Brother of Mine - Hardcover

Grade 6-9-According to Nick's reoccurring dream, the rivalry between him and his identical twin, Tony, began prenatally. For 16 years the unspoken conflict has endured, and now it is about to reach an almost deadly climax over- what else?- a girl. Nick meets Alex at a party. The next day she mistakes Tony for his twin and he plays along. The masquerade continues and the relationship rapidly intensifies. When Nick realizes that Tony has once again snatched away his happiness, he traps his brother in the basement of an unfinished house. In Poe-like fashion, he visits and feeds his prisoner while enjoying a sense of dominance for the first time. But also, for the first time, they begin to communicate. In a dramatic scene, Nick is overcome with guilt and by the realization that they truly love and need each other. After releasing Tony, he runs off in a reckless frenzy and is struck by a car. The melodrama increases as the major characters pass through his hospital room, saying and feeling all the right things and learning all the proper lessons about the hurtful pitfalls of a self-centered world view. There are also too many coincidences concerning Alex's twin sisters, an allegorical novel her father has written about competitiveness, and the resolution of the brothers' problems. However, Alex, Nick, and Tony are well-drawn, sympathetic characters, and the device of alternating the boys' narratives is especially effective. Although the message is heavy handed, the action is well paced, nonpredictable, and engrossing.
Margaret Cole, Oceanside Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The atmosphere of Westwood's horror novels (e.g., He Came From the Shadows, 1991) infuses this nasty but muddled take on a classic premise: twins pursuing the same woman. Nick and Tony Lloyd describe events in alternating chapters. Nick meets Alex at a party; later, when she runs into Tony and mistakes his identity, he goes along since he's on the outs with his girlfriend Vicky. The mutually antipathetic twins see themselves as victims of misunderstanding and harassment, but when Nick kisses Vicky in front of everyone or Tony brings Alex to Nick's track meet their earnest protestations of innocence are not convincing. And though the author gives the two different personalities, they sound so much alike that readers will need to check chapter heads to be sure who's talking. The outcome is hopelessly contrived--enraged after the meet, Nick locks Tony in the cellar of an empty house for days, remorsefully releases him, then is hit by a car; reconciliation ensues in the hospital. Compared to the conflict in Paterson's Jacob Have I Loved (1980), the twins' relationship here is more confusing than complex; at least, by the end, they're less at odds. (Fiction. 12-16) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.