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pikasqueaks's review
2.0
I don't really know what to say about this one. It's another cheap attempt at using an uncommon mental illness to make a "chilling" and "spooky" story. It gets facets of that disorder completely wrong while ignoring the origin of it. It uses it as a plot device rather than anything else. In the same that that ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES used a girl to be the passenger in someone else's story, TWISTED FATE does this with a trouble kid named Graham.
There were too many points of view, and the characterization of this book was incredibly lacking and, ultimately, nothing new. One of the characters does nothing but get good grades, bake muffins, and fall into a trap. The other is a tangled-haired skateboarder who gets into trouble all the time.
Not nearly enough of anything is explained in this book, and there are a lot of implausible things which happen.
There were too many points of view, and the characterization of this book was incredibly lacking and, ultimately, nothing new. One of the characters does nothing but get good grades, bake muffins, and fall into a trap. The other is a tangled-haired skateboarder who gets into trouble all the time.
Not nearly enough of anything is explained in this book, and there are a lot of implausible things which happen.
losetimereading's review
2.0
Actual rating: 2.5 Stars. Full review to come.
********
I was REALLY excited to get started on Twisted Fate as my first debut of the new year. It sounded so intriguing and exactly the type of twisty thriller that keeps me hooked until the end… unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
The characters were just odd, like you know something is off with them from the moment you start reading. The two sisters are two sides of a coin, complete opposites in every way. The parents are just nonexistent and as much as they are mentioned a ton, you hardly get a glimpse of them. I did like Declan and Becky, there were interesting and good friends to Syd but ultimately I didn’t really care about any of the characters which was one of the main issues for me. I like to get attached or feel something for at least one of the characters and I felt nothing here.
There is a lot of point of views here. A police chief (or maybe two now that I think about it), Kim, Graham, Syd, Alyson… Becky… there is probably more, but it was so weird and choppy at times. Not too mention I couldn’t tell a few of the voices apart so I had to look back to see who’s chapter I was reading a few times.
I basically knew what was happening with the ‘twist’ from the first few chapters. I have no idea whether it was supposed to be like that (but something tells me not based on the ending) but that really, really took a huge chunk of enjoyment of the book for me. I essentially wanted to finish it just to see if I was correct. I also thought that the story was really disjointed and there was A LOT of information missing from the overall storyline.
For the first time, I’m using .5 of a star. I went over and over what I would rate this book for hours, and ultimately, I didn’t like it enough for it to be 3 stars but it’s not horrible, so I can’t give it 2 stars.
I think this will appeal to a lot of people (especially if you like books like We Were Liars) but unfortunatly it just didn’t work for me.
********
I was REALLY excited to get started on Twisted Fate as my first debut of the new year. It sounded so intriguing and exactly the type of twisty thriller that keeps me hooked until the end… unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
The characters were just odd, like you know something is off with them from the moment you start reading. The two sisters are two sides of a coin, complete opposites in every way. The parents are just nonexistent and as much as they are mentioned a ton, you hardly get a glimpse of them. I did like Declan and Becky, there were interesting and good friends to Syd but ultimately I didn’t really care about any of the characters which was one of the main issues for me. I like to get attached or feel something for at least one of the characters and I felt nothing here.
There is a lot of point of views here. A police chief (or maybe two now that I think about it), Kim, Graham, Syd, Alyson… Becky… there is probably more, but it was so weird and choppy at times. Not too mention I couldn’t tell a few of the voices apart so I had to look back to see who’s chapter I was reading a few times.
I basically knew what was happening with the ‘twist’ from the first few chapters. I have no idea whether it was supposed to be like that (but something tells me not based on the ending) but that really, really took a huge chunk of enjoyment of the book for me. I essentially wanted to finish it just to see if I was correct. I also thought that the story was really disjointed and there was A LOT of information missing from the overall storyline.
Spoiler
Ok, so it seems like Alyson/Sydney had this happening for a really long time. And it became pretty apparent that it must have been used as initially a coping mechanism for absentee parents when she was younger, but there was literally NO explanation or even suspicion from everyone else that it was happening. Like her two best friends never even commented on it at all? And how the entire death happened? It was just odd to me, and large parts of that story just seemed to be missing. Maybe I’m too analytical.For the first time, I’m using .5 of a star. I went over and over what I would rate this book for hours, and ultimately, I didn’t like it enough for it to be 3 stars but it’s not horrible, so I can’t give it 2 stars.
I think this will appeal to a lot of people (especially if you like books like We Were Liars) but unfortunatly it just didn’t work for me.
anacarter's review
2.0
Full Review on my blog!
I was going to give this a 3.5 Stars... but.... I think that's tooo generous.
I don't even know where to begin...
Okay, I can understand what the author was trying to get at, and I'll admit it definitely had me hooked at first, but it was very poorly written. It left me confused, really, really confused... I feel like it wasn't planned out at all, so many things did not connect, and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just don't even know.
This book has so much potential but was executed poorly. Creepy boy next door, messed up sister, bad parents . . . but no... All the cliches and stereotypes had to be written.
One thing that was just ughhhhh, was the different POVs. I swear there are like 8? Maybe more POVs, it was honestly hard to follow, I had to keep going back to the beginning of the chapter to see who's POV I was reading... Yes, it's THAT bad.
We hardly spent any time inside one character's mind before we cut to someone else talking about something completely unrelated. It became hard to even follow the story, never mind care about the individuals themselves. We got POVs from Allyson, Sydney, Graham, Becky, Declan, Kim, the guidance counsellor Richards, email 'chapters' of Graham's dad emailing Dr Adams (Graham's therapist) and the local police chief. Sooooo, I guess 9 POVs!! That's a lot...was it really necessary though?? POVs are great but this many is just a mess....
The sisters, Allyson and Sydney. Were they really sisters? OR just one, with some kind of split personality?
I totally saw the "I'm one and the same person" with these two, especially when the sisters were never around the same people. And when Graham got confused when he was talking to her and she corrected him on her "sisters" name, then said, yeah, okay. But was Tate diagnosed split personality? I mean, she must have, right? Why would she be Allyson one minute and Sydney the next? Was it because she was left alone so often when she was younger that she created another sibling to keep her company? It is her imaginary friend/sister? So many questions!
BUUUT at the end with the Police report really confirms my suspicions. Allyson Sydney Tate it says. And it refers to her as 'Tate' which, Allyson usually went by, but skip a few lines and it refers to her as Sydney, and was talking about how she liked to skateboard and such.
This is just a big mess... I can't even.
The ending was a big disappointment.
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I was going to give this a 3.5 Stars... but.... I think that's tooo generous.
I don't even know where to begin...
Okay, I can understand what the author was trying to get at, and I'll admit it definitely had me hooked at first, but it was very poorly written. It left me confused, really, really confused... I feel like it wasn't planned out at all, so many things did not connect, and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just don't even know.
This book has so much potential but was executed poorly. Creepy boy next door, messed up sister, bad parents . . . but no... All the cliches and stereotypes had to be written.
One thing that was just ughhhhh, was the different POVs. I swear there are like 8? Maybe more POVs, it was honestly hard to follow, I had to keep going back to the beginning of the chapter to see who's POV I was reading... Yes, it's THAT bad.
We hardly spent any time inside one character's mind before we cut to someone else talking about something completely unrelated. It became hard to even follow the story, never mind care about the individuals themselves. We got POVs from Allyson, Sydney, Graham, Becky, Declan, Kim, the guidance counsellor Richards, email 'chapters' of Graham's dad emailing Dr Adams (Graham's therapist) and the local police chief. Sooooo, I guess 9 POVs!! That's a lot...was it really necessary though?? POVs are great but this many is just a mess....
The sisters, Allyson and Sydney. Were they really sisters? OR just one, with some kind of split personality?
I totally saw the "I'm one and the same person" with these two, especially when the sisters were never around the same people. And when Graham got confused when he was talking to her and she corrected him on her "sisters" name, then said, yeah, okay. But was Tate diagnosed split personality? I mean, she must have, right? Why would she be Allyson one minute and Sydney the next? Was it because she was left alone so often when she was younger that she created another sibling to keep her company? It is her imaginary friend/sister? So many questions!
BUUUT at the end with the Police report really confirms my suspicions. Allyson Sydney Tate it says. And it refers to her as 'Tate' which, Allyson usually went by, but skip a few lines and it refers to her as Sydney, and was talking about how she liked to skateboard and such.
This is just a big mess... I can't even.
The ending was a big disappointment.
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siobhan27's review
3.0
When I saw this cover I was in love. I loved the way it was set up and it just made me want to pick up this book, without knowing what this book was about. I usually always go into books blind, that way I have no expectations when it comes to what i am going to read. But sometimes that backfires on me, and unfortunately that is what happened with Twisted Fate. I went in blind when I should have read what this book was about.
I will admit that I really liked the mystery behind all the character, it made me finish the book to the very end, Sydney and Alyson were interesting character but it was Graham that kept me reading. He was a mystery from the beginning and I liked that he had a secret that no one knew of. I just wish the author had not written his perspective into the plot because I feel like it took away from his mystery and I sort of figured out his secret before it was time. And I think that had to do with the fact that his perspective kind of told me what happened without meaning to. I just wish that the reveal of what happened in Graham's past was better set up. Although I kind of knew what happened i still felt like a bit cheated. It felt rushed and a little anti-climactic, although it did make him seem more creepy and more disturbed than before, I still think it could have been done in different way that could have been better explained.
Throughout most of the book I did feel quite disconnected from these characters. I wanted to feel for them, for their situation but something was holding me back. I had to stake in their stories and I felt nothing for them and that was my biggest reason for giving this book the rating I did. The characters just did not do it for me. Sydney and Alyson fought all the time and their relationship was more volatile than I would have liked. They were sisters and I felt like they had none of that in their characters, although the truth at the end of the book explained all of this I still felt like it made no sense when I was reading. I had no idea why they didn't get along, there was really no back story, and the only reason I could see was that they were just very different people. Sydney was a loner and a bit goth and Alyson was the exact opposite. To me this was not a good reason for them to dislike each other so much. The other aspect of their relationship that I had a huge problem with was their relationship with Graham. I hate when characters fight over the same guy, especially when I see no likable quality in that guy. That was the situation for me with these characters. I just did not understand why they liked him or why they were fighting over him in the first place.
The end of this book was very interesting to me. I did not see the twist coming and I thought it explained a lot of what was going on throughout the book. I just wish that there was more explanation as to why it happened and what it all meant. We are kind of left in the dark at teh end of the book saying "okayyyy what now?" I felt a bit left out and I just wish that the ending had answered more questions then what was left.
I will admit that I really liked the mystery behind all the character, it made me finish the book to the very end, Sydney and Alyson were interesting character but it was Graham that kept me reading. He was a mystery from the beginning and I liked that he had a secret that no one knew of. I just wish the author had not written his perspective into the plot because I feel like it took away from his mystery and I sort of figured out his secret before it was time. And I think that had to do with the fact that his perspective kind of told me what happened without meaning to. I just wish that the reveal of what happened in Graham's past was better set up. Although I kind of knew what happened i still felt like a bit cheated. It felt rushed and a little anti-climactic, although it did make him seem more creepy and more disturbed than before, I still think it could have been done in different way that could have been better explained.
Throughout most of the book I did feel quite disconnected from these characters. I wanted to feel for them, for their situation but something was holding me back. I had to stake in their stories and I felt nothing for them and that was my biggest reason for giving this book the rating I did. The characters just did not do it for me. Sydney and Alyson fought all the time and their relationship was more volatile than I would have liked. They were sisters and I felt like they had none of that in their characters, although the truth at the end of the book explained all of this I still felt like it made no sense when I was reading. I had no idea why they didn't get along, there was really no back story, and the only reason I could see was that they were just very different people. Sydney was a loner and a bit goth and Alyson was the exact opposite. To me this was not a good reason for them to dislike each other so much. The other aspect of their relationship that I had a huge problem with was their relationship with Graham. I hate when characters fight over the same guy, especially when I see no likable quality in that guy. That was the situation for me with these characters. I just did not understand why they liked him or why they were fighting over him in the first place.
The end of this book was very interesting to me. I did not see the twist coming and I thought it explained a lot of what was going on throughout the book. I just wish that there was more explanation as to why it happened and what it all meant. We are kind of left in the dark at teh end of the book saying "okayyyy what now?" I felt a bit left out and I just wish that the ending had answered more questions then what was left.
sngick's review
4.0
What the what?!
This book was suspenseful and creepy but I'm seriously struggling with the ending.
A lot.
Like throw the book across the room...
I need someone else to immediately read this so we can discuss this ending!
This book was suspenseful and creepy but I'm seriously struggling with the ending.
A lot.
Like throw the book across the room...
I need someone else to immediately read this so we can discuss this ending!
sameaton23's review
2.0
With this being my first read for ARC August, I was ready to dive into this challenge and knock out my crazy long list of ARCs. I thought this would be a perfect choice because I was really excited about this book late last year. And then life happened, and I didn’t get around to it until August. No harm, right? Well this book was strange. Really strange. And I don’t think I was a fan of it.
This is a story about two sisters who have grown apart. And then Graham moves in next door and changes everything. Allyson is the girl who does everything by the book but has to work extra hard at school. Sydney on the other hand likes to get high and is naturally smart and doesn’t have to try very hard at all. Allyson is attracted to Graham, and Sydney has her reservations. And maybe for a good reason.
So lets start off with the multiple points of view. At the beginning of every chapter, theres a list of who is a part of the chapter. Its like setting up the scene in a play or something. I thought this was un-necessary, and would have been fine if the chapter just stated whose point of view it was from. I also thought that the multiple points of view was a little overdone. Theres of course the points of view from Allyson and Sydney. Those were acceptable to me. I even appreciated the ones from Graham. But I thought the book could have done without the additional POVs like Graham’s stepmom or from the police officer. The book was also confusing at times because a scene would be told from Allyson’s POV but then retold in Sydney’s POV. So you never really knew what actually happened. I understand the point of this, because there are always two sides to a story, but that wasn’t made clear in the beginning.
The twist- I’m not going to mention what the twist is because thats just cruel. But I have to say it was really obvious from the beginning. During the whole book, I was just waiting for the book to reveal the twist so that the story could start going somewhere. There was an additional twist at the end, but I wasn’t wowed by it.
I had a big problem with Graham. He was creepy as shit. And Sydney drove me nuts because of it. She kept saying “theres something off about that guy” “hes kind of weird” and I would say, YES THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG. But then she’d turn around and be like “but I couldn’t help but be drawn to him” or something like that. I could no roll my eyes any harder. When someone creeps you out, I do not think that the answer should be “Oh its probably fine, hes cute.” You should run away. Because things weren’t fine. At all. I also had time connecting with the characters. If you can’t connect with the characters, you don’t care about them. Thats why I wasn’t wowed by the twist at the end.
I read a similar book like this earlier in the year by Lauren Oliver called Vanishing Girls which features two sisters growing apart who have to solve a mystery. Even though Vanishing Girls came out after this one, I think Lauren Oliver pulled off the story much better. I didn’t see Vanishing Girls’ twist coming, so it had me floored. And I liked the characters and felt connected to them.
Overall, Twisted Fate just didn’t do it for me. I was bored most of the time and couldn’t connect with the characters. I love good mysteries like this, but it just wasn’t hooking me in.
This is a story about two sisters who have grown apart. And then Graham moves in next door and changes everything. Allyson is the girl who does everything by the book but has to work extra hard at school. Sydney on the other hand likes to get high and is naturally smart and doesn’t have to try very hard at all. Allyson is attracted to Graham, and Sydney has her reservations. And maybe for a good reason.
So lets start off with the multiple points of view. At the beginning of every chapter, theres a list of who is a part of the chapter. Its like setting up the scene in a play or something. I thought this was un-necessary, and would have been fine if the chapter just stated whose point of view it was from. I also thought that the multiple points of view was a little overdone. Theres of course the points of view from Allyson and Sydney. Those were acceptable to me. I even appreciated the ones from Graham. But I thought the book could have done without the additional POVs like Graham’s stepmom or from the police officer. The book was also confusing at times because a scene would be told from Allyson’s POV but then retold in Sydney’s POV. So you never really knew what actually happened. I understand the point of this, because there are always two sides to a story, but that wasn’t made clear in the beginning.
The twist- I’m not going to mention what the twist is because thats just cruel. But I have to say it was really obvious from the beginning. During the whole book, I was just waiting for the book to reveal the twist so that the story could start going somewhere. There was an additional twist at the end, but I wasn’t wowed by it.
I had a big problem with Graham. He was creepy as shit. And Sydney drove me nuts because of it. She kept saying “theres something off about that guy” “hes kind of weird” and I would say, YES THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG. But then she’d turn around and be like “but I couldn’t help but be drawn to him” or something like that. I could no roll my eyes any harder. When someone creeps you out, I do not think that the answer should be “Oh its probably fine, hes cute.” You should run away. Because things weren’t fine. At all. I also had time connecting with the characters. If you can’t connect with the characters, you don’t care about them. Thats why I wasn’t wowed by the twist at the end.
I read a similar book like this earlier in the year by Lauren Oliver called Vanishing Girls which features two sisters growing apart who have to solve a mystery. Even though Vanishing Girls came out after this one, I think Lauren Oliver pulled off the story much better. I didn’t see Vanishing Girls’ twist coming, so it had me floored. And I liked the characters and felt connected to them.
Overall, Twisted Fate just didn’t do it for me. I was bored most of the time and couldn’t connect with the characters. I love good mysteries like this, but it just wasn’t hooking me in.
jooke's review
3.0
3.5*
WTF!!! what a twisted end! I can't really seem to get my mind wrapped around it.
For the most part of the book you're wondering: "How can someone set up an online platform that basically shares random peoples personal information a second time and still don't realize the risks and consequences?" and "What drama happened before Graham moved next door to Ally and Sydney". Once that part was revealed everything happend so fast I struggled to keep up. The end just blew up in my face and I felt like I was screwed the entire time... Still don't understand how this end was possible...
WTF!!! what a twisted end! I can't really seem to get my mind wrapped around it.
For the most part of the book you're wondering: "How can someone set up an online platform that basically shares random peoples personal information a second time and still don't realize the risks and consequences?" and "What drama happened before Graham moved next door to Ally and Sydney". Once that part was revealed everything happend so fast I struggled to keep up. The end just blew up in my face and I felt like I was screwed the entire time... Still don't understand how this end was possible...
islandgeekgirl's review
2.0
When Graham's family moves next door to Alyson's, she feels an instant connection to the shy, awkward boy. To her, he's a sweet boy and she's falling in love with him. To Alyson's sister Sydney, Graham's weird, creepy, and something about him scream 'danger'. Sydney is determined to save her sister from him. But part of Sydney is drawn to Graham too. And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she finds out how right, and how wrong, she is about everything.
Twisted Fate was told from multiple POVs, most of them being the three main characters of Sydney, Alyson, and Graham. The other POVs were random, Sydney's best friend or Graham's step-mother, a police officer, all character the reader never spent much time with so it felt like they were more of an insert POV to show or tell us something seemingly important. With the book being on the shorter side, all the extra POVs took time away from fleshing out the main characters of Syd, Ally, and Graham so they felt a little shallow.
There seemed to be a lot of telling in the book instead of letting the reader feel or discover things for themselves. Sydney was supposedly a genius but we never got to see that. Instead we were told all the time that she got great grades and that she was so smart because she read books and knew big words. She was supposedly a trouble-maker which we saw by her skipping school and smoking pot but that was it. There was very little details mentioned about the character's passions: skateboarding, computer hacking, making and editing film, baking. There would occasionally be a mention thrown in like 'coding' or 'Tony Hawk' but it ended up coming across more like something the characters did in their spare time than something they loved to do.
What did work for me was Graham and his whole creepy film guy plot. He definitely did creep me out. Maybe I watch too many Criminal Minds-type shows, maybe I scare too easily, but the idea of Graham and his films was more than unsettling. His mysterious past and his whole storyline kept me reading. I wanted to know how things would turn out for him, even if I did suspect.
There was a lot of foreshadowing in the book(or I just read way too much into meaningless things because of above-mentioned Criminal Minds addiction) so I was able to determined the twists fairly early into the book. They still kept me reading because I wanted to know if I was right but it was a little disappointing things did turn out pretty much as I expected. The concept was what drew me to the book and I still think it was a great idea.
Overall, I feel I would have enjoyed the book if there had been less foreshadowing(so I would have been surprised by the twists) and more character depth.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Twisted Fate was told from multiple POVs, most of them being the three main characters of Sydney, Alyson, and Graham. The other POVs were random, Sydney's best friend or Graham's step-mother, a police officer, all character the reader never spent much time with so it felt like they were more of an insert POV to show or tell us something seemingly important. With the book being on the shorter side, all the extra POVs took time away from fleshing out the main characters of Syd, Ally, and Graham so they felt a little shallow.
There seemed to be a lot of telling in the book instead of letting the reader feel or discover things for themselves. Sydney was supposedly a genius but we never got to see that. Instead we were told all the time that she got great grades and that she was so smart because she read books and knew big words. She was supposedly a trouble-maker which we saw by her skipping school and smoking pot but that was it. There was very little details mentioned about the character's passions: skateboarding, computer hacking, making and editing film, baking. There would occasionally be a mention thrown in like 'coding' or 'Tony Hawk' but it ended up coming across more like something the characters did in their spare time than something they loved to do.
What did work for me was Graham and his whole creepy film guy plot. He definitely did creep me out. Maybe I watch too many Criminal Minds-type shows, maybe I scare too easily, but the idea of Graham and his films was more than unsettling. His mysterious past and his whole storyline kept me reading. I wanted to know how things would turn out for him, even if I did suspect.
There was a lot of foreshadowing in the book(or I just read way too much into meaningless things because of above-mentioned Criminal Minds addiction) so I was able to determined the twists fairly early into the book. They still kept me reading because I wanted to know if I was right but it was a little disappointing things did turn out pretty much as I expected. The concept was what drew me to the book and I still think it was a great idea.
Overall, I feel I would have enjoyed the book if there had been less foreshadowing(so I would have been surprised by the twists) and more character depth.
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.