elias Phinn—a boy who seems to know secrets she has barely been able to admit to herself for years. When her carry-on bag is accidentally switched with Elias’s identical pack, Clara uses the luggage tag to track down her things. At that address she discovers there is not one Elias Phinn, but two: the odd, paranoid, artistic, and often angry Elias she met on the plane, who lives in an imaginary world of his own making called Salem; and the kind, sweet, and soon irresistible Elias who greets her at the door, and who has no recollection of ever meeting Clara at all. As she learns of Elias’s dissociative identity disorder, and finds herself quickly entangled in both of Elias’s lives, Clara makes a decision that could change all of them forever. She is going to find out what the Salem Elias knows about her past, and how, even if it means playing along with his otherworldly quest. And she is going to find a way to keep the gentle Elias she’s beginning to love from ever disappearing again.
User reviews
Okay
Overall rating
2.7
Plot
3.0
Characters
2.0
Writing Style
3.0
Both of Me by Jonathan Frisen is YA book with a unique concept. Clara is an older teen girl traveling around the globe, fleeing her past when she accidentally switches bags with the airplane passenger sitting next to her–a good looking but aloof guy named Elias who clearly has Autism Spectrum Disorder. When Clara tracks Elias down to retrieve her bag, she gets sucked in by the mystery of his condition because–here’s the twist–Elias only exhibits ASD traits half of the time. The other half his personality shifts into a charming, brilliant young man who steals Clara’s heart.
I give Frisen major kudos for writing a book that’s not another rip-off of the last YA book I read. There are a lot of other things to like about Both of Me too. The dialogue is funny. The narrative is completely unpredictable. But there are a lot of “thin” characters like Kira and ideas that are never really explained like the borders and what exactly Elias does when he’s with them. I felt like the story needed another 100 pages to flesh things out.
However, my major issue with Both of Me is that I’m not okay with using ASD as a plot device. I know and love a lot of people with ASD and none of them can flip back and forth like that. Plus, without giving away any spoilers, the end of the book provides an artistic explanation for Autism that is pure BS.
P.S. I received a free copy of this book from Booklook in exchange for my honest opinion and review.
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