Publication Date: February 27, 2024
One twin vanished. The other twin remained. Until now…
When her daughter Eden came home from the hospital, Lucy was profoundly relieved. Eden had survived a drowning incident and had no apparent brain damage, no serious injuries, not even a scratch on her. Lucy fervently welcomed having a second chance at being the good mother she should have been before her teenager’s accident.
Until Eden tells her that Eden isn’t her name. Until she starts calling herself Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin.
Don’t worry, says the doctor. Eden is completely fine, says her husband. Of course I’m fine, Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here.
But Lucy knows something’s very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore—this straight-backed, even tempered, steady-eyed child in her house is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared…
A freak accident turns into a nightmare for a family, setting up a series of eerie events.
Author Eleanor Barker-White delivers a captivating thriller with My Name Was Eden. When her teen daughter, Eden, is pulled from a lake, Lucy’s primary focus is ensuring a full recovery. While the person in the hospital bed looks like Eden, something is not right.
The author uses the Vanishing Twin Syndrome to add depth to the story. Eden is now answering to Eli, the name originally selected for her twin, who disappeared in utero.
As Lucy and James try to deal with the aftermath of Eden’s accident and navigate their child’s altered personality, cracks emerge within their own relationship.
My Name Was Eden delivers an unsettling psychological thriller delving into the complexity of the mother-child relationship.
Eleanor Barker-White holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa university. In 2017, she was shortlisted for the Janklow and Nesbit Prize, and has had a number of short stories published in Best of British and The People’s Friend magazines. She has previously worked with children and families in family courts, His Majesty’s Prison service, and children’s charities, and remains fascinated by the endless capacity for human resilience. She was born and raised in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, but now lives in Wiltshire with her husband and four children. My Name Was Eden is her first novel.
