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someonetookit 's review for:
Impostors
by Scott Westerfeld
I'm honestly not sure whether this is a 3.5 or 4 star read for me...
To start with, the narrative was well paced and got me in the feels. A hidden twin, only shown to the world when there is danger and a touted twin, the heir to the empire but hidden away at any time she could make a difference - it was a conudrum, a yin and yang sort of moment.
Then Frey (kungfu twin) is sent away to the city of Victoria to play envoy and hostage for her people. Determined to undermine any and all action the rulers of this city could possibly take, she lies in wait for her chance to strike. Which never comes because some nasty things happen and things go boom and theres wreckage and death and all things super funsies. Then the action kind of just stops and noone trusts anyone anymore because well someone caused a strike on Victoria.
After this point, the story got super slow and kinda dragged on for about 2/3 of the novel. People were questioning alliances and whether Frey could be trusted. Others were suddenly obedient because a man said they could trust her (it was cliched and made me a little angry tbh). Fast forward to around the 320ish page mark and suddenly the action got back on track.
From that point on I really enjoyed it, action around every corner and people dropping like flies. There was scheming and manipulation, leaving Frey in an awkward situation which I quite frankly yelled audibly at her solution in the final pages.
So, honestly there was enough action to keep me occupied but it seemed to be in solid chunks at the start and end of the novel, like Westerfeld forgot around 1/4 of the way in that he was writing a novel about scheming and subterfuge but managed to pull it back on track at the 11th hour. This is not me saying it was bad because it wasnt. It was just a novel that I wouldn't voluntarily scream its praises from the nearest rooftop.
I will mention here as well that this is a spinoff from the Uglies series of novels, the story of the resistance against making people 'bubbleheads' at the age of 16 and making everyone beautiful. It is quite obvious that it is so. Having read these novels already, i found many an Easter Egg within. On multiple occassions there are references to these novels although when they come up they are generally not on the nose nor are they vague. There is enough details in the dialogue to understand what is happening within the world and should a reader have NOT read Uglies prior to Impostors, I feel they could understand the story and its place with Westerfeld's shared universe.
Overall, while I didnt absolutely love this one, it was a tale that occupied me well for a good 4 hours, a period that I feel was well spent.
To start with, the narrative was well paced and got me in the feels. A hidden twin, only shown to the world when there is danger and a touted twin, the heir to the empire but hidden away at any time she could make a difference - it was a conudrum, a yin and yang sort of moment.
Then Frey (kungfu twin) is sent away to the city of Victoria to play envoy and hostage for her people. Determined to undermine any and all action the rulers of this city could possibly take, she lies in wait for her chance to strike. Which never comes because some nasty things happen and things go boom and theres wreckage and death and all things super funsies. Then the action kind of just stops and noone trusts anyone anymore because well someone caused a strike on Victoria.
After this point, the story got super slow and kinda dragged on for about 2/3 of the novel. People were questioning alliances and whether Frey could be trusted. Others were suddenly obedient because a man said they could trust her (it was cliched and made me a little angry tbh). Fast forward to around the 320ish page mark and suddenly the action got back on track.
From that point on I really enjoyed it, action around every corner and people dropping like flies. There was scheming and manipulation, leaving Frey in an awkward situation which I quite frankly yelled audibly at her solution in the final pages.
So, honestly there was enough action to keep me occupied but it seemed to be in solid chunks at the start and end of the novel, like Westerfeld forgot around 1/4 of the way in that he was writing a novel about scheming and subterfuge but managed to pull it back on track at the 11th hour. This is not me saying it was bad because it wasnt. It was just a novel that I wouldn't voluntarily scream its praises from the nearest rooftop.
I will mention here as well that this is a spinoff from the Uglies series of novels, the story of the resistance against making people 'bubbleheads' at the age of 16 and making everyone beautiful. It is quite obvious that it is so. Having read these novels already, i found many an Easter Egg within. On multiple occassions there are references to these novels although when they come up they are generally not on the nose nor are they vague. There is enough details in the dialogue to understand what is happening within the world and should a reader have NOT read Uglies prior to Impostors, I feel they could understand the story and its place with Westerfeld's shared universe.
Overall, while I didnt absolutely love this one, it was a tale that occupied me well for a good 4 hours, a period that I feel was well spent.