First Chapter ~ First Paragraph (January 5)

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometime two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening. Feel free to grab the banner and play along.

This week the opener comes from Beside Myself by Ann Morgan which will be published on 14 January 2016 kindly sent to me by the publishers Bloomsbury.

Blurb

Helen and Ellie are identical twins – like two peas in a pod, everyone says.
The girls know this isn’t true, though: Helen is the leader and Ellie the follower.
Until they decide to swap places: just for fun, and just for one day.
But Ellie refuses to swap back…
And so begins a nightmare from which Helen cannot wake up. Her toys, her clothes, her friends, her glowing record at school, the favour of her mother and the future she had dreamed of are all gone to a sister who blossoms in the approval that used to belong to Helen. And as the years pass, she loses not only her memory of that day but also herself – until eventually only ‘Smudge’ is left.
Twenty-five years later, Smudge receives a call from out of the blue. It threatens to pull her back into her sister’s dangerous orbit, but if this is her only chance to face the past, how can she resist?
Beside Myself is a compulsive and darkly brilliant psychological drama about family and identity – what makes us who we are and how very fragile it can be. Amazon

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First Chapter ~ First Paragraph ~ Intro

Out into the garden, sunlight blaring, Ellie lumbering after. Run along you two, don’t get into mischief. The leaves of the apple tree are blotching us with shadows.

Chapter 1

Ribbons of sound. The bright streamer of a child’s giggle, an ice-cream van’s flourish swirling like a sparkler in the gloom, the chatter of a long-finished game. Bird song spiralling, then stiffening and falling to the earth, congealing into something hard and metallic, measured out in mechanical portions, a harsh trilling. Again A pause. Again.

Note these excerpts come from a proof edition of Beside Myself

So what do you think? Do you want to know more?

If you have an opening to share, please leave your link in the comments box below.