Jeng employs a light hand with the wholly imaginary tech and a skillful touch with the huge amount of whiplash...experiences; never has a down-at-heel Midwestern artist been involved in so much intrigue ... Jeng's light hand with the tech helps, because it doesn't get in the way of that reckoning, but it's also obvious that there's really no way to delve deeper into the tech. It's wholly imaginary, and this is no sci-fi story ... While later developments do ramp up the action, it's sad to see Jeng abandon what could have been a more nuanced story of close friendship and ambition ... Still, toward that finale there's also a lot of crazy action to keep readers turning pages, and it's a lot of fun to see a woman character figuring things out to save her own life.
While the mystery is a bit predictable, the characters are well developed and the story is intriguing enough to make up for it and keep the readers fully immersed. The premise is original and its execution is equally impressive. Jeng’s strength resides in her ability to create compelling characters that react very realistically in the contexts they are put, no matter how outlandish these are. The only weakness is that the ending is quite abrupt and ties up too nicely and too quickly all the loose ends. The readers might be left with the impression that the first half of the book is too slow while the other half is fascinating, but put on high-speed ... The Other Me combines the intricacies of an identity crisis with exciting discussions on technology, ethics, and the future of it all, succeeding in opening readers’ minds to new possibilities and horizons.
Convincing alternate-universe mechanics and a subtle lesson in the perils of manipulating other people to get what we want raise the bar in this fun, well-paced story ... An enjoyable adventure with a likable heroine in search of the life she really wants.
Entertaining if lightweight ... A lack of plausible emotional reactions undercuts the suspension of disbelief. Those looking for a more sophisticated handling of parallel worlds should check out Blake Crouch.
