I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Twisted Fate by Norah Olson Published by Katherine Tegen Books on January 20, 2015
Pages: 272
Source: the publisher
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When Alyson meets Graham Copeland, the new boy next door, she instantly feels like he’s a kindred spirit—shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It’s impossible to resist having a crush on him.
As usual, her sister, Sydney, sees things differently. In Sydney's mind, Graham's odd personality and secretive past scream psychopath, not sweetheart. Her gut is telling her to stay away from him, and to protect a love-struck Alyson from her own naïveté. But despite her instincts, Sydney is surprised to realize that a part of her is drawn to Graham, too.
And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she realizes just how right—and wrong—she is about everything.
Perfect for fans of Michelle Hodkin, and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, Twisted Fate is an unputdownable novel, teeming with suspense.
Twisted Fate is an oddball of a book. The best word I can think of for this book is confusing. Because I was confused for at least half of it. But it was also intriguing. I knew it had a crazy, twisted ending, so I was desperate to know how it ended. And… wow. The only other book that has blown my mind to the extent that this book did is Of Scars and Stardust. Twisted Fate was on that level and, potentially, went way beyond it.
I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and I’m not sure how I felt about them, overall. I didn’t like them but I didn’t dislike them. However, they all intrigued me. I wanted to know their stories and I wanted to know them – some of them more than others.
Syd and Allyson were like the opposite sides of one coin. Syd was kind of goth, skater-punk and grumpy. She got high and did drugs and cut class. But she was also smart and wanted to live life. Allyson was bubbly and wholesome. She was too trusting, most of the time, and refused to see the bad in people. Honestly, Syd and Allyson were pretty cliche and stereotypical characters. Until the end of course.. But we’ll get there in a little bit!
Graham was… weird and odd. I hate throwing this word around, but he was pretty crazy. Yet, in some ways, he wasn’t. He just really didn’t understand that his actions had consequences. And his family didn’t help, they just enabled him. Becky and Declan were intriguing characters and I’d love to learn more about them, either with a sequel or maybe a novella.
I think the most confusing thing about this book was the timeline. A lot of Syd and Ally’s chapters were the same scene, just from each sister’s POV. By the end of the book, this totally makes sense. But as I was reading, it made it veerrryyy confusing. I also didn’t like the chapters that seemed to have multiple POVs because the various POVs weren’t distinguished enough. Part of that might have been because I was reading an eARC and the formatting might have been off, so it was impossible to separate who was who in the multi-POV chapters. But still, it was very confusing when the chapter said “Syd Declan Becky Graham” and then seemed to only be in Syd’s POV. Or switched from Syd to third person and then didn’t tell us that was happening.
I guessed one of the “twists” very early on. It wasn’t too surprising and it was easy to figure out. But the HUGE twist at the end completely shocked me and blew my mind. Normally I’m good at guessing these things, but I’m sick right now and it just totally went over my head. I had to re-read the last page like five times before it sunk in. And then I had to sit quietly for about twenty minutes, contemplating what that meant to the book and the events of the book and the ending. I’m telling you… If you’ve read Kate Brian’s Shadowlands or Andrea Hannah’s Of Scars and Stardust, this ending was on par – if not more mindblowing – than those.
I gave this book 3-stars because, overall, it was just an okay read. Some of it was boring and the pacing was a bit slow. The characters weren’t likable nor dislikable. It didn’t stand out or wow me until the end, when my brain exploded from shock. However, I definitely recommend this book. I finished this book last night and I STILL can’t stop thinking about it, what happened and how it ended. Despite it being a 3-star read, this is the type of book that will keep me up at night, pondering WTF just happened. Personally, I’m hoping for some novellas to fill in the gaps and answer some of my questions. Because I definitely have a lot of questions and I definitely feel like a lot of things went unanswered. I’d love some prequel novellas, some sequel novellas, whatever it takes to answer the millions of questions flying around in my brain right now.
Overall, I absolutely, 100% fully insist (nicely, of course!) that you get this book ASAP and read it. Even if, like me, you don’t enjoy it at first, try to push through until the very last page. Because this is the kind of book that will stay with you for a very long time, whether you enjoy it or not, whether you want it to or not. It will blow your mind and leave you demanding answers.