Coping with Chloe

Click here to view on Amazon.co.uk

Click here to view on Amazon.com

Coping with Chloe is for young readers of about eleven and upwards. It is the story of Anna, who has a strange and threatening relationship with Chloe, her twin.

Here's the blurb from my publisher, Phoenix Yard Books:

How do you stop your twin stealing your life?

Anna and Chloe are twins. They share everything – from secrets to clothes; from fending off the school bully to dealing with their parents’ separation. Even Chloe’s terrible accident hasn’t split them apart. After all, twins have a special bond....

       But Anna is beginning to realise that being inseparable isn’t always easy. Especially when no one else seems to understand that Chloe isn’t really gone; no one apart from the dashing Joe that is, who, inconveniently, seems to like both sisters.

       Told through the eyes and mind of 12 year-old Anna, this is a powerful novel exploring teenage life and the grieving process.

Here are some reviews:

"I loved this book. I read it in two sittings as I was so keen to keep racing on to the end. Beautifully written. Emotional and moving, but real as well. It's hard to say too much without giving the whole thing away, but I loved the fact that the author doesn't definitively say that there is or isn't something a bit out of the ordinary going on. That much is up to the reader.

For my part, I think that if people are very close in life - and especially as close as twins - then perhaps the crossover between life and death isn't always as black and white, or as immediate, as we may think.

But if that sounds a bit deep, don't worry. The subject is handled with such a light touch, it's hard to do anything other than ride along with the story till you get to its very satisfying end. I'd recommend Coping with Chloe for tweens and young teens, and certainly for anyone going through the issues raised in the book."
Liz Kessler, children's author


"Such an unusual piece - and in the end I felt it was dead-on psychologically. It's a superb book.  Once I got about 10 pages in, I couldn't put it down. I hope it receives the acclaim it deserves."
Donna Jo Napoli, children's author


"A beautifully written Y A novel about coping with the death of a twin. I was fighting off tears at about six different points in this book despite it being reasonably short at around 200 pages. Warren captures the desolation of a child after a sibling's death perfectly, leaving the reader to decide whether Chloe is 'really' there or whether she's a manifestation of her twin's grief.There are also other fairly major issues involved in the novel, including child abuse, bullying, and parental separation, but Warren handles these all deftly and has enough lightness of touch to mean that while it's always a really emotional read, she manages to stop things from ever getting too overwhelmingly bad.
I loved the character of Anna in particular – but also had a soft spot for Miss Tough – and found her parents incredibly realistic, if phenomenally annoying.  Warren also does a great job of capturing the nastiness of bully Lisa and her hangers-on, and readers will be desperate to see her get her well-deserved comeuppance.
This has established Warren as an author I'm keen to read more of in the future and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to young teen readers, but it's an original enough idea and execution that people several years older than the characters here will still enjoy it. While the subject matter of a girl trying to cope with her twin sister's death makes this a seriously difficult read at times, Warren's book is so well written you'll be hooked.                                                         
Robert James, The Bookbag

You can read more of my reviews at the Phoenix Yard website.

Coping with Chloe is available as a paperback from Amazon.co.uk and from Amazon.com.