Scan barcode
A review by sweetdreams_sunshine
What's Left of Me by Kat Zhang
2.0
This certainly was not the book to pull me out of my ongoing book slump.
Honestly, I did not find myself enjoying this book until 75% into it. There was certainly more I disliked about it than what I did like.
A huge thing that kept me from liking this book is I did not connect or even really like Eva. And it's difficult to enjoy a book when that happens. It's not even that I didn't understand the motive for her actions or her feelings. I just didn't agree with them or think she was making the best choice at times. In the end, I ended up preferring Addie to Eva and wish that Zhang had developed Addie more.
One of the things that did intrigue me the most about this book is Addie and Eva's connection. I really enjoyed that and for the most part that is what kept me reading. The characters were well written as well. I was liked some, disliked others and struggled to feel emotions about some as well. Those two areas were definitely Kat Zhang's strong point.
Then we get into the area of plot and world development, which were also two weak points in my opinion. For the plot I feel like the story didn't get to the point until at least halfway through and that may just be me being nice. It was incredibly easy to skim at points and it struggled to hold my interest. There were a couple times I almost put this on my did not finish list. As for the world building, what world building? All I know is What's Left of Me was set in some future or alternative America where people are born as Hybrids (two souls in one body) and this was a huge no-no according to American society. Also that there was a huge war, there are means of modern transportation but modern technology is extremely limited to the public (unless you're wealthy) and that's about it. Okay and a few other things but that wasn't explained until the last few pages. Just why?
So needless to say, this book mostly didn't work for me and what did wasn't enough. I'm not sure I would recommend anyone read it and it's doubtful I'll read the sequel, especially given the ratings and reviews I've read.
2 stars
Honestly, I did not find myself enjoying this book until 75% into it. There was certainly more I disliked about it than what I did like.
A huge thing that kept me from liking this book is I did not connect or even really like Eva. And it's difficult to enjoy a book when that happens. It's not even that I didn't understand the motive for her actions or her feelings. I just didn't agree with them or think she was making the best choice at times. In the end, I ended up preferring Addie to Eva and wish that Zhang had developed Addie more.
One of the things that did intrigue me the most about this book is Addie and Eva's connection. I really enjoyed that and for the most part that is what kept me reading. The characters were well written as well. I was liked some, disliked others and struggled to feel emotions about some as well. Those two areas were definitely Kat Zhang's strong point.
Then we get into the area of plot and world development, which were also two weak points in my opinion. For the plot I feel like the story didn't get to the point until at least halfway through and that may just be me being nice. It was incredibly easy to skim at points and it struggled to hold my interest. There were a couple times I almost put this on my did not finish list. As for the world building, what world building? All I know is What's Left of Me was set in some future or alternative America where people are born as Hybrids (two souls in one body) and this was a huge no-no according to American society. Also that there was a huge war, there are means of modern transportation but modern technology is extremely limited to the public (unless you're wealthy) and that's about it. Okay and a few other things but that wasn't explained until the last few pages. Just why?
So needless to say, this book mostly didn't work for me and what did wasn't enough. I'm not sure I would recommend anyone read it and it's doubtful I'll read the sequel, especially given the ratings and reviews I've read.
2 stars