New Book Alert: Dark Beauty by Blake Rudman; Twisted Tale of Twins Tarnished Beauty, Ambition, and Sudden Fame

 New Book Alert: Dark Beauty by Blake Rudman; Twisted Tale of Twins Tarnished Beauty, Ambition, and Sudden Fame

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Blake Rudman's Psychological Thriller, Dark Beauty, is a twisted tale of a pair of twins who are tarnished by ambitions for beauty, fame, wealth, and revenge.

Identical twins, Tessa and Kristin Morgan are on the eve of superstardom. The former models turned actresses are coming off the premiere of Dark Beauty, a critically acclaimed box office hit film that is already receiving Oscar buzz. Well most of the acclaim is directed towards Tessa who is being hailed as the latest discovery since Jennifer Lawrence. As for Kristin, well "wooden" and "erratic" are some of the kindest comments. The twins' argument is interrupted by a stalker who sprays acid on both twin's faces leaving them with physical and eventually mental and emotional scars. Most of the book takes us to the twins' lives before the accident and sudden fame and their lives afterwards.

Dark Beauty does the usual theme of the good twin vs. bad twin, but thankfully subverts expectations by giving Tessa and Kristin subtleties and facets that break stereotypes to be interesting individuals who are caught up in a continuous rivalry and duality that probably has been going on since the two shared a womb.

Chronologically, Tessa and Kristin first appear during their senior year in high school when both are seen as pretty, popular, and smart but Tessa is favored by their parents and peers while Kristin retreats into sullen rebellion. It gives the impression that Kristin at one time tried to be as nice and scholarly a girl as Kristin, but the comparisons wore on her so she gave up and stood away from her sister in a self imposed isolation. 

Ironically, after graduation Kristin wants Tessa to join her in a modeling career instead of going to UCLA and medical school to become a doctor. She says that it's because twins are a rare angle for agencies, photographers, and advertisers to explore, but it could just as easily be that she believes that Tessa has the same ambitions and desires that she does and wants to share the glamorous life with her. 

Tessa however has her own goals and identity to discover. She has wanted to be a doctor since she was five and loves her sweet boyfriend, Daniel so she is ready to start her own life. But Kristin is a narcissist, along with displaying symptoms from some other mental disorders suggesting that she is a very troubled woman. Kristin only considers what she wants so she spikes Tess's bottled water with LSD so she'll bomb her final exam. So her only option is to leave UCLA and join her sister into the modeling field.

Of course, Tess gets the laugh when their careers change from modeling to acting. Tess works hard to study her role of the bad sinister twin in the movie (no doubt by a slight case of Method acting by taking on her sister's attributes to play the role). Kristin however falls into addiction and partying with an endless stream of men which affects her performance. Tess who never wanted to be an actress or model gets praised while just like when they were kids, Kristin is ignored.

While Tess is mostly hard working, kind, and intelligent while Kristin is scheming, self-centered, and aggressive there are times when their personalities don't shift so much as their good/bad twin dichotomy becomes fuzzy. Tess at times behaves very cold and self righteous especially regarding Kristin's behavior. Kristin displays a self-sufficiency and a sharp mind that allows her to survive despite adversity.

Perhaps this is why Tess is able to play the part of the bad twin in the movie so well. She isn't playing her polar opposite based on her sister. She is playing her own subterranean thoughts, things that she always wanted to do but hid behind a good girl veneer. After the scarring, she retreats into her self-pity and depression. It is only when she discovers what Kristin has been doing that she takes control of her own life. To do that, she has to be as angry, controlling, manipulative, and scheming as her sister. She has to out-Kristin Kristin in reality not in cinema.

Kristin herself shows much of her strength and self-sufficiency in her post-scarring. Ironically, without Tess around she shows a great deal of intelligence and control of her life instead of being thought of as always second to Tess. Her career after the scarring is too juicy to get into but it displays not only her dark nature but her ability to put herself forward, away from her sister. 

The twins' confrontations are as tense and suspenseful as accusations are made and secrets are revealed. Together they reveal the beauty and the ugliness inside the darkness.