This is a bit of an older book, but it's been on my to read list for quite some time. I volunteer with this book club for middle school readers, and I remember when this book first came out... one of the kids was just super excited to talk about it. I mean, the whole nine yards; face lit up, was so excited to explain the basis of the story that they could barely get through it before telling us how much they loved the book, and then why they loved it so much. Ever since then, I've wanted to read it. Enthusiasm is contagious. And now, there's a sequel out.
Anyways, so here's an amazon summary, "Two of you exist. Only one will survive.
West Grayer is ready. She's trained for years to confront her Alternate, a twin raised by another family. Survival means a good job, marriage—life.
But then a tragic misstep leaves West questioning: Is she 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 herself, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.
Fast-paced and unpredictable, Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a chilling, unforgettable world." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
West Grayer has grown up in Kersh. Kersh is a barricaded city that survives by making their citizens cut throat. From birth, people are raised to know they are clones, and that an exact clone exists with another family out there. Between the ages of thirteen and twenty, they're activated. Meaning, they have to go out into the world and fight their clone to the death. Well, they fight in many different ways. It doesn't seem to usually end in a duel kind of situation, but more like I stabbed/shot you first, now you're lying prone on the ground dying kind of deal. Plus, if they don't finish their assignment within thirty days of being activated, they have something in their head that kind of explodes on them. So there's a lot of incentive to be the 'worthy' one.
West, West has seen the rest of her family die at this point, in one way or another. Her parents are gone, and at the very beginning of the book, she's sees her last sibling, her brother, die as an accidental death during his best friend, Chord's trial. Chord successfully becomes a complete, but at a high price.
West isn't ready to face her Alt (her clone; well I guess they're clones of each other on some level) but she struggles with feeling adequate in her skills. So she decides to become a striker. A striker is someone who completes other Alts assignment. West figures if she becomes better at killing, she has a better chance of surviving when it's her turn.
Dun dun dunnnn
That's enough summary.
So, I liked this book overall, but I had a few hold ups with it. I really liked the world building, the character dynamics, how the relationships pan out. I think West is interesting in the way she has very soft spots, but she also has these like razor edges about other things. It made the experience she was going through more real. There was also a strong emphasis on everyone grows up thinking this way about things. There wasn't like, this person got a sheltered childhood, this is a way we're trying to cheat the system, but it was more like we're trying to make the best of it. It was just kind of weird to get use to this sense of finality of literally kill or be killed.
But, there was also this kind of romance thing that was happening which, I didn't really find to work for me. It felt kind of really unnecessarily forced.
I also just had BIG questions about why they were all in Kersh. What happened to the rest of the world? I assume we'll get answers in book 2 about why this needed to be such a blood thirsty world.
So really, as this point, it's kind of why, am I still wondering when I could just read book 2?
Happy reading!
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