Both Of Me

Elias’s face brimmed with confidence and I rubbed my eyes. I was helping half of him. I was using the other half. What I was running from had found me.

Book: Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen, Blink, 2014

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience: Girls 18+

Subjects: Mental Disorders, Betrayal, Death of a loved one, Family Relationships, Guilt

Summary: It was just a chance meeting on a plane. No big deal. Yeah, he seemed a little weird and did act like he knew something about her, but she had no intention of being involved further in his life, that is until they accidentally switched bags and she had to go find him to get hers back. She still doesn’t expect to get involved though, just switch bags and be done. But one thing leads to another and soon Clara finds herself taking a trip across the country with a young man who has Dissociative Identity Disorder in search of a place they don’t even know the location of in hopes of solving the question of why Elias goes back and forth between two different identities.

Notes: This novel is very focused on the tragedies that have occurred in the lives of both Clara and Elias. Both feel guilty for something in their past and find themselves unable to live a normal life due to the guilt they are running from. It takes the entire book to reveal what those tragedies are, but from the beginning it’s clear that both are running from something in their past. The book ends on a tragic note with some hope restored for one of the characters and only a little more hope restored for the other. Clara does have an experience with God at one point that leads her to suspect God delights in her. There is implication that the loved ones lost to death are in Heaven when it says, “Above, they would always be with me”. There’s no salvation through grace kind of experience, just a recognition that God cares and an assumption that because of this loved ones are in Heaven and the character will be someday as well.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 1/5

Reviewer: J:-)mi

Romans 1:1-2 – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Thank you to the publisher for proving me with a free review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.