Multiple facets of character have long fascinated us in literature. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson has been adapted countless times and perhaps that’s no surprise. It frightens and intrigues us because it examines what happens when we lose control of part of ourselves. It touches something we can all imagine, because we know different versions of ourselves exist. On a small level, I might be annoyed with my yesterday-self for rowing with my best friend and leaving today-me to apologise. I might be furious with last-month-me for not studying hard enough, leaving this-month-me having to cram for an exam. This idea inspired my book More of Me, in which Teva lives with many younger versions of herself, as well as the very real danger that a new version will come along and take over her life.

Kathryn Evans

Here are some of my favourite fictional characters dealing with different versions of themselves:

1. Angie in Pretty Girl-Thirteen by Liz Coley

Snatched from a camping holiday by a psychopath and held captive for three years, Angie’s mind fractures and different personalities emerge to help her cope with the ordeal. A fictional account of dissociative identity disorder, Pretty Girl-13 brilliantly tells the story of how Angie reabsorbs the multiple facets of her character. Heartbreaking and terrifying.

2. A in Every Day by David Levithan

While A’s personality is constant, he/she wakes up in a different body and lives someone else’s life every single day. Levithan explores how personality transcends physical appearance and how love, ultimately, recognises that.

3. Kyla in Teri Terry’s Slated series

Kyla, along with other troublesome teens in her world, has had her mind wiped. She’s been slated so she can restart her life in a more productive way, but something has gone wrong. Somehow, Kyla’s previous self is still locked deep in her mind. A dark look at a disturbed society and Kyla’s journey to discover the hidden part of herself.

4. Jessica in Monkey Taming by Judith Fathallah

Jessica has a monkey in her brain telling her she’s a Fat Pig, forcing her to exercise even when her muscles are screaming with pain. Monkey is the commanding voice of Jessica’s anorexia but it’s also part of her, and taming the voice is key to her recovery. A powerful, honest and ultimately hopeful story about one girl’s battle with a life-threatening illness.

5. Mia in Bang, Bang, You’re Dead by Narinder Dhami

Mia’s mother has bipolar disorder. Together with her brother Jamie, Mia struggles to cope with her mother’s ups and downs. But Jamie isn’t all he seems. Mia is frightened for him, and of him, and we are slowly led to believe Jamie might only exist in Mia’s mind. A story with a compelling and surprising end.

I love the Harry Potter books and wept at the death of many characters, but none touched me more than that of Snape. His whole life was a lie, his essential goodness hidden under a masquerade of evil for the benefit of a boy he didn’t even like. Genius.

7. Ty from When I was Joe by Keren David

After witnessing a violent crime, Ty is forced into witness protection and a life of pretence. But the results are not as straightforward as you might expect. Ty is often more himself as Joe, his assumed persona. Sometimes two personalities give you a strange kind of freedom, and it almost seems as if Ty has a chance to restart his life – although nothing is that simple, and so it proves for Ty/Joe.

8. Addie/Eva in What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang

A strange tale of a world where two souls are always born in the same body and what happens when the government decides to fix that. Who decides who lives and who dies, and can two personalities exist in one self?

9. Laurence in Fifteen Days Without a Head by Dave Cousins

Laurence takes on many personas in order to try to keep his broken family together – he dresses up as his own mum and even impersonates a dead man on the radio. Cousins’ wonderful book explores the extremes of pretence we might go to in order to hold our lives together.

10. The Incredibles by Brad Bird

Finally, I had to include a superhero story, where your alternative self is your improved self. The Incredibles gives an entire family superhero alter egos and explores the challenges they face trying to incorporate their extraordinary talents into an ordinary world. A story that taps into the difficulties all of us face, to a lesser extent, in just trying to fit in.

Kathryn Evans’ debut novel More of Me is available now. Buy it at the Guardian bookshop. You can find out more about her at www.kathrynevans.ink and follow her on twitter @mrsbung.