Review: The Name on Your Wrist by Helen Hiorns

It's the first thing they teach you when you start school. But they don't need to; your parents tell you when you're first learning how to say your name. It's drummed into you whilst you're taking your first stumbling steps. It's your lullaby. From the moment it first appears, you don't tell anyone the name on your wrist.
In Corin's world, your carpinomen - the name of your soul mate, marked indelibly on your wrist from the age of two or three - is everything. It's your most preciously guarded secret; a piece of knowledge that can give another person ultimate power over you. People spend years, even decades, searching for the one they're supposed to be with.

But what if you never find that person? Or you do, but you just don't love them? What if you fall for someone else - someone other than the name on your wrist?
And what if - like Corin - the last thing in the world you want is to be found?

Helen Hiorns is nineteen years old... how is that even possible? I mean, I'm twenty and I have the attention span of a goldfish so how does someone my age (well, younger!) have the attention span and talent to write a book as original, thoughtful and well... book-like as The Name on Your Wrist. It astounds me, it really does. Before I started this book I had spent four days on another book before finally deciding to give up and DNF it, so I wasn't expecting to get so gripped by this book so quickly, but I was gripped straight away by the premise and before long the story and characters had me.  I was unable to put this book down whilst reading it.

Corin starts out as your typical angsty teen protagonist and to start with I guess I really disliked it. The girl has her reasons for being annoyingly angry at everything and everyone but I hate characters that are bitter at the world without even giving anything a chance, so Corin really got on my nerves. The parts where Corin shows whats underneath were a little more bearable though. I did really like Colton though - he was sweet and caring but the end did make me wonder how true his feelings really were though. I'm not sure if how this book ended really satisfied me either. Jacinta stole the show for me though, she was the perfect edgy and honest character and really brought out the best in Corin.

The  whole idea was actually quite original and as a whole it was pulled off well, that being said there were a few things that were lackong on the world building edge - namely, the carpinonem seemed to be tattooed onto everyone, however if that was the case surely it'd be sore for days afterwards... it just didn't seem to make sense as a whole.

Overall, The Name on Your Wrist was an original and impressive debut from a promising new author. I was a little disappointed in a few things and found the main character severely grating but on the whole this book did impress me.

Book released  15th July 2013 by Random House Children's Books

Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review (NetGalley)