Book Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Alina Chase has spent her entire life imprisoned on a secluded island--not for a crime she committed in this lifetime, but one done by her past self. Her very soul is like a fingerprint, carried from one life to the next--and Alina is sick of being guilty.
Aided by three teens with their own ulterior motives, Alina manages to escape. Although she's not sure she can trust any of them, she soon finds herself drawn to Cameron, the most enigmatic and alluring of the trio. But when she uncovers clues from her past life, secrets begin to unravel and Alina must figure out whether she's more than the soul she inherited, or if she's fated to repeat history.
My Review:
3 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Another World, Mystery
Alina has been locked up since she was born due to who she was Before. Before, she was June, who was the most wanted woman in the country. Science advances have allowed for soul testing, where a person can be tested and who they were in a past life can be identified. Alina was unlucky enough to be born with June as her soul, causing her to be locked up on an isolated island for “her own protection”. When Alina turns 17, she has once chance for freedom and regardless of the consequences, she takes it.
This was an incredibly unique concept for a book. The author creates an entire world based on soul identity where people can have the option to get tested to see who they were and if they had an inheritance from themselves. Instead of fingerprints, the soul is used to identify someone, because the vessel may change, but the identity lives on.
I thought the book was very slow at the beginning. I understand that the world had to be established and a back story had to be added for June, but it seemed to take a long while to get there. The story did pick up and there were some big twists thrown in, but I saw them all coming. I was looking forward to some good mystery with my sci-fi world and I did not find that here. I have read other Megan Miranda books and loved them, mainly because the spooky elements and the shocking mystery twists, which I did not find in this book. If I had not read any other books by Miranda I may have liked this one more. It was a different story than what I have read before and the world was creatively crafted, I just had a hard time getting into the story which is why it only got three stars.
Alina was a very hard character to pin down. I could not get to know her predominantly since she did not know who she was herself. She has spent her entire life learning about this terrible dangerous girl June through documentaries and movies, studying every aspect of her so she knows how not to act. Alina is so very careful to not have anyone associate her actions with June that she at times goes against her own nature to do things differently. Like forcing herself to be opposite handed just so she is a tiny fraction different from June. The book spends a majority of the story dealing with Alina learning who she is and how to act around others. I don’t know if I really liked Alina, but I found her to be an intriguing character who at times seems so naïve and then at others so meticulous and manipulative. She changed a lot during the course of the story too, from seeing people mainly as objects to associating feelings with them. At the beginning she takes her clothes off without a second thought in front of a strange boy but then she appears to grow modesty later on and creates boundaries of what is appropriate. I found that to be interesting and it could represent her changing perspective of life once she was freed from her sterile prison.
I will read more books from this author in the future even though this was not my favorite. I like the authors writing style and the way she builds her stories with emersion of the reader right in the middle of the plot. I would recommend this to sci-fi readers because I am sure that others will love this book.
I received this title from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment