Product Description

Dear God, how I wish I'd never met her...Sometimes I wished she was dead. Jennie and Martha became friends when Jennie moved in next door to Martha. At least, Jennie thought they were friends. Jennie admired everything about Martha - her house, her gorgeous husband, her bohemian clothes and exotic children's names. And Martha seemed to take to motherhood so effortlessly and confidently, while for Jennie it was all such a struggle. Martha tolerated Jennie, took her on holiday, helped her with the children - but all the time she was wondering how much longer she could stand living next door to her. As time went on, the roles seemed to reverse. As Jennie became more confident, more successful, Martha's life was falling apart. At times they seemed less like friends, more like sworn enemies. Their relationship became bitter, twisted - a relationship which only one of them could survive ...With insidious and unnerving accuracy, Gillian White once more shows us the horrors that can lurk within the most ordinary of families.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135896 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 339 pages

From the Back Cover
Dear God, how I wish I'd never met her... Sometimes I wished she was dead.

Jennie and Martha became friends when Jennie moved in next door to Martha. At least, Jennie thought they were friends. Jennie admired everything about Martha - her house, her gorgeous husband, her bohemian clothes and exotic children's names. And Martha seemed to take to motherhood so effortlessly and confidently, while for Jennie it was all such a struggle. Martha tolerated Jennie, took her on holiday, helped her with the children - but all the time she was wondering how much longer she could stand living next door to her.

As time went on, the roles seemed to reverse. As Jennie became more confident, more successful, Martha's life was falling apart. At times they seemed less like friends, more like sworn enemies. Their relationship became bitter, twisted - a relationship which only one of them could survive . . .

With insidious and unnerving accuracy, Gillian White once more shows us the horrors that can lurk within the most ordinary of families.

'A novelist of the highest quality' - Sunday Independent

About the Author
Gillian White is a former journalist who comes from Liverpool and now lives in Devon, with her husband and two dogs. She has written sixteen novels, several of which have been successfully adapted for television, and The Sleeper has recently been shown on BBC television with an all-star cast.

Customer Reviews

This one will keep you up all night!
Having read almost all Gillian White's novels (some of which I have enjoyed more than others), I have to say this is the best yet. I read it in less than 48 hours, no mean feat as it's actually quite a chunky book.

The characters are brilliantly described; Gillian White has the skill of leaving just enough description to your own imagination, so that you can unconsciously fill in the details and make the characters your own.

Martha and Jennie are close friends...or at least, that's what one of them believes. This tale of love and obsession is drawn from a real-life case which ended, like the story, in tragedy. It is a brilliant depiction of what it feels like to be obsessed with another human being. The portrayal of the obsessive mind tormenting its owner is excellently told.

I would heartily recommend this novel to both general readers and also those working within the field of psychiatry.

Absolutely Gripping!
I am a huge Gillian White fan, having read all of her books at least once. Second and third readings often reveal even more depth, but as another reviewer said, the brilliance in White's writing is that there is huge scope for your own imagination to build up an image of the characters.

'Copycat' on the surface is about two friends and neighbours who become victims of their reliance on each other, and it is hard to sympathise with one over the other. At first it seems a dark and unlikely tale, but I can guarantee that you will never again proceed into a friendship with your neighbours without caution! It is very believable and gave me quite a lot of insight into the misery of mental illness and behavioural psychology. When you have read 'Copycat' I would recommend that you go back and re-read Gillian White's other books. 'Chain Reaction' is absolutely brilliant and you have a whole host of deeply disturbed characters to absorb you. Come on Ms White, can't wait for another one .....!

Unusual psychological drama
Tells the story of an obsessive friendship between two women, Jenny and Martha who begin as neighbours, become friends, then rivals, then develop a love-hate relationship.

It's a novel about how things go wrong between them rather than one that keeps you in suspense about what will happen. Almost the first line of the novel, in a prologue narrated from prison, makes clear that eventually one of the central characters will murder the other. It doesn't make clear who kills who. In the subsequent chapters, supposedly based on "edited extracts from the diary of the victim" alternating with "transcripts of statements by the accused" the perspective switches between that of Jennie and that of Martha.

When they first meet, as new mothers who move into adjacent houses, Jennie admires and is jealous of Martha - of her house, gorgeous husband, apparent success in society and as a mother. But then the roles begin to reverse - Jennie becomes more successful as Martha's life falls apart. And the obsession on both sides becomes more and more dangerous ...

Interesting and well crafted but a bit sad and depressing. The author also leaves to the reader's imagination to deduce in several important matters what is actually going on. Those readers who like to be able to use their own imagination will probably appreciate this, those who like to be told exactly what has happened should leave this book alone.