by Larissa Pham
First published 2016
At Yale, an unnamed narrator encounters her uncanny double—a girl who mirrors her appearance and social circles with unsettling precision. As they begin to interweave their lives, blurring boundaries between identity and imitation, the narrator finds herself drawn into an increasingly dangerous psychological game. Each interaction reveals another layer of manipulation, with both women testing the limits of their shared resemblance and competing for narrative control. Their escalating encounters transform from curious mirroring to a high-stakes confrontation where only one identity can survive. Beneath the intellectual veneer of campus life, a primal struggle emerges about ownership of self.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: doppelganger, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Yale
Period: 21st-century
120 pages · Paperback · Badlands Unlimited