In which I finally talk about The Likeness (and also talk a bit more about In The Woods)

Once again, there's an element of near-to-but-not-really-fantasy to French's work, and with The Likeness the premise is quite a bit more uncanny, and is the driving force of the plot rather than something winking from the edges.

Many reviewers read the entire damn thing but still mostly criticized it for the unlikelihood of the central whammy, being of course that Maddox has had a double running around in Dublin, wearing the name of her old alias and thus somewhat chillingly erasing any traces of where she really came from. I'm sure all of those reviewers are really fun to bring to the movies. I mean, come on. If an author thinks up a premise as uniquely ridiculous as that, it's practically their responsibility to write it. This book could be a disaster, but it's not. As with the first book, it may not please those looking solely for a mystery, but the premise would have been tragically wasted on a less character-studied plot.

( We really should be using the actual body for this...but I figured that might be a little weird. )