Two women meet in a cafe after accidentally grabbing each other’s coats, the tan jackets identical, though it’s viewed as a small accident, the meeting lingers in both of their memories. Shortly after, they seek each other out, move in together, and immediately are bonded in a soul-bending way. Unreliable narration and blurred points of view carry the story of these women as they easily slip into a routine of sharing the same life. Coupled with narrations from an unnamed woman who works for a ghostwriter and her spiral after receiving a haunting tape, Body Double is a discomforting yet masterful and taut thriller of identity and power. By the end, the story has morphed into a different tale completely, Lynchian-esque literature at its finest!
Body Double by Hanna Johansson, (List Price: $27, Catapult, 9781646223138, April 2026)
Reviewed by Grace, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA