Copycat

Tells the story of an obsessive friendship between two women, Jenny and Martha who begin as neighbours, become friends, then rivals, then develop a love-hate relationship. It's a novel about how things go wrong between them rather than one that keeps you in suspense about what will happen. Almost the first line of the novel, in a prologue narrated from prison, makes clear that eventually one of the central characters will murder the other. It doesn't make clear who kills who. In the subsequent chapters, supposedly based on "edited extracts from the diary of the victim" alternating with "transcripts of statements by the accused" the perspective switches between that of Jennie and that of Martha. When they first meet, as new mothers who move into adjacent houses, Jennie admires and is jealous of Martha - of her house, gorgeous husband, apparent success in society and as a mother. But then the roles begin to reverse - Jennie becomes more successful as Martha's life falls apart. And the obsession on both sides becomes more and more dangerous ... Interesting and well crafted but a bit sad and depressing. The author also leaves to the reader's imagination to deduce in several important matters, including the final conclusion of the book, what is actually going on. Those readers who like to be able to use their own imagination will probably appreciate this, those who like to be told exactly what has happened should leave this book alone.

Gillian White has done it again. Copycat is a terrifically engaging novel about two neighbors. At first glance, it appears as though Jennie is extremely disturbed because she has developed an obsession about her neighbor Martha. But later on we realize that Martha is equally dependent on Jennie for her own particular reasons. Fast-paced, original, excellent plot and dialogue. My only complaint about the book was that certain parts seemed repetitious; however, it's possible that the author was simply trying to emphasize the repetitive nature of obsession. In general, I enjoyed this book very much and stayed up late at night to finish it. A real nail-biter with scary yet believable characters. Sigrid Macdonald author of D'Amour Road

Jenny and Martha are next-door neighbours and also have children of the same ages and sexes. Jenny is completely besotted with Martha and slowly she becomes her reason for living. The author takes us into the twisted workings of Jenny's mind and makes her peculiar and devious behaviour understandable to us. Each chapter is written alternatively by the two protagonists and the writing is clever and very addictive.Both characters are completely rounded and three-dimensional and we come to know these two ladies very well. The other neighbours are more shallowly dealt with and the portrayal of Jenny's husband, Graham, makes him almost too good to be true. I don't think many men would put up with this kind of behaviour and still remain loving and supportive. Unfortunately it had a very unlikely ending which I felt was a let-down. In view of this I gave the book only 4 stars.