Unusual fiction/fantasy

Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen

In an accidental exchange of backpacks on a flight, Clara’s life takes a surprising turn.  She must find her bag and in the process meets Elias Phinn, a wonderful, confusing, creative, gentle, demanding schizophrenic.  He captures her imagination and persuades her to join him in his quest to find the Light keeper.  He somehow knows her past and her Great Undoing, which has sent her running away from her family.  In order to find out what Elias knows and how, she goes with him, but soon discovers that there are two Eliases.  She hopes to help him complete his quest, to destroy the Light keeper and in the end to unite her two Eliases.  Along the way she must come to terms with his past and hers and how the quest     will either heal or destroy the both of them.

Friesen writes an unusual story.   I found the story line a bit confusing at times, finding it difficult to reconcile some of the details with reality.  However, I couldn’t give up on the book.  I found it fascinating to try and figure out what Clara’s Great Undoing was and why Elias needed to find the Light keeper.  The supporting characters made the  story that much more interesting and was another factor in keeping me reading, although again, there were many details regarding them that seemed rather unrealistic.

I found the story’s ending to be satisfying and looking back on the book, saw the pattern of redemption, which I wouldn’t have predicted.  The fact that this book was listed as a children’s book concerned me a bit.  As an elementary teacher, I would not recommend this book to my students and would have preferred to see it listed as a young adult fiction.  It contains some thematic elements that younger children may find confusing.  I did enjoy reading it and would recommend it to a high school student.  I received a free copy from the publisher and this is my honest review.