Kelly Holter is a promising artist from Chicago whose career is yet to take off. Watching her already rich friend thrive in the art industry while she has to work some awfully tedious side-gigs in order to keep painting is not fun, but Kelly is determined not to give up on her dreams. That’s before she’s thrown into an entirely different world—one in which she never even left Michigan, didn’t pursue an art career, but instead became a graphic designer, remained a hobbyist painter, and married one of her former high-school classmates, Eric. The transition between these two alternate universes leaves Kelly nauseous and completely lost. One second she was in the art gallery’s bathroom at her friend’s opening, then she’s walking out to a surprise birthday party back in her hometown. She remembers everything from her life back in Chicago—the tattoos she used to have that are now gone, her creative friends who have no recollection of who she is, all the art lessons and the techniques she acquired through the years, but can’t apply anymore—yet that world seems completely intangible. In Michigan, she has things that seemed out of reach before like a good relationship with her family, a loving marriage, a dog, and financial stability. Things that she sacrificed back in Chicago in order to focus on her career.
Her life in Chicago had been glamorous, artsy, but uncertain at times. By contrast, she has nothing to worry about in Michigan as Eric has it all figured out. Her husband loves her, provides for her, and looks out for her to the point where his overprotective tendencies suffocate her. He rarely lets her make decisions on her own, he’s always there to protect and assist her in a way that infuriates Kelly terribly. Yet, he always knows how to make amends, find excuses for himself, and Kelly can’t shake the familiarity between them, nor the tender moments she vaguely remembers they’ve shared. All of this almost drowns out Kelly’s suspicion that her husband might be somehow involved in taking her away from her Chicago life. After all, Eric offers her comfort and her life with him isn’t all that bad… Perhaps it was the life she had always been meant to live. She tries to comfort herself with such thoughts, but the memories of her old life in Chicago are too pressing. The longing she feels for her other life pushes her towards finding the answers she needs to go back and reclaim everything she lost.
While the mystery is a bit predictable, the characters are well developed and the story is intriguing enough to make up for it and keep the readers fully immersed. The premise is original and its execution is equally impressive. Jeng’s strength resides in her ability to create compelling characters that react very realistically in the contexts they are put, no matter how outlandish these are. The only weakness is that the ending is quite abrupt and ties up too nicely and too quickly all the loose ends. The readers might be left with the impression that the first half of the book is too slow while the other half is fascinating, but put on high-speed.
The Other Me combines the intricacies of an identity crisis with exciting discussions on technology, ethics, and the future of it all, succeeding in opening readers’ minds to new possibilities and horizons. If you’re looking for something to keep you on your toes, look no further—this is a fast-paced, exhilarating tale that touches on subjects like autonomy, do-overs, regrets, tech, and identity. Jeng is incredibly adept at building organic conflicts and dealing with human psychology which makes The Other Me an absolutely impressive debut.
The Other Me is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Two lives. The one you wanted. The one that wanted you.
Her birthday should be like any other night.
One minute Kelly’s a free-spirited artist in Chicago going to her best friend’s art show. The next, she opens a door and mysteriously emerges in her Michigan hometown. Suddenly her life is unrecognizable: She’s got twelve years of the wrong memories in her head and she’s married to Eric, a man she barely knew in high school.
Racing to get back to her old life, Kelly’s search leads only to more questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust him, but everything she discovers about him—including a connection to a mysterious tech startup—tells her she shouldn’t. And strange things keep happening. The tattoos she had when she was an artist briefly reappear on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric that he says never happened, and her relationships with loved ones both new and familiar seem to change without warning.
But the closer Kelly gets to putting the pieces together, the more her reality seems to shift. And if she can’t figure out what happened on her birthday, the next change could cost her everything…
