Review: Linked by Imogen Howson

For years, Elissa has suffered nightmarish visions and unexplained bruises. Finally, she's promised a cure, and an operation is scheduled. But on the eve of the procedure, Elissa discovers the truth: she's seeing the world through another girl's eyes. A world filled with wires, machines and pain. Elissa follows her visions, only to find a battered, broken girl. A girl who looks exactly like her. A twin she never knew existed. Elissa and her twin Lin go on the run, but even after changing their looks and clothes, they're barely a step ahead of the government agents who are ruthlessly tracking them down. For Lin and Elissa are too valuable to let go, and the dark truth at the heart of it all is too shocking to risk exposing...

I was really excited to start Linked when I got it through for review, but university unfortunately stopped me from immediately devouring it. I did eventually get to read it and I did get through it in a matter of hours. It was intriguing, kept me guessing and didn't fail to shock me in the end.

However - with all the compliments I can give this book - I cannot fail to mention the issues that I had and regretfully, there were quite a few, As a start, I can't not mention how one dimensional I found every character. Elissa had all of the potential to be an interesting, dynamic character but I found her flat and boring instead, which is sad. Lin, her twin, was even worse. She was this confusing characature of a psychotic robot and I couldn't help but grow bored of her crazy/not-crazy act. The romance also fell flat, though there was some light there. It wasn't exactly instalove because the main character has had a crush on her love interest for a while and they haven't only just met. That was a saving grace, because it meant there was some tiny semblance of chemistry there.

The world building also fell short for me, with terms and slang coming out of nowhere with no explanation. However, I understand what Howson was trying to do - she was trying to avoid the inevitable sci-fi infodump - and it did work,somewhat.

The end did shock me, and I am still excited to read the sequel even though I had some faults with this, so I guess that says something.

Overall, Linked had some great potential but fell short on the execution in most areas. I will still read the sequel though, so I can't have disliked it that much!

Book released August 13th 2013 by Quercus

Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review