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A review by alizalondon
Twisted Fate by Norah Olson
1.0
Rating: 1.5 Stars
12 hours after finishing this book, I’m still left wondering what I just read.
Twisted Fate was a book with a lot of potential, but sadly, didn’t deliver. After finishing, I spent an hour ranting to just about anyone who would listen, and although I’ve cooled down now, my feelings haven’t changed.
Let me start by saying that this is going to be a very difficult book to review. As all my reviews, as a requirement, are spoiler-free, writing this one in the same way is going to make it considerably harder to properly express my opinions(But don’t worry-it’s still spoiler free). Twisted Fate, while it could have worked in theory, it didn’t, and I’ll try to explain why.
First of all, Twisted Fate is about sisters Allyson and Sydney Tate, who are both enamored by a boy who moves next door. However, Ally and Syd share different views of the world, and while Ally thinks that Graham it cute and has a crush on him despite his secretive past, Syd believes that he’s a psychopath, although she can’t help but like him too.
This book possesses some of the worst characterization I’ve see in a while. Sydney is a cardboard-cutout, a completely stereotypical emo jock, while Allyson is a completely stereotypical “good girl.” The entire extent of their characterization consists of this:
Sydney: Wears black, rides a skateboard, listens to heavy-metal music
Allyson: Pretty blond hair, bakes muffins, calls her parents “Mommy” and “Daddy” in her late teens
That’s it. The rest of the characters were worse, which is why I’ve neglected to mention them here.
The other thing this book has were a billion POV’s. Normally, I would be okay with this, but as they were all told in first person, they all sounded the same. It got too confusing for comfort, and to make things worse, sometimes it would switch into third-person randomly in the middle in the chapter.
The plot was slow, no development at all, it felt like the entire book was just waiting for the end. Not much else to say about it.
The ending was interesting, and also the reason why many people either end up loving or hating this book. It’s been described as “reminiscent of We Were Liars,” because they both have twist endings, but while We Were Liars had an ending that made total sense and left me in tears, Twisted Fate‘s just doesn’t make sense. The ending, designed to take you by surprise, wasn’t really surprising at all, but that wasn’t the main issue with it. In We Were Liars, it’s possible to go back and think, “Oh, that makes sense,” but in Twisted Fate, there are certain scenes previously in the book that make it impossible for that twist to be true. The ending left me far too confused and the is main reason for my fierce dislike of this book.
All in all, Twisted Fate was not my cup of tea, as it contained too much confusion and lacked too many elements that make up a good story. If you’re looking for better characters, better plot twists, and better everything else, I suggest We Were Liars instead.
If you’ve read the book and are confused as to what happened, read my spoiler-filled explanation here
This review can also be found on my blog at Musings and Books
12 hours after finishing this book, I’m still left wondering what I just read.
Twisted Fate was a book with a lot of potential, but sadly, didn’t deliver. After finishing, I spent an hour ranting to just about anyone who would listen, and although I’ve cooled down now, my feelings haven’t changed.
Let me start by saying that this is going to be a very difficult book to review. As all my reviews, as a requirement, are spoiler-free, writing this one in the same way is going to make it considerably harder to properly express my opinions(But don’t worry-it’s still spoiler free). Twisted Fate, while it could have worked in theory, it didn’t, and I’ll try to explain why.
First of all, Twisted Fate is about sisters Allyson and Sydney Tate, who are both enamored by a boy who moves next door. However, Ally and Syd share different views of the world, and while Ally thinks that Graham it cute and has a crush on him despite his secretive past, Syd believes that he’s a psychopath, although she can’t help but like him too.
This book possesses some of the worst characterization I’ve see in a while. Sydney is a cardboard-cutout, a completely stereotypical emo jock, while Allyson is a completely stereotypical “good girl.” The entire extent of their characterization consists of this:
Sydney: Wears black, rides a skateboard, listens to heavy-metal music
Allyson: Pretty blond hair, bakes muffins, calls her parents “Mommy” and “Daddy” in her late teens
That’s it. The rest of the characters were worse, which is why I’ve neglected to mention them here.
The other thing this book has were a billion POV’s. Normally, I would be okay with this, but as they were all told in first person, they all sounded the same. It got too confusing for comfort, and to make things worse, sometimes it would switch into third-person randomly in the middle in the chapter.
The plot was slow, no development at all, it felt like the entire book was just waiting for the end. Not much else to say about it.
The ending was interesting, and also the reason why many people either end up loving or hating this book. It’s been described as “reminiscent of We Were Liars,” because they both have twist endings, but while We Were Liars had an ending that made total sense and left me in tears, Twisted Fate‘s just doesn’t make sense. The ending, designed to take you by surprise, wasn’t really surprising at all, but that wasn’t the main issue with it. In We Were Liars, it’s possible to go back and think, “Oh, that makes sense,” but in Twisted Fate, there are certain scenes previously in the book that make it impossible for that twist to be true. The ending left me far too confused and the is main reason for my fierce dislike of this book.
All in all, Twisted Fate was not my cup of tea, as it contained too much confusion and lacked too many elements that make up a good story. If you’re looking for better characters, better plot twists, and better everything else, I suggest We Were Liars instead.
If you’ve read the book and are confused as to what happened, read my spoiler-filled explanation here
This review can also be found on my blog at Musings and Books