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christajls's review against another edition
2.0
This review originally posted at More Than Just Magic
Simply put this novel is an exercise in bad decision making. If West (our protagonist) was as clever as the book kept telling me she was, then it didn’t make sense for her to continually and consistently make poor decisions. She should have been able to at least speculate on why something would end up working against her. But every time she was reckless and impulsive and I wished I could jump into the story and talk some sense into her.
Although to be fair, it may not be West’s fault that she made such poor choices, since the premise of the novel itself was a little shaky. I couldn’t understand why a society that was so poor would spend so much of their resources on the Alternate system. There was a brief explanation about breeding the strongest people but a society built solely on physical strength is doomed to fail and furthermore it seemed like all the money and resources invested in the manufacturing of alts could have been better spent on education and other programs that would have also created a stronger, smarter population but with a lot less bloodshed.
Simply put this novel is an exercise in bad decision making. If West (our protagonist) was as clever as the book kept telling me she was, then it didn’t make sense for her to continually and consistently make poor decisions. She should have been able to at least speculate on why something would end up working against her. But every time she was reckless and impulsive and I wished I could jump into the story and talk some sense into her.
Although to be fair, it may not be West’s fault that she made such poor choices, since the premise of the novel itself was a little shaky. I couldn’t understand why a society that was so poor would spend so much of their resources on the Alternate system. There was a brief explanation about breeding the strongest people but a society built solely on physical strength is doomed to fail and furthermore it seemed like all the money and resources invested in the manufacturing of alts could have been better spent on education and other programs that would have also created a stronger, smarter population but with a lot less bloodshed.
rhaenyrareads's review against another edition
4.0
J'hésite entre un 3,5/5 et 4/5. Ce que j'ai aimé dans ce livre c'est qu'il y a de l'action. il n'y a pas trop de temps morts. sauf qu'il y manque quelque chose. peut être que c'était trop restreint. et un peu répétitif. mais c'était une bonne lecture
kbrownreads's review against another edition
4.0
it was Ok. not mind blowingly awesome but nit terrible
bookishvice's review against another edition
3.0
Kersh is one of the last safe haven cities in the world. To maintain this status The Board has created a system to eliminate weak ones and breed the rest into soldiers who can defend their city. For this, every person is born with a twin, an alternate who they only meet once they’re activated to kill each other. After an alternate finishes a mission, he becomes a complete and has access to privileges the Idles, people who haven’t been activated to kill their alts, don’t have.
All that remains of West Grayer’s family is her brother, the rest failed their missions. But West has been training for the day they activate her, and she is confident she’ll do anything to survive. But then her brother dies in a accident, and she spirals into a dark cloud of grief. West thinks there’s nothing worth fighting for anymore, but her childhood friend is not about to let her give up.
Elsie Chapman’s Dualed is full of action and hard choices, as West searches for a reason to survive.
West is your typical kickass girl. She’s a fighter with a fiery temper and will, but she’s also horribly stubborn and this leads her to make some unreasonable decisions. Like become a Striker, a killer for hire, and terminating other alts but not hers. She also shuts out Chord, the only person left in her life who can help her. I just couldn’t understand that. Her alt was smarter than her in that aspect.
Overall, I didn’t connect with West, and as a reader who puts characters above all else, this was an issue for me. I couldn’t get involved in the world of Dualed because of her.
There’s a tiny bit of romance with Chord, but like I mentioned before West shuts him out. This means we don’t get much of it. Still, it was nice seeing him come back again and again, trying to reason with her. Helping her every step of the way in however way he could. It was very frustrating to read those parts. West keeps pushing him away, hurting him on purpose so that he stays away. She says she’s doing it because she loves him and wants him to be safe, but I just never felt the spark from her side of things.
The Board is the real threat, yet for all the illegal stuff West did, she never even got close to being in trouble. I wanted to see more injustice by the Board or something. I know this is only the first book, and maybe in others the Board will be more involved. But the ending pretty much wrapped it all up and I don’t think I’ll be up to round two with West.
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
All that remains of West Grayer’s family is her brother, the rest failed their missions. But West has been training for the day they activate her, and she is confident she’ll do anything to survive. But then her brother dies in a accident, and she spirals into a dark cloud of grief. West thinks there’s nothing worth fighting for anymore, but her childhood friend is not about to let her give up.
Elsie Chapman’s Dualed is full of action and hard choices, as West searches for a reason to survive.
West is your typical kickass girl. She’s a fighter with a fiery temper and will, but she’s also horribly stubborn and this leads her to make some unreasonable decisions. Like become a Striker, a killer for hire, and terminating other alts but not hers. She also shuts out Chord, the only person left in her life who can help her. I just couldn’t understand that. Her alt was smarter than her in that aspect.
Overall, I didn’t connect with West, and as a reader who puts characters above all else, this was an issue for me. I couldn’t get involved in the world of Dualed because of her.
There’s a tiny bit of romance with Chord, but like I mentioned before West shuts him out. This means we don’t get much of it. Still, it was nice seeing him come back again and again, trying to reason with her. Helping her every step of the way in however way he could. It was very frustrating to read those parts. West keeps pushing him away, hurting him on purpose so that he stays away. She says she’s doing it because she loves him and wants him to be safe, but I just never felt the spark from her side of things.
The Board is the real threat, yet for all the illegal stuff West did, she never even got close to being in trouble. I wanted to see more injustice by the Board or something. I know this is only the first book, and maybe in others the Board will be more involved. But the ending pretty much wrapped it all up and I don’t think I’ll be up to round two with West.
*Arc copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley*
100pagesaday's review against another edition
3.0
"They're Alts. Enemies from birth. And now one's dead, which means the survivor has completed his assignment. He takes off down the road, leaving behind his childhood, a past life so easily shed as a prisoner's jumpsuit."
In this YA dystopian thriller, the world has has fallen into war, but a small section of the northwest US, Kersh, has managed to block itself off from the warring Surround. However, since Kersh is always looming under the threat of war, The Board decides to make sure their citizens are the strongest and best fighters available. Although, they way that they do this seems just plain ridiculous. When two sets of parents are ready to have children, all four sets of DNA are combined and both mothers are implanted with identical eggs, twins or Alts, born to separate families. When the children are anywhere between 10 and 20 they are 'activated,' meaning that one Alt must kill the other or they both die. This is supposed to leave Kersh with the strongest fighters. Even though once you have killed your Alt there is nothing stopping you from becoming fat and lazy and unskilled. There are also hired assassins, strikers, that can kill your Alt for you, and, not to mention all of the other ways in the world a person could die are still out there, too. It is not covered in the book what happens if your Alt dies before you are activated, which seems to happen a lot when one Alt is trying to kill the other.
Anyway, 15 year old West is quite traumatized by all the death around her. Her siblings were all killed by their activated by their Alts, and now her father has just passed shortly after the death of her mother. Then her best friend, Chord, becomes activated and West makes sure he is the one to kill his Alt. After witnessing this, West still feels unprepared for when her own day of activation will come. Taking the advice of her weapons teacher at school, West decides to become a striker. A hired assassin, outside the law, who is paid to kill other people's Alts.
While the plot sounded really interesting to me, the world set-up and the rules just did not work for me. The rule that the world set up and for the reasons the rules were set up were clearly not working. Kersh wanted the strongest people for it's army, however, it may just get the richest, the sneakiest or the luckiest. It also did not seem like Kersh was ever actively in a war. It seemed like there would have been much simpler ways to go about training good soldiers, but that's me. West's character was slightly annoying, she wanted to be the Alt that did everything right; but she stalled out and seem to make a lot of mistakes. West and Chord's relationship was a mess. I'm not sure I've ever seen a 15 year old girl push away a guy so many times, even though she thought she was protecting him. Here is what I hope will be happening in the next book, since there is potential here: The world of Kersh is obviously flawed, hopefully West and Chord will begin to see that and push back against authority. West obviously has a rule breaking streak in her and is a good fighter, she might be able to go up against The Board. Let's see what Divided will bring.
In this YA dystopian thriller, the world has has fallen into war, but a small section of the northwest US, Kersh, has managed to block itself off from the warring Surround. However, since Kersh is always looming under the threat of war, The Board decides to make sure their citizens are the strongest and best fighters available. Although, they way that they do this seems just plain ridiculous. When two sets of parents are ready to have children, all four sets of DNA are combined and both mothers are implanted with identical eggs, twins or Alts, born to separate families. When the children are anywhere between 10 and 20 they are 'activated,' meaning that one Alt must kill the other or they both die. This is supposed to leave Kersh with the strongest fighters. Even though once you have killed your Alt there is nothing stopping you from becoming fat and lazy and unskilled. There are also hired assassins, strikers, that can kill your Alt for you, and, not to mention all of the other ways in the world a person could die are still out there, too. It is not covered in the book what happens if your Alt dies before you are activated, which seems to happen a lot when one Alt is trying to kill the other.
Anyway, 15 year old West is quite traumatized by all the death around her. Her siblings were all killed by their activated by their Alts, and now her father has just passed shortly after the death of her mother. Then her best friend, Chord, becomes activated and West makes sure he is the one to kill his Alt. After witnessing this, West still feels unprepared for when her own day of activation will come. Taking the advice of her weapons teacher at school, West decides to become a striker. A hired assassin, outside the law, who is paid to kill other people's Alts.
While the plot sounded really interesting to me, the world set-up and the rules just did not work for me. The rule that the world set up and for the reasons the rules were set up were clearly not working. Kersh wanted the strongest people for it's army, however, it may just get the richest, the sneakiest or the luckiest. It also did not seem like Kersh was ever actively in a war. It seemed like there would have been much simpler ways to go about training good soldiers, but that's me. West's character was slightly annoying, she wanted to be the Alt that did everything right; but she stalled out and seem to make a lot of mistakes. West and Chord's relationship was a mess. I'm not sure I've ever seen a 15 year old girl push away a guy so many times, even though she thought she was protecting him. Here is what I hope will be happening in the next book, since there is potential here: The world of Kersh is obviously flawed, hopefully West and Chord will begin to see that and push back against authority. West obviously has a rule breaking streak in her and is a good fighter, she might be able to go up against The Board. Let's see what Divided will bring.
atinydisaster's review against another edition
4.0
This book was surprisingly awesome, although not quite what I was expecting. Elsie Chapman has a great way with words, and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more books from this author. Her action scenes and the character moments all managed to come together in a way that created a really interest balance between world and character building.
West Grayer is one tough cookie. She’s been training her whole life for the day when she’ll have to kill her alt. She’s already lived through quite a few tragedies as a result of the world she lives in. You can see how her society has shaped who she became, which makes it understandable that she has trouble questioning the path set out for her (although it can be pretty annoying). But this girl definitely kicks ass.
Where this book really takes off is the world building. With so much dystopian out there now, you really have to push the boundaries to come up with an original story. Kersh came together nicely, and you could almost see how their history helped shape their kill-or-be-killed mentality.
Where things dropped off a bit was the ending. It was almost anti-climactic, while still being action packed. I kept waiting for an extra something that just didn’t come. I’m not even sure how this can be turned into a series. This isn’t enough for me to suggest skipping this read, but I was left scratching my head a bit at the end. Kind of a–really, that’s it?! moment. Although, to be fair… the ending along would have had me picking up book two just to see where this goes.
West Grayer is one tough cookie. She’s been training her whole life for the day when she’ll have to kill her alt. She’s already lived through quite a few tragedies as a result of the world she lives in. You can see how her society has shaped who she became, which makes it understandable that she has trouble questioning the path set out for her (although it can be pretty annoying). But this girl definitely kicks ass.
Where this book really takes off is the world building. With so much dystopian out there now, you really have to push the boundaries to come up with an original story. Kersh came together nicely, and you could almost see how their history helped shape their kill-or-be-killed mentality.
Where things dropped off a bit was the ending. It was almost anti-climactic, while still being action packed. I kept waiting for an extra something that just didn’t come. I’m not even sure how this can be turned into a series. This isn’t enough for me to suggest skipping this read, but I was left scratching my head a bit at the end. Kind of a–really, that’s it?! moment. Although, to be fair… the ending along would have had me picking up book two just to see where this goes.
aneeqah's review against another edition
3.0
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
I feel like I'm being disappointed by far too many books lately, and it makes me sad that this is another one added to the list. This was one of my most highly-anticipated debuts, but it fell flat for me. I was pretty bored most of the time and was never able to really connect with the MC. The climax was pretty dull as well.
I feel like I'm being disappointed by far too many books lately, and it makes me sad that this is another one added to the list. This was one of my most highly-anticipated debuts, but it fell flat for me. I was pretty bored most of the time and was never able to really connect with the MC. The climax was pretty dull as well.
weweresotired's review against another edition
2.0
See more reviews on Short & Sweet Reviews.
Dualed presents a pretty creepy alternate future, one which the characters only barely question throughout the book. The characters are living in a world which trains children to be killers, and expects no one to ever question why this is done. Knowing that this is a planned series, I shouldn't expect these characters to solve their universe's problems all in one book, but I still got to the end thinking there should have been more done to push the characters towards questioning Kersh's government.
I enjoyed this book but didn't love it as much as I'd hoped to. Sometimes it felt like several different stories just tacked together -- West's life as a striker (a hired assassin), her quest to kill her own Alt, and her budding romance with Chord all felt like three different stories. West makes a lot of decisions which are never fully explained and which don't make a lot of sense. I guess some of it can be chalked up to her being fifteen, but not all of it. While reading, I had a ton of questions that could have been answered by some basic worldbuilding, but which were never addressed. The very fact that Kersh's government spends so many resources on a population where 50% of them will eventually wind up dead and the survivors, who are expected to be elite, the best and the strongest, are allowed to get lazy and complacent didn't make much sense to me. There's clearly more to the story of why Kersh has the Alt program. Maybe later books in the series will help fill in some gaps.
West can be a difficult character to like. She's emotionally distant, which is understandable given her past, and she does her best to push everyone else in her life away. Even though she's the narrator of the story, we still have a hard time getting inside her head. She seems to ping-pong between being this stone-cold killer and a scared little girl. Again, understandable, given her situation, but it can give the reader a bit of whiplash sometimes. It's hard to reconcile the West who can put her feelings aside and gun people down for money with the West who is afraid of facing off with her own Alt.
Overall, I felt like like this was a good book which had glimmers of something which could have been even better. Chapman's a strong writer, but I had a hard time connecting emotionally to the story, especially the romance angle, and there were times where I honestly didn't care too much what happened to West. I'll probably still check out the next book in the series, just to see what happens next.
Dualed presents a pretty creepy alternate future, one which the characters only barely question throughout the book. The characters are living in a world which trains children to be killers, and expects no one to ever question why this is done. Knowing that this is a planned series, I shouldn't expect these characters to solve their universe's problems all in one book, but I still got to the end thinking there should have been more done to push the characters towards questioning Kersh's government.
I enjoyed this book but didn't love it as much as I'd hoped to. Sometimes it felt like several different stories just tacked together -- West's life as a striker (a hired assassin), her quest to kill her own Alt, and her budding romance with Chord all felt like three different stories. West makes a lot of decisions which are never fully explained and which don't make a lot of sense. I guess some of it can be chalked up to her being fifteen, but not all of it. While reading, I had a ton of questions that could have been answered by some basic worldbuilding, but which were never addressed. The very fact that Kersh's government spends so many resources on a population where 50% of them will eventually wind up dead and the survivors, who are expected to be elite, the best and the strongest, are allowed to get lazy and complacent didn't make much sense to me. There's clearly more to the story of why Kersh has the Alt program. Maybe later books in the series will help fill in some gaps.
West can be a difficult character to like. She's emotionally distant, which is understandable given her past, and she does her best to push everyone else in her life away. Even though she's the narrator of the story, we still have a hard time getting inside her head. She seems to ping-pong between being this stone-cold killer and a scared little girl. Again, understandable, given her situation, but it can give the reader a bit of whiplash sometimes. It's hard to reconcile the West who can put her feelings aside and gun people down for money with the West who is afraid of facing off with her own Alt.
Overall, I felt like like this was a good book which had glimmers of something which could have been even better. Chapman's a strong writer, but I had a hard time connecting emotionally to the story, especially the romance angle, and there were times where I honestly didn't care too much what happened to West. I'll probably still check out the next book in the series, just to see what happens next.
barbarianlibarian's review against another edition
1.0
the concept of a world where you have to kill your double seemed a little sketch to me as it was described at the start of the book, and as I kept going, more and more logistical issues kept jumping out to me. plus the writing was just bad. forced myself to finish, couldn't wait to get it over with. the ending was very anti-climatic, can't believe there's actually a series planned
literallykalasin's review against another edition
4.0
In Kersh, you literally have to fight for your place in society. Every child born has a genetic doppleganger -- an Alt -- that they must kill at a government-appointed time, and there is no escape: 31 days and you're both dead. So what is a girl to do to protect herself? If you are West Grayer, you begin work as an illegal assasin, killing other people's Alts for money. But when her time comes, she realises it's different when it's yourself. Fans of the Hunger Games and film The Island will find a great read here!