By Elsie Chapman
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: NetgalleyYou or your Alt? Only one will survive.
The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.
Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.
Elsie Chapman’s suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.
Goodreads Summary
One of the analogies I’ve been tossing around for Dualed is that it’s like a bag of jelly beans. I like the red, black and white ones but the rest only look pretty and are best left to just sit and harden in the bowl before they get tossed out. For every three elements of the story that I enjoyed, there were three more that disappointed me. Dualed could have been so much more than it was.
The story started out promisingly. Chord, the best friend of West’s brother, has just gotten notification that the live or die battle with his Alt has just been activated. West and Luc refuse to let him face his Alt alone (as illegal as it is) and in the process, someone is hurt. This all leads to some good emotional stuff, Kleenex-worthy. I felt for West and expected to see her go all badass girl and train to be a warrior woman. But that wasn’t quite what happened. Cue disappointing element number one.
Instead of having West go the interesting, and yes, maybe predictable route, she becomes a paid super-assassin of sorts, taking out other people’s activated Alts so they don’t have to. She’s not even proficient with weapons yet and the excuse that this will give her training that wouldn’t be sanctioned by the Bureau is flimsy. Hello, these people will be expecting someone to be trying to kill them, not wandering around being easy targets who won’t shoot back. In spite of herself, West manages to fulfill some contracts, but I never believed she was great at this sniper business because she seemed to get her kills from good luck more than anything else.
In order for West to make all of these kills and to later avoid her own Alt, she’s all over Kersh and the different neighborhoods. I really liked this part of the story. Getting to know the seedy side of town, the different kinds of food vendors there were and the public transportation all interested me a lot. The problem was, I usually got it through big sections of infodump. This was one negative I didn’t mind as much though; I enjoyed the view of West’s world more than what West was doing sometimes.
There was a smoldering little romance that I could see being set up from the beginning of the story. However improbable it was in the story itself, it provided a nice break from West’s monotonous attitude. Chord was always popping up, giving her an excuse to be ticked off, thankful or afraid – mostly just annoyed, but whenever he showed up, there was sure to be something interesting and occasionally swoony happening. I liked the guy a lot; he was ridiculously loyal and patient with West and added a much-needed normal touch to the story.
I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy parts of Dualed. The fight scenes were pretty intense and when West eventually did go into badass warrior mode, it was exciting. I liked Chord and even though she was a pain in the rear to him, I wanted a relationship for him with West because he was the perfect character to root for. If there were a couple less things that made me grit my teeth, this would have been a very good read for me, but as it is, it was one I closed and decided to just move on quickly to something else. Since this is Chapman’s first, I won’t write her off though – Dualed was a great concept.
My Rating: C+
You are much nicer than I am with my thoughts on this book. I don’t think I’m even going to review it. I started tried to many times, but I just end up getting annoyed with book all over again. Flimsy is a good word to use. There are so many holes in this story that I wanted to pull my hair out. And the whole reason of turning assassin was such bullshit. I was expecting her to get some badass underground training, not the crap we got. And in a city that size with everyone born with an Alt… omg, it’s so illogical… it all pisses me off. Okay, I’m going to stop venting in your comments. lol – sorry! <3
lol – Vent away! I saw you gave it 2* at GR, so I knew you had problems with it.
That whole striker thing just never made any sense to me. Yeah, let’s take this girl who knows nothing and the weapons master at school at this head of the strikers are both going to think she’s the shiz – but then they just turn her loose. Zzzz. That was the worst part of the story for me, not to mention the way *he* kept finding her with unlimited money, etc. *shrug*
I was really looking forward to this book, but seeing all the meh reviews, makes me NOT want to waste my time. Great review, doll! >love the jelly bean association as I sit here and look at a bag filled with about 40 jb’s that are never going to be eaten, lol<
It’s a very meh type of book, unfortunately. Nothing to really say “yes” buy it, or “no” don’t. I guess that’s a Library book?
I always have that bowl of picked over jelly beans! If I’m really energetic, I just go get Jelly Bellys, in flavors that I know I’ll eat. But I’m seldom that energetic. lol
I was turned down for this book *gasps* I know! Right? WTH? and after reading your review I am relieved, I honestly think i would have DNF’d this one. I am glad you think the author has potential.
Pfft, you dodged a bullet? Penguin always turns me down. Always. Random House is pretty nice to me, although sometimes they wait until the week before something comes out, which is weird. I do think Chapman had a good idea, just was a little off on the execution.
This is one that I was really looking forward to, but I have seen so many blah reviews, that I am disappointed that it isn’t really good. Great review… I might have to rethink my excitement.
Jenea @ Books Live Forever
It’s pretty disappointing when you see that GR average so low and so many people are saying it’s just sort of meh. I wish I could say it’s the worst thing ever, because that’s one thing – but it’s almost worse to say that it could have been good because then you leave people wondering still if maybe they should try it.
oh dear, I was really looking forward to this one, think i will hold off on purchasing this for a while though, and wait til it’s cheaper!
That would certainly be my advice! The new books are expensive when they first come out, but maybe after all of these lawsuits with Amazon and the publishers get settled and Amazon can offer lower prices, it might be more attractive to buy. Or get it at the library?
our libraries are pretty poo over here. I doubt they will ever have a copy of this! Maybe I should request that they buy a copy – that would be cheaper!
I think I requested this as well and got rejected or maybe I didn’t who knows, I don’t have it to read, thankfully as I don’t need anymore books to read. I liked the jellybean analogy. I know what you mean about info dump. I like details and I am such a stickler for world building but it has to be done right, and it sounds like this one strayed into the verbose territory.
I seem to come out about 50% lucky/unlucky with requests being really good, right down the line. I have another one coming up that’s a little similar to this, so I’m crossing my fingers.
I’m definitely with you on the world building. I get that it’s hard sometimes when it’s complicated, but there’s still a better way than floods of infodumping.
sounds.. interesting. I was kind of looking forward to this book, the premise of it was intriguing. I am glad it wasn’t all a waste for you, intense fight scenes can be fun! I will probably pick it up in the future anyway
to see how I feel about it.
I loved the scenes when West was setting up her sniper rifles and putting together her precision strikes – those were fun, when she was really badass. Cool, calm assassin West was the character I liked and would have wanted to read about, but there just wasn’t any showing how she’d gotten there.
I hope you enjoy it though! There were some fun spots.
This book has me umming and ahhing now, the concept really does sound quite intriguing & I was so excited when I first saw it but after reading a number of mixed reviews I might just take a pass.
Thank-you for sharing your honest thoughts
I’d have a hard time making a decision about it too – I really wanted this one for a long time and the concept is so good. I think there were quite a few of those Alt or twin books out around the same time. I don’t think I’d necessarily pay for this one unless I really felt strongly about the setting and concept. Borrow it maybe?
Wow, I almost requested this on NG but decided not to on a whim. Glad I didn’t! Thanks for the in depth review! You’re right, it does sound like a good concept….. A good similar Alt (pun totally intended) would be False Memory by Dan Krokos!
Thank you for the rec, Rachel! I’ve read other things by Dan Krokos but hadn’t heard of that one. *snicker* Nice pun.
I think ALL books should be judged with the jelly bean analogy! I’ve felt that way so many times. Loving some elements but being bored or disliking others.
To get a perfect score a book must pass the “all the colors of jelly beans in the bag” test lol
YES! And when it’s perfect, it can be A Bag of Jelly Bellys – your favorite flavor. None of that popcorn or green apple gunk though. Dr. Pepper, cream soda, root beer, cotton candy, etc.
Haha, I love the jelly bean analogy! I keep seeing people who are disappointed with a wonderful premise squandered. It’s such a shame because this sounded like such a cool book. I’m glad you were able to enjoy the action and the fight scenes at the very least. Great review!
I’m actually really glad that I got rejected for this title on NG. Basically everyone has been saying the same thing as you as far as the potential of the book goes. It’s a shame though because this had the possibility to be awesome. I mean, look at that cover!
At least there were some enjoyable fight scenes. I’m going to skip on this one!
Thank you for the honest review!
Jelly beans huh? I really only like VERY few flavors haha. I hate it when you like something as much as you dislike it, its not something you’d want to go back to in my opinion…at least I don’t think I would.
Pabkins @ My Shelf Confessions
You better lock up that jellybean review methodology quick!! Someone’s gonna steal it!! I got your back
.
Awesome review! It did sound like a great idea, just not where it went. I think dystopians are getting saturated and every one is trying some sort of twist. I was never big on dystopians anyways….
Like you I had a LOT of problems with this book. I just read and reviewed it too and thought that the whole idea behind “Dualed” was a good one– if only it were executed better. I gave it a 2.5 and I’m still struggling with a lot of the things with this book but i think my overall curouisty will win out next year and I’ll probably check out from my library the next book, just to see how it all ends.
Lily @ Lilysbookblog