Omen - Review

Novel Review

Title                             : Omen

Author                         : Lexie Xu

Genre                          : Teenlit, mystery

Original Language      : Indonesian

Publisher                     : Gramedia Pustaka Utama

Year of Publishing      : 2012

Number of Pages        : 312 Pages

Omen is a novel written by Lexie Xu. The story tells about a girl trapped in a mysterious case that has taken her school mates as victims. She sets off on a mission to reveal the truth behind the mystery of the case.

Erika Guruh is a tomboy who goes to SMA Harapan Nusantara. She has a bad reputation in her school. Her personality is quite the opposite from her identical twin sister, Eliza Guruh. Almost the same faces, but with different appearance and personality. While Erika can be said as a girl who is suited to play an antagonistic role because of her appearance, her twin sister is like a protagonist without a single flaw.

Their different personality makes everyone treat them differently. Erika and Eliza’s parents take a better liking on Eliza more than Erika. Eliza is seemed as an angle who has good personality and loved by everyone. On the other hand, Erika is almost hated by everyone, even her parents don’t really treat her as their lovely daughter. Since she was little, her parents has labeled her as “Omen” because of her bad attitude. Between the two of them, Eliza always wins. With angelic appearance and attitude, no one can ever accept that she is the twin sister of Erika.

Erika doesn’t really care about how people treat her. She is already getting used to this kind of treatment. She is aware that everyone sees her as a nuisance. No wonder, looking at her bad reputation, everyone will surely choose to get themselves away for her.

The interesting part starts when a photograph of Erika, together with Eliza’s boyfriend, Ferly, is posted on the school’s wall magazine. Of course, this makes everyone at school suspects Erika of snatching her own twin sister’s boyfriend. In fact, Erika also likes Ferly, yet she chooses to distance herself from his as he requested her to do so.

Sometimes later, Erika finds out that there is something wrong with Eliza. She hasn’t gone home after being invited to one of her school mate’s party. Eliza doesn’t get back to home even after late at night. Unwillingly, she is requested, threatened exactly, by her mother to find Eliza.

Erika’s nightmare started when she finds Eliza in an unfinished building. There, Erika finds her twin sister in a horrible condition. Eliza is unconscious, with a pool of blood around her. Erika can’t believe what she sees in front of her. Those knives are stuck on Eliza’s body. Erika can’t believe what she finds in front of her. Not only that, later, her friends one by one suffers the same fate as her twin sister.

Erika wants to unravel the mystery behind this mysterious case. However, every evidence related to this case are leading to herself. Maybe she is the one who do these horrible things unconsciously.

Of course, Erika will not give up easily. She has to prove that she is innocent regarding this case. Little by little, she can see the truth behind this mysterious case. Moreover, Eliza, her angelic twin sister may not someone as angelic as everyone think she is. Eliza’s perfect play turns things unexpectedly. Shocking as it may seem, Erika will have to face the real master mind of this nightmare. She has to unravel the true face behind Eliza’s angelic mask.

Personally, I think this novel is quite good. Usually, a teenlit novel tells story about cliché love among teenagers. This novel is full of mystery and puzzles. I almost thought that main character of this novel was an antagonist, yet it turned out to be wrong. From reading this novel, I can conclude that appearance is not a guarantee. Someone may seem good on the outside, yet has a dark side inside, and vice versa. Never underestimate someone outer image if we don’t want to be fooled later. It doesn’t mean that we have to be suspicious about other people. In addition, don’t give a bad label to someone who seems to have a bad appearance. They may seem bad, but we’ll never know that maybe they are actually good people.

Overall, this novel is worth reading. I recommend this to anyone who like to read a story with some mysteries in it, yet enjoyable and doesn’t hard to understand.