Only Daughter
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By Anna Snoekstra
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1 review
‘An impressive high-concept debut… might this just be the next The Girl on the Train?’ – The Daily Mail
In 2003, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared. She’d been enjoying her teenage summer break: working at a fast food restaurant, crushing on an older boy and shoplifting with her best friend. Mysteriously ominous things began to happen—blood in the bed, periods of blackouts, a feeling of being watched—though Bec remained oblivious of what was to come. Eleven years later she is replaced. A young woman, desperate after being arrested, claims to be the decade-missing Bec. Soon the imposter is living Bec’s life. Sleeping in her bed. Hugging her mother and father. Learning her best friends’ names. Playing with her twin brothers. But Bec’s welcoming family and enthusiastic friends are not quite as they seem. As the imposter dodges the detective investigating her case, she begins to delve into the life of the real Bec Winter—and soon realizes that whoever took Bec is still at large, and that she is in imminent danger. TweetReviews
St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 25th November 2019.
Only daughter. Anna Snoekstra.
Some readers liked this story and thought it was well written, tightly plotted, with an original idea and an unsuspected twist at the end.
Others, however, 'loathed' the book, finding it unconvincing, adolescent, and lacking in sympathetic characters. Holes in the plot were identified in police procedure and DNA testing.
And some were in between and found it just a mildly enjoyable book, a simple story, not especially stimulating but quite interesting and readable.
We talked about the impersonation issue – is it possible for close relatives not to realise that a loved one apparently returned from abduction or unexplained absence is not in fact their own relative but only a lookalike? In this case, everyone had their own motives for believing the impersonation or for acting as if they did. Also a gap of ten years since seeing the missing person, plus whatever trauma might have happened in the interim, would go a long way towards explaining any unexpected differences or behaviours. Even so, we decided that the idea stretches credibility.
We also noted that it was interesting that both the teenage girls in the book resorted to theft and shoplifting because of problems at home; and we briefly discussed other books about psychopaths.
This is the author's first novel, and we thought it would make an excellent film.
