The Other Half of Me by Morgan McCarthy

Childhood can seem idyllic the children living it when, in fact, they are being damaged by neglect. Jonathan and his sister, ethereal Theo, live an apparently charmed life. Rich, living in a big house and with endless freedom to roam and explore, they are unhindered by the constraints of adult interference and rules. Their father is absent - they are told he is dead - and their mother drifts around the edges of their lives in an alcoholic haze.

When their famous and beautiful grandmother, Eve, returns to the family house, however, the children's lives begin to change. As they grow to adulthood, the reader becomes aware of the damage their strange childhood has inflicted on them. Secrets and lies begin to unravel until Jonathan learns the truth that Theo had dreamed of in confused ghostly nightmares, and struggled with, for years. Buried the public glare of glossy magazine stories are darker tales.

Morgan McCarthy writes in gorgeous and darkly sensitive prose. Her depiction of Theo's mental instability, as it develops into real illness in adulthood, is gentle and true. She writes from the view point of Theo's brother, Jonathan, who reacts in a very human fashion as someone who has no prior knowledge or experience of such things and who responds much as most of us would in similar circumstances. Jonathan, too, is damaged by his childhood. The author subtly shows us the consequences of a loveless childhood on impressionable minds, even when those children have every advantage of wealth, position and family fame.

Recommended.