Book Review: White Bodies by Jane Robins

Publish Date: September 19th, 2017
Publisher: Touchstone
ISBN: 9781501175749
Pages: 256
Series: None
Source: ARC from publisher for honest review

Goodreads Synopsis:

This chilling psychological suspense novel--think Strangers on a Train for the modern age--explores the dark side of love and the unbreakable ties that bind two sisters together. 
Felix and Tilda seem like the perfect couple: young and in love, a financier and a beautiful up-and-coming starlet. But behind their flawless facade, not everything is as it seems.
Callie, Tilda's unassuming twin, has watched her sister visibly shrink under Felix's domineering love. She has looked on silently as Tilda stopped working, nearly stopped eating, and turned into a neat freak, with mugs wrapped in Saran Wrap and suspicious syringes hidden in the bathroom trash. She knows about Felix's uncontrollable rages, and has seen the bruises on the white skin of her sister's arms.
Worried about the psychological hold that Felix seems to have over Tilda, Callie joins an Internet support group for victims of abuse and their friends. However, things spiral out of control and she starts to doubt her own judgment when one of her new acquaintances is killed by an abusive man. And then suddenly Felix dies--or was he murdered?
A page-turning work of suspense that announces a stunning new voice in fiction, White Bodies will change the way you think about obsession, love, and the violence we inflict on one another--and ourselves.

My Review:

White Bodies, a psychological suspense that fell just short for me in the end. I was looking forward to this book, something a little different than my usual grab and go book. I was eager for the thrill and a little ready for something creepy. Creepy is what I got when it came to Callie and her twin sister Tilda, but it wasn’t a good creepy. I was seriously creeped out when there was talk of Callie and her obsessive need to eat her sisters things (teeth, hair, urine) Eww. This really didn’t sit well with me, and I was a little put off because of it.
The story (other than the consuming of body fluids/parts) was up and down for me. One minute I was drawn in, then it would take a turn downhill and I found myself willing the story to be done. Tilda, an up and coming actress meets Felix, a man who she welcomes into her life and introduces her sister to. Immediately, Callie notices something off about Felix and becomes fixated on their relationship. She notices his obsessive-compulsiveness. His need for order and cleanliness. And more importantly, his need to control Tilda. It frightens Callie when her sister stops working and eating. Her living space becomes more and more unlike her and more like Felix. There was promises of trips and so on, and nothing comes of it right away. Then the bruises appear and Callie herself becomes the obsessed. She resorts to the internet – controllingmen.com to be precise and her suspicions are verified by others living in fear on this website. Confronting her sister about her suspicions, Callie is told it’s nothing; Felix says there are no jobs good enough for her, Felix likes things a certain way, so on and so forth. But then other times, it seems like Tilda is pleading silently for help.
While reading White Bodies it’s hard to tell whether Callie is a reliable character, with there being flashbacks to their twin life as young girls. It was interesting to read this point of view along with everything else happening. I really had no idea which way the story was going to go. I couldn’t completely get drawn in by the characters, as stated before, I was disgusted by Callies tendencies, Tilda seemed lifeless and Felix left a bad taste in my mouth. The owner of the bookstore, and Wilf had a little more personality than the others which made me laugh in the end.
Overall, I’m not sure what I would say about this book or how I would rate it. I’ve looked through other reviews before posting this, and I see that there is a lot of good feedback about White Bodies, people seem to generally enjoy this one. Maybe it just wasn’t my cup of tea, who knows.