Series: Dualed, #1
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: February 26th, 2013
Source: Purchased
Goodreads

Rating: 4/5 Clones

Synopsis: The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her. -Goodreads

Review: This book was surprisingly awesome, although not quite what I was expecting. Elsie Chapman has a great way with words, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more books from this author. Her action scenes and the character moments all managed to come together in a way that created a really interest balance between world and character building.

West Grayer is one tough cookie. She’s been training her whole life for the day when she’ll have to kill her alt. She’s already lived through quite a few tragedies as a result of the world she lives in. You can see how her society has shaped who she became, which makes it understandable that she has trouble questioning the path set out for her (although it can be pretty annoying). But this girl definitely kicks ass.

Where this book really takes off is the world building. With so much dystopian out there now, you really have to push the boundaries to come up with an original story. Kersh came together nicely, and you could almost see how their history helped shape their kill-or-be-killed mentality.

Where things dropped off a bit was the ending. It was almost anti-climactic, while still being action packed. I kept waiting for an extra something that just didn’t come. I’m not even sure how this can be turned into a series. This isn’t enough for me to suggest skipping this read, but I was left scratching my head a bit at the end. Kind of a–really, that’s it?! moment. Although, to be fair… the ending along would have had me picking up book two just to see where this goes.

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