Review: Twisted Fate by Norah Olsen
Posted by Amy • 8 Comments
I received this book for free from HarperTeen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Twisted Fate by Norah OlsenPublished by Katherine Tegen Books on January 20th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, YA
Source: HarperTeen
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When Alyson meets Graham Copeland, the new boy next door, she instantly feels like he’s a kindred spirit—shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It’s impossible to resist having a crush on him.
As usual, her sister, Sydney, sees things differently. In Sydney's mind, Graham's odd personality and secretive past scream psychopath, not sweetheart. Her gut is telling her to stay away from him, and to protect a love-struck Alyson from her own naïveté. But despite her instincts, Sydney is surprised to realize that a part of her is drawn to Graham, too.
And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she realizes just how right—and wrong—she is about everything.
Perfect for fans of Michelle Hodkin, and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, Twisted Fate is an unputdownable novel, teeming with suspense.
This was one of those books that I was really looking forward to and it sounded like a book I would love. Unfortunately, it was not all that great for me. There were a lot of POV’s and I just had a hard time really getting into it. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting. I did want to know the story, I was just kind of bored with it. It took me a long time to read and I almost didn’t finish it, though I am glad that I finally did. The ending is actually really great. This is told from multiple POV’s, as I said before. Sometimes I really like that style, but this one was just a bit too all over for me. I found myself confused at who I was reading at some points. I didn’t care for the characters very much, and it was really slow, but I think a lot of people will really like it though.
Syd and Ally are sisters. Syd being the one who doesn’t really follow the rules, but is super smart. Ally is the “good girl”. She picks berries and bakes muffins, and has her head on straight. Then bring in Graham. He’s the boy next door who is the image of bad boy. they both feel drawn to him, but while Ally is falling for him, Syd is wary. She knows that something is off with him and she doesn’t really trust him. Syd and Ally are total opposites, and their relationship was… interesting.
Graham was totally creepy and messed up. He lives behind his camera and feels like his films of people are art. He is beautiful and mysteriously cool. At least to some of the characters in the book. I found him to be really weird and someone I would stay far away from. He becomes obsessed with filming Ally. He is a rich kid who has some major psychological issues, but hasn’t been taught how to deal with them, or the consequences of when he has done something wrong.
I really want to go more in depth with this review since it seems to have taken me so long to have read this book, but it’s the type of book that I can’t really say much about without giving anything away. I could talk a little about the love triangle, or the lack of parenting skills, but I can’t talk about the depth of the story, and that is really the major selling point of it. This was a seriously messed up book on more than one level. It was a great story in general. I just thought the execution was a bit lacking and it was hard to read. I don’t mind slow books, but this one was slow and just didn’t capture me until well past the fifty percent mark. One of the best parts was the end. Not because I finally finished it, but really, it was a pretty great ending. I only wish that the rest of the book had interested me as much as the last bit of the book.
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