Phantom Limb: A Gripping Psychological Thriller

I literally don’t know where to start. I guess I should warn you to read about all the triggers, as it’s really, really deep and disturbing. I didn’t read the triggers, and it was hard to read it through sometimes. BUT, this book is not like any other I’ve read so far. The twin sisters’ love for each other and traumas endured is palpable. It’s sad, it’s good, it’s well written. The characters are easy to follow. The ending was absolutely unpredictable! I had no idea how it will end till it was revealed. Impressive work. It must’ve been hard to even write this.

4/5 stars!! This is the first book I've read of this author but boy am I glad I've discovered her! She writes mainly psychological thrillers and this one was very good, in my opinion, despite the somewhat graphic and horrific nature. Her books most definitely come with multiple trigger warnings but the content makes for good mysteries. I am excited to dive into other books she has written. Phantom Limb is about a set of twins, Elizabeth and Emily, who's beginnings were not at all ideal for small children. They were routinely left alone to fend for themselves for several hours or sometimes even days, as toddlers and small children, while their mother went out to prostitute and sell drugs. Their mother also often left them locked in their room and in their cribs as infants. When they were able to fend for themselves a little better, they were let out of their rooms to use the rest of the apartment, however, that's when the "special friends" of their mother would come over to "play games" with them in their mother's bedroom. You can infer exactly what means. These poor children! At least they had each other to depend on and to help cope with the unending boredom that plagued their days and the abuse that they suffered. During the visits with their mom's "Friends," the girls both learned how to dissociate from the situation to get through it and thankfully never remembered much of what happened. Later, Elizabeth accidentally sets the kitchen stove on fire, while trying to make ramen noodles when she is seven. The fire department is called by neighbors, the girls are rescued, and placed into foster care where they are adopted by The Rooth's who are loving, attentive parents to the girls. It takes many years of therapy and love from Rooth's but both girls start going to school and graduate from high school on time, taking on mostly normal lives, despite the early abuse and neglect they suffered during their early years. The girls move into an apartment together to begin living independently but Emily is suffering from severe depression so that leaves Elizabeth to work a part time job to make ends meet while attending college classes. One day, Elizabeth finds Emily on the floor of the bathroom, having taken many pills and overdosed. Emily dies and Elizabeth ends up in a psych ward due to the extreme stress of finding her twin sister like that. In the ward, she befriends a girl named Rose, who is there for anorexia. Through her friendship with Rose, the ward's group therapy and the main doctor assigned to her case, Elizabeth begins to heal from the loss of her sister....even though she soons finds out that Emily died not last week, as she remembers it, but two years ago!! As she grapples with this new information, she discovers shocking secrets and fights against the holes in her memory. Are these doctors lying to her? Has her beloved sister really been dead for that long? How could she be when they rented an apartment together? When she held her in her arms that night she died only weeks before? What really happened to Emily? What is actually true? I rated this book 4/5 stars due to the twist at the end and how engaged Berry kept me in this book, while keeping me guessing what the heck was going on. I recommend this book and this author to anyone who enjoys this genre, however, it deals with some pretty heavy stuff, such as anorexia, suicide, overdose, cutting/self harm, and codependency, so trigger warnings are needed. I've heard that this author routinely dives into some heavy content in her books but she does a very good job at walking the line between too much detail and enough to keep the readers knowledgeable of what is happening while being respectful to the content itself. If you enjoy psychological thrillers and haven't checked this author out, I definitely recommend that you do!

I'm only almost done with this book: I've read through the last chapter, but I'm only halfway through the epilogue. I really like this book, except for the last chapter and epilogue. The author keeps the reader guessing all the way through as to what's actually happening, and what's aspects of the main character's mental illness, but the last chapter kind of stands the whole story on its head, and it really calls into question what the reality and the true situation and circumstances really are! I would say that it would merit a whole different book, but I don't think that a second book would be tolerable :-( . That last chapter puts a whole new spin on things, and although it may be realistic (well, maybe not after all), and makes, to me, and unacceptable and to the story. Too bad. I think it would've been better with a totally different ending! I actually finished reading the epilogue. It made the book end with a different feeling – sort of recognizing that the story wasn't really over. Had the author wanted that ending, she really should've written an entirely different book. This ending leaves the reader feeling cheated :-(. In some ways there's a new story, but the main story has not ended. I don't know, the book itself would have been really good and wonderful had the main story been tied up and completed instead of having been totally changed! I feel as if the author really wanted to end the book on a question – in order to leave the reader wondering, but at the same time she had an entirely different idea. _Phantom Limb_ couldn't make up its mind what character the main twin wanted to be and what problems she was fighting with. It would've been a satisfying book, but in the end it was a disappointment.

Absolutely full of twists and turns! I was glued to the pages and simply couldn’t put it down. One of the best books I’ve read.

This one was dragging for a bit but I’m glad I pushed through. The ending really did surprise me. Lucinda Berry is becoming a favorite of mine.

Very good!

This book was good, but somewhat predictable. I enjoyed the story and characters in it, I just wish it had more twists. Overall, really good though.

I guessed the first twist of this book right from the beginning but I think it’s supposed to be fairly obvious to the reader. With so much left of the book once the first twist is revealed, I wondered where the author was going to go with it. I figured I would get bored with the book but it kept me engaged the whole time. I kept trying to guess the major plot twist. It wasn’t until the final pages that things came together. I did not see the twist coming! I like twists that you feel you should have guessed but didn’t. This is 100% one of those! It was excellent! 5 stars!

This was a great read with a brilliant twist. I didn’t want to put it down. Kept me riveted throughout. I really enjoyed it. Thank you Lucinda for yet another brilliant book.

Fascinating story. I enjoyed this book, the depth that Lucinda studies to get the medical terminology correct is amazing. What a ride 👏

Really liked this book but definitely check the trigger warnings! I was NOT expecting some of the topics (child abuse, rape, cutting) but I couldn’t put it down and finished reading it in 2 nights. 100% was not expecting that ending!

Same as described, I havent read it yet but its on my list for sure

I loooooove Lucinda Berry's novels. Every one of them, they are fantastic psychological thrillers. This is a great dark story about twins that have serious problems because of what they have lived. Great twist at the end! I have bought every Lucinda Berrys book and cant wait for the next one!