Author: Sarah Crossan
Series or standalone: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Publication Date: 1st September 2015
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley & Publisher (Bloomsbury Childrens)
My Rating: 2.5/5 stars
GoodreadsMy Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Grace and Tippi are twins – conjoined twins.
And their lives are about to change.
No longer able to afford homeschooling, they must venture into the world – a world of stares, sneers and cruelty. Will they find more than that at school? Can they find real friends? And what about love?
But what neither Grace or Tippi realises is that a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead. A decision that could tear them apart. One that will change their lives even more than they ever imagined…
From Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this moving and beautifully crafted novel about identity, sisterhood and love ultimately asks one question: what does it mean to want and have a soulmate?
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Childrens for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review!
Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins and throughout this novel we follow them as they go to school for the very first time and while they have to face some really tough decisions that could impact their lives forever. When I first heard what this novel was about, I knew I needed to read it. I'm so passionate about having characters with disabilities and medical conditions in YA literature. I think it's so important that we write about and discuss these topics because they're real and a lot of them affect so many people in the world. I also really wanted to broaden my knowledge on conjoined twins and thought this novel would be perfect to do so. However, I was slightly disappointed by this book in this regard. The topic was SO interesting, but I felt like I didn't get to know much about it and it wasn't discussed very much. I would have liked to have seen more about the twins' daily lives and how they go about doing things, but we aren't really shown that very much.
So you're probably thinking that since this book centres around twins, that there'd be 2 points of view. WRONG. We only follow one of the twins which I thought hindered the storytelling, the element of surprise and getting to know the other twin, Tippi.
The novel is told in verse and at first I was excited because I love how Ellen Hopkins is able to fully flesh out characters and a story just through verse, but I didn't feel Crossan achieved this unfortunately. I found it harder to connect to the characters and I felt that a lot of the novel could have been fleshed out more, but the writing style prevented that from happening. It also felt like things moved so quickly (especially at the end) because of the verse-type writing style, when I wanted things to happen at a slower pace. I also wanted more information at the end, because I feel as though it ended very abruptly and lacked closure on certain things.
Despite all of these things I didn't like about the book, I couldn't put it down because I just wanted to know what happened and I loved the idea of the book, so I ended up reading it in one sitting and giving it 2.5 stars.
It was really interesting and I recommend you check it out when it comes out if it sounds interesting to you!
