Review for Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale

Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: 2nd February 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary, Family Drama, Romance
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Source: Received from the publisher for review

Amazon Summary:
"How can you face your future when your past is a lie? When Rosie Kenning's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntingdon's disease, her whole world falls apart. Not only does Rosie desperately miss her mum, but now she has to face the fact that she could have inherited the fatal illness herself. Until she discovers that Trudie wasn't her biological mother at all ...Rosie is stunned. Can this be true? Is she grieving for a mother who wasn't even hers to lose? And if Trudie wasn't her mother, who is? But as Rosie delves into her past to discover who she really is, she is faced with a heart-breaking dilemma - to continue living a lie, or to reveal a truth that will shatter the lives of everyone around her..."

Review
This book was pitched to me as Jodi Picoult for teens and with Jodi being one of my all-time favourite authors I just had to try this YA equivalent. Now that I’ve read Someone Else’s Life I would certainly agree with that statement, debut author Katie Dale writes an honest and moving account on hard hitting topics such as grief, and Huntington’s disease to name a few in this gripping family drama.

What I loved best about this book is that instead of focusing on friendships and relationships this books main focus is on family in all its glorious shapes and sizes. I found that really refreshing for a young adult book and whilst there was a brilliant love interest for our heroine Rosie in the form of Andy the boy that she loved and gave up as just one of the many sacrifices she made in order to become a full time carer to her mum whose recently died from Huntington’s. What I loved most was the focus on family and the lies we keep to protect those we love.

Katie Dale tackles a wide range of controversial topics and I loved the many layers to this book. Right from the start your thrown this massive curve ball in the plot and as you read on the problems just snowball there are so many twists and turns, the plot constantly changing and developing right until the final pages. I was gripped by the many secrets that make up Rosie’s life and found it impossible to put the book down.

Someone Else’s Life reads as part contemporary and part mystery and so offers something new and different to the YA genre. The book is told from Rosie and a mystery person’s perspective, I found Rosie to be a really strong inspirational heroine and right from the beginning I had a huge amount of respect for her for practically giving up her life in order to look after her mum. I also loved reading from the perspective of the mystery character, for the first part of the book, because I had no idea who they were and I loved trying to suss out the mystery behind that, and once they’re revealed because I found their point of view fascinating to read from and they actually ended up being my favourite character and who I connected with most.

I could talk about how much I loved this book and why all day but because its very mystery orientated I’ll leave it there as I don’t want to give away any spoilers! But if you’re looking for a book that makes you feel ALL THE THINGS you should check out Someone Else’s Life, Katie Dale is certainly an author to watch!