Book 1 in the Hybrid Chronicles series
AUTHOR: Kat Zhang
PUBLISHED: September 2012
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Alternate history/dystopian
PREMISE: In a world where two souls inhabit a body until one dominant soul takes over completely, Addie and Eva are dangerous because Eva, who should have went away when they were children never actually left...
MY REVIEW: This book was one of the more intrigueing premises that I read last year. What if two souls inhabited a body? What if it was expected that one would fade away by the time the kid was say five? But what if one soul doesn't WANT to go away? Granted, the two souls in one body thing is a bit wierd. I don't totally get how that can possibly ever work or happen but the author takes the wierd premise and runs with it in a way that lets me get past the wierdness of it all. In the end if you can make something work, then that's all I ask.
May I also say that Zhang's writing is lovely? Not terribly subtle at times, but still, compared to some books I've just read (Defiance for example which was so amateurish it's not funny) this authors prose just give me a major reader happy. Prose don't make or break a book for me (I can find it in me to enjoy Dan Brown after all and his writing is horrible) but I do appreciate it when authors have fabulous storytelling and writing capability and this author has both.
A few shaky moments aside, this was actually a very strong debut and one of the more well written and interesting premise of the year. Definitely look forward to more of this series that I hope goes into more of the world building because I want to know more damn it.
WHO SHOULD READ: dystopian fans, His Dark Materials fans (the soul thing reminded me a lot of the things that HDM talked about with the daemons)
MY RATING: Four out of Five souls
Nice review! I really enjoyed this one too, and loved Kat's writing! Thought it was a really original idea too, and looking forward to seeing what happens next!
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