Colleen Mondor Reviews Twice Lived by Joma West
Twice Lived, Joma West (Tordotcom 978-1-250-81032-8, $26.99, hc, 256pp) February 2024. Cover by FORT.
Author Joma West explores the idea of parallel worlds in an unexpected way in her science fiction novel, Twice Lived. Canna and Lily are one person, a ‘‘shifter’’ who uncontrollably moves back and forth between the two worlds. Her mothers detected her nature when they were pregnant, as the fetus would disappear and reappear between the two women. In one world Canna is the child of single mother Georgia; in the other world Lily is the daughter of Cynthia and Jackson and older sister to Loretta. They are aware of their two lives, but unusually experience them in individual ways. Also, Canna and Lily are 16, many years past the time when most shifters choose and settle in a single world. As they become more firmly entrenched in their lives, they resist the shift and begin to fight within themselves over which family will be chosen and which will be left behind forever.
Whoa! There is a lot at stake in Twice Lived! While Cynthia has long suspected that her daughter’s life in the other world is terrible, that she must obviously prefer to be with her family, Canna’s life with Georgia is actually quite loving, and in both places there are friends and relationships that seem unbreakable. (Cynthia is both relieved that Lily has not suffered and devastated to learn that she has another loving mother. This double thing is complicated.) Their doctors can offer little guidance for what will happen, as most shifters choose while still toddlers. And Canna and Lily’s odd awareness of each other but separateness between their two lives is also unprecedented. (A subplot that ensnares Canna and Lily concerning a boy who also chose later, and has parents left behind in the abandoned world, is a real heartbreaker.)
West tosses aside familiar notions of parallel worlds and crafts a far more thoughtful exploration of the concept. Everyone is going to lose something in Twice Lived, especially Canna and Lily. How can you choose when you remember everything you have lost and how can you survive that grief? West answers the question with a humdinger of an ending that will, no question, blow your mind. I’m still reeling from it and consider that alone worth the cover price. This is science fiction at its best, a novel of ideas that resonates long after completion.
This review and more like it in the June 2024 issue of Locus.
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