Book Review: Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

Title: Someone Else's Life 

Author: Katie Dale
Series: Standalone
Pages: 478
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Date of Publication: 2nd February 2012
Source: Publisher*
Synopsis from Goodreads: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

My Thoughts:
Someone Else's Life was a huge surprise for me. I'd heard next to nothing about it from other bloggers, and I didn't really have any sky-high expectations for it - not because I didn't think it would be good, but because I just didn't really know all that much about it, just that I thought the plot sounded pretty interesting, and I've been trying to read less well-known books in an effort to try and get more people to read them. I know I don't have the biggest readership, but I like to think that I can at least make a difference to a couple of people... ;) Anyway, Someone Else's Life really surprised me, in a bloody good way. I LOVED it.

I really loved the idea behind the story. I thought the way in which Rosie and Holly were switched at birth and no one noticed or knew was awesome - I'd never really thought about it before - I just assumed that you would know if the baby you are holding in your arms is your own or not, but of course, having never seen if before, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if your baby was switched with someone else's. It intrigued me and got me thinking about all the consequences of this switch, even before I found out more about the Huntington's disease around which the story is based. So right from the very start, I was hooked.


I really liked Rosie. I felt she dealt with things very realistically and very calmly, and she just seemed like a very nice person. She wasn't exactly remarkable in any way, but I think that was one of the reasons I liked her so much. She was just a normal person who just happened to be in a very unusual circumstance.

Holly was great too. She was a bit more angsty, more like a teenager, and she was really going through a whole lot (what with her pregnancy and her 50 percent chance of having Huntington's, etc) and I felt all her emotions were excellently written.

While the plot didn't hold too many surprises, I just couldn't stop reading. Something would happen, that led to something else happening, both bad and good, and I ended up reading the last half all in one sitting (almost 250 pages) on a Saturday night when I should have been sleeping. I needed to know what would happen to Rosie and Holly, and whether they would ever get along, or whether they would never see each other again. The more I read, the more I needed to know - there were so many questions flying around my brain that I needed answers to.

Overall, I thought Someone Else's Life was brilliant. Definitely one of my favourite reads of this year. I recommend it to all fans of YA contemporary fiction, and I think Katie Dale is a welcome addition to the genre - I can't wait to read anything else she writes for young adults!

*Thanks to the publisher for sending me this in exchange for an honest review. In no way has this affected my opinion of the book. 

My Rating:

I give it 5 Feet!

Challenges:
2012 British Books Challenge