Review: In Another Light by A.J. Banner (audio)

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing / Brilliance Audio

Published: October 5, 2021

Source: ARC E-copy via GetRedPR & Netgalley / ALC via Brilliance Audio

 

Summary:

The death of a look-alike stranger leads a grieving woman down a troubling path in this riveting novel by A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Poison Garden.

Three years ago mortuary cosmetologist Phoebe Glassman lost her husband in a tragic accident. No longer the hopeful wife and mother she once was, Phoebe is disappearing into her grief and into the quietude of her job – restoring to the dead the illusion of life. Then the body of a woman named Pauline Steele arrives in the mortuary, and for Phoebe, everything changes.

Pauline is unmistakably Phoebe’s mirror image and bears an alarmingly familiar tattoo. Even more startling is that among Pauline’s effects is a faded photograph of Phoebe. Aided by an eccentric colleague, her curiosity sparked, Phoebe investigates her doppelgänger’s life and death – and uncovers surprising clues to a shared past.

Phoebe’s emotional journey soon leads to shocking revelations about those closest to her…and even herself. When she’s driven to the brink, how much of what she discovers can she trust?

 

My thoughts:

This is the third book I’ve picked up by A.J. Banner and she definitely has a knack for delivering a domestic thriller that keeps you guessing right up to the very end. While this book is on the shorter side, it still packs a lot in and keeps you completely engaged throughout.

I love books about look-alikes and so I was immediately pulled into this one. I can’t imagine finding out there someone out there that looks just like me, never mind finding them on a cold, gray slab where you cannot ask them anything about themselves. Now you have to dig into their life without having the benefit of talking to them directly…but that’s exactly what happens here and so the mystery begins. Just who is this woman that shows up in the mortuary where Phoebe works? And why does she have a photo that links her to Phoebe?

I loved that throughout this book, as Phoebe is determined to get answers about this mystery woman, we also get the sense that we might have an unreliable narrator here due to some past trauma. Is she bringing her own heartbreak into this and seeing things that just don’t really exist? Is she hoping for something that really can’t be true? Her character is so relatable and you can’t help but feel for her as she tries to navigate all that is happening.

This book really takes you on quite the emotional ride and I could not break myself away from it. There were so many questions to be answered and at times I thought I knew where it was heading, only to be thrown by secrets that were finally uncovered.

I really enjoyed this book and loved how it tackles some heavy topics – grief and loss and even mental illness – in such an authentic way. I think it’s a book that will appeal to most anyone that enjoys a good domestic thriller as it really keeps you guessing with some great twists and turns. I definitely recommend this one!

 

Audio thoughts:

A.J. Banner’s books translate really well onto audio and I really enjoyed listening to this one. It’s narrated by Vaneh Assadourian, who is a new-to-me narrator, but I thought she did a fantastic job bringing this book to life. Her pacing and intonation were spot on and she infused just the right amount of tension and emotion into her voice as needed.