I sent her a message telling her mum had died, and she said she was sorry, and that if I was ever in Rottingdean I must visit her and Stuart. “I hadn’t spoken to Rashida for a few years, but had kept track of her on Facebook, and knew she had moved to Rottingdean with her fiancé, a management consultant. Several reviewers described Leila negatively (flat, grey), but I am not sure I agree, and she reminded me of Chi Park (the short, Chinese woman on House MD in season 8) in some ways. She is also socially awkward, unpretty* and unpopular gloomy English setting doesn’t help matters much either. In fact, it’s WoW that triggers her journey down the rabbit hole – but I’m not giving out any spoilers.

That’s Leila, the impersonator and narrator, who is also a cybergeek, an LOTR fan and WoW player. Then, on the day of her “flight,” she would disappear somewhere and dispose of herself in a discreet manner, handing the reins of her life over to me.” She would hand over to me all the information I would need to convincingly impersonate her online, from passwords to biographical information. “The idea, in a nutshell, was this: The woman - Tess - would inform her family and friends that she intended to move abroad to start a new life in some distant, inaccessible place. The reader topples straight into the action, but here’s the basic premise, from the book itself.

Kiss Me First is about suicide and about online identity, so the book had me at once upon a time, only it didn’t start that way, of course.

Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams “Don’t believe anything you read on the net.

Kiss me first lottie