by Jean Tennant (Jean Simon)
1992 Zebra
Southern Gothic Scanners - you can have that idea for free. Because Jean Tennant sure didn't do anything with it.
A hippie in a commune gives birth - when there's more than one child, she flips out and tries to smother them. She's stopped by her boyfriend, who accidentally kills her and goes on the run. Strong start, so let's put on those brakes.
Rae finds out she has a twin sister, Josie. These are the orphans, in the sense that two adult women who were adopted in infancy and had a living parent at the time can be called orphans. Rae brings the boyfriend she doesn't like to visit Josie, who lives in a mansion with a boyfriend she doesn't like. Josie has undefined psychic powers and a plan.
Nothing happens. They go to a winter festival and crack ice with their minds. Nothing happens. People have off page sex with each other. Nothing happens. A couple people die from psychic brain melts, there's a couple reveals, and nothing happened.
There are a couple of surprises - well, it surprised me that there was a third kid since I didn't read the blurb or look at the cover. Kind of kills things knowing in advance, especially since the reveal is the only thing approaching horror or interest in the whole book. Josie's plan was ill-defined, there's something about cults and drug induced psychic powers that goes nowhere in favor of a subplot about the housekeeper finding a new job.
I'm still gonna read it next winter vortex.
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