The Phantom Twin

Raised in a sideshow since age three, 16-year-old conjoined twins Isabel and Jane, who share an arm and a leg, have made a life in a traveling carnival and a family of the other performers. When Jane, the dominant and more outgoing twin, agrees to an experimental separation surgery in hope of marriage and family, things go badly: Jane dies but abides as an angry spirit, still attached to her sibling as a "phantom twin." Artist Isabel lives on, learning to use prosthetic limbs, struggling with the loss of her livelihood and her changing position within her found family, and developing an interest in a local tattoo artist. As a muckraking journalist descends on the carnival, Brown deftly explores the insular community's relationships, capturing internal tensions while exploring the fragile protection the group offers its members against a world that shuns "freaks." Though many characters remain two-dimensional--especially the sadly underutilized titular twin--the atmospheric story's strengths lie in its relational nuance, in a beautifully evoked setting aided by Brown's uncomplicated drawings, and in Isabel's journey into autonomy. Ages 12-16. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (Mar.)

Gr 6 Up--Isabel and Jane Peabody are conjoined twins, bilaterally bound since birth and sold to a "freak show" at age three. Fed up with mounting abuse and craving autonomy, Jane convinces a hesitant Isabel to undergo a risky separation. Jane dies during surgery but lives on as a literal phantom limb; meanwhile, a bereft Isabel must return to the midway short two limbs and her lifelong companion. Guided by her supernatural sister and her sideshow family (from Harold, a thoughtful young Black man playing the "Wildboy," to Nora, a tattooed snake charmer who doubles as surrogate mother and street-smart older sister), Isabel must discover her place, now that she's no longer a "freak" but not quite able to fit in among the rest of the world. With spare text and simple illustrations, Brown's debut packs a wallop. Tight India ink linework brings to life flashes of Nora's tattoos; digital washes suffuse tidy panels in muted hues. As Isabel copes with eviscerating loss, she grows from a naive adolescent to a more self-aware young woman, along the way learning hard-won lessons, self-reliance, and exploitation. Though romance does surface, it shares the stage with a death-defying sisterly bond, found familial love among midway performers, the honesty and empathy of healthy relationships, and the self-love Isabel cultivates as she comes into her own as an artist and adult. VERDICT Brown delivers a sensitive, nuanced meditation on ability, agency, belonging, family, and otherness.--Steven Thompson, Bound Brook Memorial Public Library, NJ