Only one will survive.
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.
I'm a big fan of alternate universes (think the movie The One with Jet Li), and cool names like West and Chord (the leading male MC). So automatically, DUALED had me by the throat.
West has to find and eliminate the other her. She's early in her training, and she's suffered a lot of loss in her personal life. So she's kind of messed up, and unsure about what she should do. So there's quite a bit of stumbling as she tries to figure out who she is, and if she should be the one to live at all.
And I like that kind of angst.
The action is intense and swift, with barely time to breathe between scenes. Yet somehow, Elsie manages to find moments to show West's vulnerability. I really liked her as a character, and I felt like she was exactly the person to take us on this journey. And that's what we want in a book, right?
If you liked THE HUNGER GAMES, I think you'll enjoy the action-packed plotline of DUALED (though I think West is more real than Katniss).
Find out what the other Bookanistas are doing:
- Lenore Appelhans adores THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Kasie West
- Christine Fonseca fawns over THE FUTURE OF US by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
- Nikki Katz is speechless over UNSPOKEN by Sarah Rees Brennan
- Stasia Ward Kehoe flips for ALL THE TRUTH THAT'S IN ME by Julie Berry
- Katy Upperman WHERE THE STARS STILL SHINE by Trish Doller
I really enjoyed this too. I found the fact that there was so much internal struggle rather than struggling against society to be different than a lot of dystopian novels.
ReplyDeleteGreat concept--this sounds really interesting.
ReplyDeleteMan I need to get this book. Great Share Elana. And maybe Dualed will get big enough t be made into a movie.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this book well enough. I found parts of it to be slow, and I wonder about some of the motives of the main character. Her emotions sometimes didn't seem to fit with the story. But all in all I would love to see what happens in the next book.
ReplyDeleteI am reading this right now! And ohmygoshyes-- THAT COVER. Like I told her, if that were my cover, I'd blow it up wall-sized and keep it in my office. It's so fabulous!
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