Friday 27 May 2016

ARC REVIEW: THE HIDDEN TWIN by Adi Rule

THE HIDDEN TWIN

Summary:
For eighteen years a girl with no name, a Redwing, has been hidden away in a small attic room within a city of hissing pipes and curving temples perched on the side of the great volcano, Mol, while her sister, Jey-identical except for her eyes-has lived her life in public as an only child. Their father had hoped the hidden girl would one day grow up to be a normal human girl and not the wicked creature mythology has promised, so he secretly spared her life as an infant.

But when she switches places with her sister, striking up a flirtation with the son of the Empress while working in the royal gardens and gets attacks by two suspicious priests on her journey home, she is forced to call forth fire to protect herself, unleashing her previously dormant powers and letting her secret out. She soon catches the attention of a cult with a thousand year old grudge as well as a group of underground rebels, both seeking her for their own gain. But when her sister goes missing and the Redwing uncovers a great plot to awaken Mol and bring fiery destruction upon them all, she is forced to embrace her powers.

In Adi Rule's new novel, The Hidden Twin, the girl with no name, must choose a name and a path for herself, drawing a line between myth and history to prove herself more than a monster if she is to save both her sister and her home.

Title: THE HIDDEN TWIN
Author: Adi Rule
Source: eARC via the Publisher
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publication Date: March 22, 2016
Rating: 2.5 stars
Purchase:
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This one started off really confusing but ended up being pretty good. I think the mythology was good here but left some to be desired. I think we learned too little at the beginning that didn't really make sense and then once we actually saw it play out I understood it. The issue I had is that it felt like the author tried to make it sound much more poetic than it had to be and it ended up being more confusing than interesting. I spent a good chunk of the book being confused tbh.

But I think what confused me the most is that Lin (I guess that's what I'll call her) knew what she was but didn't want to acknowledge it? It seemed to me like she was 100% sure of what she was but then would kind of deny it to herself and it left me a bit confused. But again, I think this was also partly due to how it was written. 

It seemed like there was a weird setup for a love triangle but I also didn't really enjoy the bits of romance that we got. It felt a bit forced and rushed and I wasn't really into either of the dudes and thought there were bigger fish to fry. I'm all for making out at the end of the world but this dude wasn't really worth it imo. He had the personality of a wet paper towel. Actually, all the secondary characters did.

I thought Lin's character did like a 180 from what we got in the first couple of chapters to her switching places with her sister. She was very brash and a little rude to people when she was under the guise of her sister which didn't really make sense to me because she should have been trying to be invisible, not standout.

Anyway, the ending was pretty interesting but also a little predictable. I think there could have been a bit more in terms of worldbuilding and mythology because none of it really made sense to me. I feel like we just scraped the surface of what is to be known and I would have liked to delve a little deeper.

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