When I Was You by Amber Garza
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kelly Medina is an empty nester, trying to adjust to life without her son, Aaron, at home. Her husband, Rafael, is also gone frequently for work. Kelly is very lonely. Pretty much her only out-off-the-house activity is going to yoga with her friend Christine (Kelly is still doing better than me in that regard).
But one morning, she gets a phone call from her (college-aged) son’s old pediatrician; there’s been a mix-up as there’s another Kelly Medina in the system. She shrugs it off at first but then it begins to bother her that there’s another Kelly Medina out there with a young son when the older Kelly is now an empty nester.
It’s obvious that the older Kelly Medina is not okay. She’s suspicious of everyone, particularly her husband, she loses track of time and forgets things. She also gets obsessed with finding the other Kelly and engineers a way to bump into her and become her friend.
“The only reason I’d stopped seeking you out was because I’d been worried that I was being obsessive, stalkerish, unhealthy, or whatever other words my therapist had used about me in the past. But it wasn’t like that.”
“I was simply curious. I wanted to see what you were like. I mean, you had my same name, my same likes, my same doctor. It was like you were copying me.”
What follows is an extremely fast-paced psychological thriller that kept me up most of the night (okay, to be fair, my baby was also keeping me up most of the night too, but this helped me stay awake).
There were so many twists and surprises that my mouth was left hanging open by the end. I had originally thought twice about reading this one as I’d only read one other book from Garza, Until The Sun Burns Out, which is a YA romance novel. It was probably well-written and good if you like the genre but it made me irritated because I don’t want to read about people being happy! I want to read about them feeling miserable!
And this book was definitely about miserable people.
Quotes:
Lola was my best friend growing up. She had strawberry-blond hair, and a smattering of freckles across her nose and pale cheeks. Her scent was a mixture of roses and popcorn, sweet and salty to match her personality. She was fun, adventurous and followed me around for years like my shadow. She was the best friend I’d ever had, which is sad because she was imaginary.
I never felt better after confiding in him. He always made me feel worse.
There are so many parenting books, but none of them prepared me for all the little losses. No one warned me that I’d spend Aaron’s entire life mourning who he used to be, how he talked and acted.
That line just stabbed me right in the heart. I could relate to how Kelly felt about Aaron; everyday, there’s something Kit or Ben does that they’ll never do again and it breaks my heart.
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SPOILERS: Read at your own risk!!
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Original Kelly becomes convinced that Sullivan, young Kelly’s baby, is her son Aaron’s son (OG Kelly’s grandson) as she sees a picture of young Kelly and Aaron together at a party on the night he died (yes, Aaron is dead!). OG Kelly tries to kill young Kelly so she can have Sullivan to herself, but young Kelly manages to knock OG Kelly out and lock her in the shed.
Crazy enough, right?
But THEN, we find out that young Kelly isn’t so innocent herself. She’s the crazed ex-girlfriend of Rafael, OG Kelly’s husband. When young Kelly got pregnant, Rafael told her to get rid of the pregnancy. Convinced that if she could push out OG Kelly and become the new and improved Kelly, young Kelly has been stalking OG Kelly and trying to slip in and take over her life so she can become Rafael’s only Kelly. Not only that, but she drugged Aaron at a party, causing his death. She then used Sullivan as a lure for OG Kelly, convinced that she’s doing this for Sullivan’s sake.
OG Kelly’s friend, Christine, realizes there is something terribly wrong and calls Rafael. OG Kelly escapes from the shed while Rafael confronts young Kelly and realizes she killed Aaron. OG Kelly has been recording the confession and calls the police. They get there after young Kelly shoots Rafael and arrest her. Kelly adopts Sullivan and everyone lives happily ever after.
JUST KIDDING!
Rafael resists Kelly’s notion of adopting Sullivan, claiming that Sullivan isn’t even his. OG Kelly realizes that Rafael is the cause of all her suffering and suffocates him with a pillow.
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