Girl on the Other Side by Deborah Kerbel

Summary:

Tabby Freeman and Lora Froggett go to the same school, but they live in totally opposite worlds. Tabby is rich, pretty, and the most popular girl in her class. But behind closed doors, her 'perfect' life is rapidly coming apart at the seams.

On the other side, Lora is smart, timid, and the constant target of bullies. While struggling to survive the piranha-infested halls of her school, she becomes increasingly nervous that somebody might discover the unbearable truth about what's been happening to her family.

Despite their differences, Tabby and Lora have something in common - they're both harbouring dark secrets and a lot of pain. Although they've never been friends, a series of strange events causes their lives to crash together in ways neither could have ever imagined. And when the dust finally settles and all their secrets are forced out into the light, will the girls be saved . or destroyed?
 
Review:
 
Girl on the Other Side was an interesting and fast paced read about two not so unalike girls.

I liked how the characters in this were represented by two different types of girls. Lora being the social misfit who life constantly feels like a fight and Tabby the supposed it girl who doesn’t feel nearly as good about herself as she thinks she should. While I did fell both feel into cliché roles at times, I did overall enjoy reading about them and their struggles with issues not present at the surface. Since, it brought for a decent read. Also, I also did like how Tabby developed into not being as self absorbed as she was before along with how Lora and she eventually became short of freinds, I guess you would say, because of the issues they were dealing with.

The plot was fast paced which I also liked and surprisingly enough the switching narratives worked quite well with the story. Though, I didn't particularly like how the story was so short (a mere 184 pages) because I felt that there was a lot more left to say especially with how rushed the ending was.

In all, Girl on the Other Side is a decent read but not something I would suggest you run out to buy, instead wait for a library copy. On the flip side of that, I am hoping to read Deborah's debut novel sometime soon because I've heard a lot of great things about it. So, maybe I'll be awed by that one instead.
 
Grade: B
 
Girl on the Other Side is now out!
 
Source: 1 ARC Tours