**QWERTY**

What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I should not exist. But I do.
Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else—two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t . . .
For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet . . . for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

My favourite quote out of the book;

"I didn't choose the hybrid life, the hybrid life chose me"

Okay, that isn't actually in the book but I feel the quote as appropriate as a prelude to my review.

*awkward silence*

I think eventually I'll be banned from reviewing books.

Well, let me start off by saying wowza, that is one clever cover (except for the fact that the model looks like Rihanna). And do you know that Kat Zhang wrote this book when she was only 19...

...while doing her IB diploma.


Girl, I don't know what kind of subjects you took for your IB diploma but when I did mine, I basically had no life whatsoever, let alone a side project.

Anyway, I believe this is one of those books by which you either ended up worship it or you just don't care about it anymore.

It's just...not my cup of tea. It wasn't bad, but just bleh! I didn't feel compelled to finish it. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I received it as a review copy.

I guess I was craving for something bigger for a dystopia. Basically this book revolves around Addie and Eva, not much else. No descriptions given as to what actually happens to the rest of the world or how The States functions at political level for this particular setting.

As I said before, I applaud the fact that What's Left of Me is definitely unlike other dystopias that stress too much about the political unrest and rebellious attempts to bring down the ruler.

At first, it was hard to adjust with the usage of the pronouns (we, us, ours) for a first person POV. Contrary to the popular preference, I was actually rooting for Addie more. I don't know, sometimes Eva can be too pushy and dramatic but I can see where she comes from. But Zhang certainly made a good choice by selecting Eva to be the voice for this book.

Again, with the lack of clear world-building, I'm not sure if this dystopia was set up as an alternate future because it wasn't clear if this state of hybrid-ity emerged from a not-so-distant past or it is indeed already existed from the beginning of time.

But yeah, the pacing is reaaaaally slow. The constant inner battles between Addie and Eva were wonderfully written, they will make you feel torn to be one whose side.

I received the ARC from HarperCollins Aus in exchange for an honest review.

3 poker faces

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