The Other Me By Sarah Zachrich Jeng
3.5 STARS
A birthday party, a time lapse, a door opening into another life.
One minute Kelly is partying in Chicago and the next she is in Michigan. She had only stepped from one room into another. Her head is pounding, her memories fuzzy, her emotions disconnected. She begins to question what is real. Her memories aren't matching up with reality.
I would have enjoyed more of the Sci-Fi angle with more focus on the tech company (Genie) and some of its world building aspects. This part intrigued me. It also could have filled in a few open plot holes.
This was still an intriguing, slow-burn mystery. A house of mirrors. Speculative fiction with some sliding door vibes.
Thanks to NG and the publisher for my review copy. OUT on 8-10-21
0593334485 Haven’t we all at one time or another pondered what our lives might have been like had we made different choices when we were younger? And what if you were given the opportunity to actually live that life?
But, what if YOU weren’t the one to make that decision!
Kelly is living the life of a struggling artist in Chicago. She suddenly finds herself attending a party in Michigan with her husband. Problem is, Kelly has absolutely no recollection of being married. For that matter, any part of this life🤷🏻♀️.
Will Kelly remain here in this life? Can she get the answers to reveal how exactly she wound up here in the first place?
This was a cleverly developed thriller that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have to admit I got just a bit lost on the sci-fi part of it. My brain has a bit of difficulty thinking outside the box and this one stretched my abilities to the limit!🤪
This was a debut from a very talented new author. Now on my radar and looking forward to more!
A buddy read with Susanne
Posted to: https://books-are-a-girls-best-friend...
Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss and Berkley Publishing. 0593334485 A bit of a grower, but definitely not a shower.
Kelly is a 29-year old artist living in Chicago. She’s at her best friend’s art show. During the night, she opens a door that turns into…
Kelly is a 29-year old wife living in her hometown of Michigan. It’s her birthday, and while she remembers her Chicago life, it seems she is stuck in some sort of Sliding Doors-esque world where her other life might not have happened…
...or are both scenarios legitimate?
Sounds super intriguing, right?
I’ll be brief so I don’t spoil anything.
I almost DNF’d multiple times through 45%.
I unexpectedly gained a bit of interest after that.
I still didn’t like the direction it went in.
Some (all?) of the characters were so unlikable, and I had a hard time caring about them.
I had to let suspension of disbelief run rampant.
I didn’t fully understand the logic of the story when all was said and done.
I just didn’t love it, but...
Great writing from a debut author. I see promise, and I will grab her next book as soon as I can.
There have been some phenomenal ratings/reviews for this book, so please read those too.
2.5 stars
I kindly thank Berkley for a widget of the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Expected Publication Date: 8/10/21.
Review also posted at: https://bonkersforthebooks.wordpress.com 0593334485 For me, 2021 has been an outstanding year for debut authors!
I haven't seen The Other Me talked about as much as some other books but it's a really good sci-fi thriller that deserves to be read.
It's kinda Black Mirror meets Sliding Doors and has a strong feminist thread throughout.
There's only one narrator, Kelly, who's celebrating her 29th birthday at her best friend's art showing. She walks through a doorway in the gallery and steps into a different life. A life where she still lives in her hometown and is married to a guy she was friends with in high school.
She has duel memories of both lives and the story is about her, not only trying to find a way back to her 'original' life, but exploring herself to figure out if she even WANTS to go back.
👩🚪👩🚪👩🚪👩🚪👩🚪👩🚪
𝘖𝘯 𝘢 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺. 𝘐 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳 - 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘳 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰, 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘯-𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳-𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘊𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘤 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦....
I've seen this in books and movies.... people naming their car. I've never, nor do I know anyone who has but I like the idea and would love to hear some of the names if any of you have done it! 0593334485 The Other Me by Sarah Zachrich Jeng is an entertaining and creative debut novel!
Two different lives. The one she lived. The one she never knew was there. Until now!
In the blink of an eye, Kelly goes from leading a single life as a struggling artist in Chicago to living a married life in the small town in Michigan where she grew up. She walks through a door and into a completely different life. How is that possible?
Oddly though, she has memories of this Michigan life. She's married to Eric, someone she knew in high school but just barely. She has memories of dating him, attending and graduating from the same college, and starting a life together 12 years ago. How can she have memories of a life she never lived?
Her memories of her Chicago life remain with her, too. She remembers going to art school on a scholarship, settling in Chicago's art world, living with roommates, she even remembers where she was and what she was doing before walking through a door and into a different life.
Kelly is convinced she needs to go back to Chicago for a view of the single life she remembers. Will it give her the answers she's looking for? Would anyone believe her if she told them her story and who can she trust enough to tell it to?
This compelling story is told entirely in the first-person voice of Kelly. A bit of a slow burn in the first half with the details necessary for character building and the deep backstories. It moves along quickly in the latter half and allows the reader to enjoy how the details come together.
I read the ARC along with listening to the audiobook which I love to do. The audiobook is narrated by Nicole Zanzarella who does an amazing performance with the protagonist's heart wrenching narrative. Her gender voicing skills are right on, as well!
As a reader who begs to be entertained rather than just satisfied, this one did all of that! Sci-Fi allows me to suspend belief and embrace the possibilities and creativity of the author. This is exactly how I enjoy time-travel written, with a bit of suspense and lots of detail! I will definitely be looking to see what this author comes up with next!
4.5 stars rounded up for the author's creativity!
Thank you to Elisha at Berkley for a widget of this ARC through NetGalley. It has been my pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review. This book is now available. 0593334485
Sarah Zachrich Jeng º 5 Free download
Two lives. The one you wanted. The one that wanted you.
Her birthday should be like any other night.
One minute Kelly’s a free-spirited artist in Chicago going to her best friend’s art show. The next, she opens a door and mysteriously emerges in her Michigan hometown. Suddenly her life is unrecognizable: She's got twelve years of the wrong memories in her head and she's married to Eric, a man she barely knew in high school.
Racing to get back to her old life, Kelly's search leads only to more questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust him, but everything she discovers about him—including a connection to a mysterious tech startup—tells her she shouldn't. And strange things keep happening. The tattoos she had when she was an artist briefly reappear on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric that he says never happened, and her relationships with loved ones both new and familiar seem to change without warning.
But the closer Kelly gets to putting the pieces together, the more her reality seems to shift. And if she can't figure out what happened on her birthday, the next change could cost her everything... The Other Me
Another brain cell fryer, nerve bender, mind number Sliding Doors meets Fringe with Russian Doll vibes kind of sci-fi without science premise! Hell yeah! Bring it on!
Imagine 29 years old self attending a gallery opening/ birthday party, you move to the bathroom to put a distance from the noisy crowd, you just push the door and ta ta da daaa! Nope, you didn’t catch somebody in the act! Actually you didn’t even reach to the restrooms! You open the door of another alternative universe! It’s freaking crazy, right? This is how Kelly’s story starts. At least she didn’t find herself at the restroom like Russian Doll’s Nadia Vulvokov to live the same night over and over again.
Instead of that she finds herself at another version of her life, married with a guy named Eric she barely knew from high school ( they became history project partners but that’s all! They never see each other after high school, at least that was the story for Kelly’s life who were pursuing her dreams to achieve something great in arts in Chicago )
But interestingly she has recorded memories about her new life which comes into her mind as she sees new versions of people in her inner circle. Actually both her old and new life memories start merging which makes things more complicated for her.
The mystery of the book kept me reading and questioning, brain storming about what might be the big secret about new timeline of Kelly is living.
The story’s progression was slow burn and till I reach to the half of the story, I lost my focus a little, found the development a little flat but thankfully things get changed after the second half. Surprising conclusion of the story was a little foreseeable. I was expecting something more original and it didn’t answer my entire questions but it was still okay. At least it didn’t give us something illogical and not satisfying enough to complete the entire puzzle.
I liked the unique idea and the way of mystery’s execution. Kelly is also relatable character.
I hate the guts of Eric as you may imagine, who earned his throne at my most dislikable and perfectly punchable human waste characters. At some parts I wished Kelly should have left his not so sorry a*s and moved on her life freely.
Overall: I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to 4 mysterious, mind numbing, intriguing, hooking stars! I liked the promising storyline even though the final was a little mediocre! It was still one of the most interesting reads kept my attention intact and pushed me to finish it in one sit.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions. 0593334485 And now I know why the prospect of being ordinary scared me so much: not because it's unpleasant, but because it's so easy.
Have you ever wondered what your life would look like if you had made a different choice, even if just a small one? Would you still have the same people in your life, or would you have journeyed down a different path altogether? These are some of the questions addressed in Jeng's debut novel, The Other Me.
Please note, this one does have an other natural explanation to it; I know it seems obvious from the synopsis, but I wouldn't want someone to get the wrong impression in thinking this would be a purely psychological gambit and have a realistic ending to resolve the plot.
Kelly is living her best life by her 29th birthday. She's pursued her passion in becoming an artist, and is currently a single, childless (by choice) woman who is supported by loving friends, and escaped the small town she grew up in. So why is it that, when walking through the door of the bathroom at her best friend's gallery showing, she ends up walking into another life? One where she never left Michigan, married a man that she went to high school with, and settled for a career she isn't passionate about?
As you can imagine, there's quite a bit of suspense surrounding many mysteries in this novel. Why and how did Kelly end up in this alternate life? How can she find her way back to her old life without alerting suspicion to her friends and family without them thinking she's mentally unstable? And why is her husband acting so strangely?
I love how we get to learn things as the main character does, and how memories play a large role in this book. I don't want to say too much, but this was a unique mystery to puzzle out. I did see where it was going fairly early on, but this didn't dampen my enjoyment at all. Well written, engaging, and particularly thought provoking about technology that doesn't seem all that futuristic in today's age, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
*Many thanks to the publisher for providing our review copies. 0593334485 The Other Me is a book about two paths diverging. One day, Kelly is eking out a living in Chicago, living her dream of being an artist. Upon her birthday, Kelly feels a bit sick and walks into the bathroom only to come out of the bathroom into a surprise party in another state and another life. Who is this person? Who is this Kelly who never left her small town in Michigan? What is going on and what will unfold? Will Kelly want her old life back? Can she get her old life back?
This is a really impressive debut novel by Jeng, and my feelings for this book are all over the place. First, I am incredibly biased because I hail from Michigan and loved all of the references to the great Mitten State. The main character, Kelly, was relatable: She had two lives, one where she never left her small town and one where she moved to the big city. The plot itself was pretty unique especially toward the end. That being said, there were a few things that I just couldn't over look. This book was evenly paced, and it should be cut in about half. The second half of the book was the better part. There were also way too many characters, too many brothers and sisters and cousins. However, in my opinion, these last two points really boil down to how good of an editor the author has, if you can find an editor who isn't afraid to give out honest review notes.
Overall, an extremely impressive debut novel by Jeng although it is unevenly paced.
*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest opinion!
2023 Reading Schedule
Jan Alice in Wonderland
Feb Notes from a Small Island
Mar Cloud Atlas
Apr On the Road
May The Color Purple
Jun Bleak House
Jul Bridget Jones’s Diary
Aug Anna Karenina
Sep The Secret History
Oct Brave New World
Nov A Confederacy of Dunces
Dec The Count of Monte Cristo
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Twenty nine year old Kelly's life is not perfect. She's a poor, struggling artist whose work doesn't sell, while her wealthy best friend's art career is thriving. Still, Kelly loves her life in Chicago, it's her life, built on her choices, and she'd not giving up on making it as an artist.
She's at her best friend's art show, when she walks through a door and POOF! That life is gone. Now she is graphic artist Kelly, who never took that scholarship to art school, who never met her best friend, who's art supplies have been left untouched for years, who is married to Eric, a high school nerd she'd barely knew in her other life.
Her tattoos are gone, she has conflicting memories of the exact same points of time, and Eric acts suspicious, distracted, nervous, and weird. She remembers nervous and weird Eric from her high school days but now she has memories of being attracted to him. Her memories of this life are there but they don't seem real, not as real as the life she thought she'd been living in Chicago. This life might be nice, Eric might be nice (although he makes her uncomfortable), but how can she tell anyone about this shocking change without them thinking she is crazy?
As Kelly searches for answers, even this new reality starts changing. Can she fix this? She knows time is running out because the old life is feeling even farther away and that's the life she doesn't want to lose. What does Eric have to do with this, how did he become the center of her life?
I was fascinated with this dilemma. We may not like everything about our lives but to have those lives erased for something better, a better that someone else seems to choose for us, may not be what is best. I do think that the new life had way too many people cluttering up the story. We didn't need to meet so many of Eric's family members because they did nothing to move the story along.
Publication date: August 10, 2021
Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for this ARC. 0593334485 Wholly original, IMMEDIATELY intriguing and captivating!
Chicago Kelly is a single Artist in Chicago-living her life-long dream of becoming an Artist. She lives a Vegetarian lifestyle, has an arm full of tattoos, two roommates and a cat named Meeks.🐱
On the night of her 29th birthday, she attends her best friend’s art show, enters the bathroom and suddenly becomes...
Michigan Kelly, a married woman who gave up her dreams of becoming an Artist, to marry Eric, a guy she barely knew in high school, who now works for a start up tech company named GNNI, (Genie)-Your Wish Is Our Command.
There isn’t a tattoo or a painting in sight-but they have a smart house with a fridge that tells her when her water filters need changing and her mustard has expired, and they enjoy huge grilled steaks on the weekend while their dog Bear, runs around the yard...🐶
Ahh!! Life is good!!
According to Eric...
But, Kelly remembers her Chicago life.
And, sometimes sees a flash of her tattoos in the mirror...
How did she get here? More importantly, how can she get back there??
This book reads like a CONTEMPORARY story of a couple who each wanted something different from life-Told over 12 DAYS and 12 YEARS.
I wondered if Kelly was real or AI.
Was this a parallel universe, time travel, or something else entirely? I kept flipping the pages-eager to find out!!
In a year where I have struggled to find books to capture my attention from page one and hold it through the final reveals, I am thrilled that this book found its way to me-as it has definitely been one of my most enjoyable reads this year!!
And no animals were harmed in the making of this book! 🐶🐱
I cannot wait to see what DEBUT AUTHOR Sarah Zachrich Jeng dreams up for us next!
Thank You to Elisha at Berkley for sending me a widget for this book, which I probably would’ve missed out on if she hadn’t!
I received a gifted copy through NetGalley and it was my pleasure to offer a candid review!
NOW AVAILABLE! 0593334485
