I'll Be You

1

On a Thursday night in July, 378 days into my latest bout of sobriety, my father called to tell me that my twin sister had gone AWOL. My sister and I hadn t spoken in 379 days, so this came as news to me.

She told us that she was going to a spa of some kind, my father explained. But she s been gone almost a week already, and she s not answering her phone. It all seems very strange.

I found this unlikely. My sister had never done anything strange in her life. Elli ­married to a real estate lawyer, owner of a two-­story Spanish Revival just blocks away from the Santa Barbara beach where we played as children, a woman who coordinated her purse with her heels ­was the very definition of conventionality. Last time I was at her house I opened a drawer in the kitchen and found a banana slicer.

As for me: I was living in a near-­empty studio apartment in Hollywood, so close to the boulevard that I woke up most nights to the sounds of people vomiting in the bushes underneath my window. I was thirty-­two years old and slept on a futon, still crawling my way back from losing most everything I owned or loved in the years before. Fortunately, I still had my looks, some interesting tattoos, and a generous AA sponsor; and with these I d found employment at a trendy café popular on social media for its latte art.

From semi-­famous child actress to milk-­foam Instagram model. That had been my life trajectory in a nutshell, a downward parabola precipitously accelerated by the excessive use of intoxicants.

When my father called, I was watching cooking show reruns and eating day-­old green curry straight out of the takeout container. It was nine o clock and eighty degrees out, the air in my apartment still flaccid from the day s heat. I stood by the air-­conditioning unit and ducked my head to let the whisper of coolant dry the sweat on the back of my neck.

Let s be real, Dad. This is Elli. She probably just got a bad facial peel and is hiding out

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. An essayist and journalist, she has written for Vogue, The New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children.

Her twistiest and tightest work yet . . . I ll Be You is a cleverly crafted and psychologically nuanced yin and yang, complete with crackling observations about celebrity, California cults, wellness culture, the fertility industry, and the undertow of addiction. Time

An addictive thriller that will keep readers burning through pages . . . sneakily hypnotic. Los Angeles Times

Sharply insightful, relentlessly suspenseful and simply unputdownable, I ll Be You is Janelle Brown s best novel yet. Bookreporter

Brown uses the concept of interchangeable personhood to great effect in this haunting psychological thriller. CrimeReads

A page-turner. Associated Press

Brown s investment in her characters and the family dynamic elevate I ll Be You . . . Brown engulfs the readers in the sisters lives. South Florida Sun Sentinel

Janelle Brown is a terrific storyteller and stylist, and I ll Be You is one of those books you ll devour. It has a hot mess of a narrator actually two hot messes, twins both of whom you will root for, even as you are screaming at them to get a grip. Also? The novel has more twists and turns than the canyon roads that snake up and around Los Angeles. Chris Bohjalian, New York Times bestselling author of The Flight Attendant and Hour of the Witch

In Janelle Brown s latest twisty, propulsive mystery, estranged twin sisters must confront shocking pieces of their past when one of them goes missing. From the first sentence, these women will have you in their grips. You won t be able to put this novel down, and you won t want to. Laura Dave, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me

Janelle Brown has done it again, creating a deliciously twisty page-turner you won t be able to put down. With her trademark beautiful writing, depth of emotion, and sharp insights, Brown explores the dangers that lurk behind the seductive