More of Me by Kathryn Evans - reviewed by Dawn Finch

First the blurb....

Teva is sixteen. She goes to school, studies for her exams and spends time with her boyfriend, Ollie, and best friend, Maddy. To the rest of the world, she’s normal. But when she goes home, she’s anything but. Because at home there are twelve other Tevas – nearly one for every year she’s been alive. Because once a year, Teva separates into two, leaving a younger version of herself stuck at the same age, in the same house…watching the new Teva live the life that she’d been living.

More of Me is a beautifully original concept - each year Teva separates and another Teva tears herself into the world to live out her life. The first-person narrative takes us further and further into Teva's complicated existence as she is forced to take her place with her predecessors, becoming cut off from the world while yet another Teva quite literally steps into her shoes.

Evans handles this complicated plot with ease and delivers a novel that is at once gripping and fascinating. Teva is instantly likeable, and yet she is legion and we are pulled back and forth with her tangled lives. Each version of Teva is subtly different from the next, manifesting all of the personality facets within our own lives. As Teva ages she steps outside the child she once was and moves on, until the time she knows that she can't keep doing this for the rest of her life.

The story twists and turns and we feel torn as we identify with Teva and the emotional wrench she faces each time she has to let the new Teva take over her life. For a while we feel that there can't possibly be a way of resolving this story......  but don't worry, trust the writer on this one!

More of Me is Kathryn Evans' first book, and if this is the standard we can expect from her I'm sure that there will be many more. Teva's story is so well rounded that it is a very accomplished story and I am very much looking forward to reading Evans' future books.

More of Me by Kathryn Evans is published by Usborne on 1 Feb 2016
ISBN - 978-1474903028

Reviewed by Dawn Finch
President CILIP, Children's author and librarian
www.dawnfinch.com
New book - Book of Worth

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MORE OF ME - by Kathryn Evans

Reviewed by Jackie Marchant

First of all, a confession.  The author is a good friend of mine, and this review may well be thoroughly biased.  But I am being absolutely honest when I say I love this book, because I’ve been with it for such a long time, since Kathryn first tentatively asked her writing buddies (of which I am very glad to be one) to have a look at this mad idea she had for a novel.  I’ve been with it since I suggested that it was indeed mad but, if she could pull it off, it would be brilliant.  Of course, I didn’t doubt her for one moment . . .

And now I have the wonderful joy of reviewing the actual, published, much talked-about brilliant debut book! 

More of Me is about Teva, a sixteen year old girl with a very unique condition – every year she splits from herself and a new Teva emerges. That is, a whole new person, while the old one is left behind – whole.  While the new Teva goes out into the world to lead the life, the old one is left behind at home with all the other Tevas, shut away with their mother, who will do all she can to keep their secret hidden from the world.

If that wasn’t enough, the new Teva is faced with a couple of problems.  One is that her old self, now called Fifteen, does not want her near Ollie, the boy she began a relationship with, while the new Teva has her own inherited feelings for Ollie.  Then there is this constant feeling that there is a new Teva waiting to emerge, one that will confine existing Teva to the prison of home while living the life she should be leading. 

The conflict between Fifteen and Teva drives the narrative along with a conflict like nothing else I’ve come across.  At the same time, the real living younger versions of herself are perfectly portrayed, a bunch of identical siblings, each a year apart.  Then there is the mystery of how they came to be like that, and the dark secret that their mother is hiding.  But, as the Tevas grow older, the questions start demanding attention.

Along with shades of gruesomeness about splitting from your own self, there are moments of great warmth and humour in this book.  Teva is/are immensely likeable, which makes their situation all the more difficult to bear, until the dramatic ending when the truth is revealed. 

I don’t think I’m being biased when I say this is a witty, original, refreshing read – but you could always grab a copy to find out.  You won’t be the only one – I think this book is going to be hugely popular.

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