EMILY BARR’s The Other Girl is a YA thriller that follows two girls who pretend to be the other after a train journey. Read on for an extract.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Two girls meet on a train journey.
One of them – privileged, chaotic – is heading to an exclusive Swiss rehab centre following months of partying and living wildly.
The other – who couldn’t be more different – is down to her last penny, running away.
When they get off the train they are both pretending to be the other. Just for a short period, of course. Just until the rehab stint is over …
EXTRACT
PART ONE
Tabbi
1
I’m sitting next to a stranger, using her as a shield. The train is speeding onwards, fast but smooth, and all I need to do is get to the next station, so I can get off and melt away. That’s my one impossible job: stay right where I am until I can escape. I stare out of the window. The fields turn to buildings and then back to fields again, so fast it’s almost a blur.
It’s busy in this carriage. That’s why I chose it. I’m in the one spare seat in the middle of a group of Japanese tourists, and they’re all talking, and I understand a bit because I learned some Japanese at school, because that’s what my school was like. Everyone in the group is older than me but still young. I want them to talk about me so I could surprise them by joining in, but they’re just discussing a Netflix show. Before I can even work out what it is –
‘There you are.’
I close my eyes and will myself away from here. Like a naughty toddler, I have been found.
‘Come back.’
I screw my eyes tighter shut. If I can’t see her, maybe she won’t see me. The world goes strange. My head is buzzing and I feel dizzy. I clutch my necklace.
Then the passenger next to me taps my shoulder, helpfully passing on the fact that someone is trying to get my attention, and I can’t ignore her too. I’m busted. I sigh and open my eyes.
Jana, my chaperone, is looking at me with a pissed-off expression (though that is also her resting face, so who knows?).
‘Don’t be so stupid,’ she says, so loudly that everyone up and down the train turns to look at me. I stand up and follow her. Back through the cafe carriage, down another one, past the smell of oranges, through the sound of excitable YouTubers, and up the stairs to our first-class seats.
I go back to my table. She sits in her seat, a little way down from me, across the aisle. I look at her. She gazes back and I can see how much she hates me. I put my arms on the table and my head on my arms and try not to cry.
It’s happening. I can’t do this. I tried to run away in Paris but it didn’t work. I’ve tried to hide on this train but no joy. Maybe I can try again in Zurich, but let’s face it: that won’t work out for me either. They might as well have handcuffed me. I am on my way to Switzerland to face up to what I’ve done. I can’t face it, but I’m out of options.
I lift my head up.
And there’s a girl coming towards me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Barr worked as a journalist in London but always hankered after a quiet room and a book to write. She went travelling for a year, which gave her an idea for a novel set in the world of backpackers in Asia. This became Backpack, an adult thriller which won the WH Smith New Talent Award, and she has since written eleven more adult novels published in the UK and around the world. The One Memory of Flora Banks is her first novel for young adults. She lives in Cornwall with her partner and their children.
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