Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere.
Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.
Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.
Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.
Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human. (Blurb via Goodreads)
{Details} Hardcover, 368 pages. Published
June 11th 2013
by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. Source: Library
{Rating} 3/5
{Review} Interesting concept, lackluster execution. Point in it's favor? It had it's own "soylent green is people!" moment. Read the book for that one, I won't spoil it for you.
The book had several exciting bits, Elissa and Lin are on the run from government agents, attacked by mercenaries, and there are mid-space firefights but the story was also predictable and obvious. As soon as the morph-cards and the flight her brother is captaining are mentioned I knew how those would come into play.
While she did a good job with desciptions and setting the scenes Howson didn't do a good job of giving us the big picture. Where is Elissa? When is she? What planet is she on? Though we do get a little more information as the book progresses I wanted more.
I did feel for Elissa, the mysterious pain, the loss of normal, the desperation she felt. And my heart ached for Lin. Lin. She didn't even have a name. I think Howson did a good job in crafting their relationship, they're twins, they're linked in a way they don't understand but they're still strangers.
The romance felt out of place, like Howson thought that because it is a YA novel it needed to have romance. Cadan and Elissa have a history but they've barely spoken in years and suddenly they're in love? They don't know each other as adults, well, adultish, and they're in love. I didn't buy it. Despite the discordant note I liked Cadan, he's brilliant, self-assured, noble, and able to deal with crazy. He's exactly the right guy for this story.
The next book in the Linked series, Shattered, is due to release July 2014 and despite the faults in this book I'm more than willing to give it a read.
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