Ella Sampson wakes up and everything is the same… but different.
She still looks the same. She goes to the same school and lives in the same house. But some things just aren’t right.
Why is her room completely redecorated and completely pink? Why is her hair now long and light, when she went to bed with it cut short and dyed dark? And most of all, why is everyone around her treating her as if she’s a completely different person?
Rachel and Jen say they’re her best friends, though Ella has only briefly seen them in passing in the school corridors. Her real best friend Deeta seems to barely know Ella exists.
Her dad is now back living with her and her mum (whose hair is now grey, not chestnut brown) even though Ella knows that they separated a long time ago.
And what’s all this about an ‘accident’?
When I Was Me is a fantastic psychological and scientific thriller. It’s tense and each page brings a new plot twist or idea. It explores the consequences of our actions and makes the reader wonder what exactly defines who we are.
When I finished this, my mind was bursting with new ideas and possibilities. It is so powerfully written and so convincing. To me, it all scientifically seemed to make sense and there were lots of intriguing concepts.
I’m not interested in science at all but this book made it seem so fascinating! I was so curious I even had a discussion with my physics teacher about the concepts in this book! The novel is based on an area of science we have little knowledge about, so to write a novel focused on it is very daring, risky but truly brilliant.
The writing style was flawless – I felt absorbed in the story and really could not stop reading.
Yet, the ending is debatable. Some would love this ending – it is extraordinarily clever – but I’m not sure if I like how the ending was uncertain, rather than a clean, sharp, definite finish. Maybe it’s just me, but I love the feeling of finishing a book, being satisfied, and placing it back onto my bookshelf and forgetting about it for a while.
But this book is constantly niggling at the back of my brain, I’m still wondering about it, amazed by it, haunted by it. One thing is for certain- read this book and you will not forget it!
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
