Review Detail

I have to admit the premise of this story intrigued me and the writing at the beginning kept my interest. There's alot of promise in this debut novel. I love unique YA Sci-fi stories.

At the beginning I was hooked with the writing that swept me away into this alternate America with children/teens who struggle with two souls.

Then the story felt more like GOLDEN COMPASS only instead of Daemon(animal guides)this story has two souls trapped in a body. In this alternate world when children reach a certain age, they 'settle' or the other soul 'disappears'. Only in the case of Addie, her other soul, Eva, stays. While in school another girl catches her eye, Hally, who would be popular only she's foreign. Only there might be more then that.


The writing moves along well enough but when Zhang goes back and forth with the different souls? It got distracting and very jarring. A better example of using this format has to be THE HOST by Stephanie Meyer.

The hospital scene was suspenseful and the experiments they do on the hybrid children are pretty chilling. Also the dialogue moves this story right along. I did have a few questions though that include what happens when one soul 'falls in love' with someone that the other soul hates? **This is touched on only briefly and towards the end of the novel. Wouldn't a parent know if another soul is still inside their child? As a mother I know when something is up with my own kiddo. It's called mother's intuition. I didn't get a sense of that in this story. Also I wanted more emotional reactions and to see more conflicts/struggles going on with not only the hybirds but others in this society.

Intriguing premise set in an alternative America that is promising but falls a little short. I'm hoping that the next book shows us more of what happens in the rebellion and also the consequences of keeping both souls. Still there's some promise with this series. I'm curious where book two will go next!