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Louis & Louise - Julie Cohen



Description

ONE LIFE. LIVED TWICE.
Louis and Louise are the same person born in two different lives. They are separated only by the sex announced by the doctor and a final 'e'.
They have the same best friends, the same red hair, the same dream of being a writer, the same excellent whistle. They both suffer one catastrophic night, with life-changing consequences.
Thirteen years later, they are both coming home.

Review

This is the story of one person from their birth. However the twist is that it is told in two timelines - one where they are born Louis and one where they are born Louise.

I wanted to read this book as I was intrigued to see it spelt out how different a life would be whether you were born a boy or a girl. I don't want to spoil how things turn out for each of the genders, but in general I found that apart from some obvious of the time stereotypes imposed on them, their lives worked out pretty well all in all. I did think that there are from a woman's perspective so many other ways in which you can be discriminated against in life - even today, that weren't touched upon. This in fact led me to think the book was written by a man - as I just began the book without a thought to the gender of the author.

I'll admit to getting a little confused at times about which person we were reading about. It was usually just before the storyline switched - it only last a moment as I had to mentally switch to the other storyline.

What I wasn't prepared for was the absolutely beautiful writing - it felt like a warm hug wrapped around you. I also had a couple of misty eyed tissue moments at some of the key relationship moments. I really wanted to finish the book and did so in a day, but at the same time I didn't want this voice to end - I really liked it and want to read more by this author.

There are comparisons of this book mechanism with Sliding Doors -  I can see that but really this is a much deeper experience and one you shouldn't miss. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of  5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. 

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