Review of What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang

Title/Author: What's Left of Me (The Hybrid Chronicles #1) by Kat Zhang
Publisher/Date published: HarperCollins, September 18th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley

Goodreads summary: I should not exist. But I do.

Eva and Addie started out the same way as everyone else — two souls woven together in one body, taking turns controlling their movements as they learned how to walk, how to sing, how to dance. But as they grew, so did the worried whispers. Why aren’t they settling? Why isn’t one of them fading? The doctors ran tests, the neighbors shied away, and their parents begged for more time. Finally Addie was pronounced healthy and Eva was declared gone. Except, she wasn’t...

For the past three years, Eva has clung to the remnants of her life. Only Addie knows she’s still there, trapped inside their body. Then one day, they discover there may be a way for Eva to move again. The risks are unimaginable-hybrids are considered a threat to society, so if they are caught, Addie and Eva will be locked away with the others. And yet... for a chance to smile, to twirl, to speak, Eva will do anything.

In What's Left of Me Kat Zhang introduces us to a really interesting concept: people being born with two souls in one body, where the norm is that after a couple of years, one of the souls vanishes and the dominant one takes over. A sort of natural selection. But what if the soul doesn't vanish? Eva didn't vanish and she and Addie are still together. Eva is the 'recessive' soul, Addie controls their body. It was pretty awesome how Kat Zhang managed to make Eva a lively character, even when for the most part she couldn't actually DO much of anything. She was a vibrant personality without much of a voice heard by anyone other than Addie.

And while I felt like I knew Eva, I never felt the same way about Addie. Which is kinda weird, cause most of Eva's life and thoughts revolve around Addie. I sometimes didn't very much like Addie and I'm not even really sure why. I get that she was grasping for control of their situation, but sometimes I wanted to shake her really badly.
This may be out of context for those not having read the book, I don't want to give anything away, but I felt really bad for them and the whole situation with their parents and their brother, and if I'd been them I'd have felt SO betrayed. I know it was an impossible choice, but seriously, I felt like her parents should have done something.

The institution is REALLY CREEPY. Seriously, it's kinda scary what people can do under the name of 'helping' people. It was sort of like the creepy experiments that went on during World War II. And while I felt like I should have been on the edge of my seat reading about it and not being able to stop myself turning the pages, I wasn't. I was kinda sitting and waiting for them to actually DO something.

So I'm kinda in the middle out this book. I thought the concept was really cool and original and I did like reading it, but I never felt that connection that makes me want to READ until I just can't read no more, you know?
Though I will probably pick up the second book because I do think hybrids are pretty interesting.

My rating: 3 stars