From the moment I started it, I could hardly put it down. The whole idea behind this book may, initially, sound gruesome and gory. While the idea is, the book's actual content isn't.I know a lot of people weren't all that impressed with the world building and I can understand that because that was my first reaction. The story and plot were great but, at first, I was disappointed with, what seemed to me, the lack of world outside of the characters. After I finished the book though, I understood why this was the case.
Dualed isn't really about West killing her Alt. Yes, it's the action the whole book resolves around but in all honesty, I consider this book to be more about West's internal struggle. She lives in a society where the object is to have the best and most elite live and the weak die. West could have killed her Alt (basically her clone) in about a hundred pages. Physically, she was more than capable. Mentally though, she questioned if she was the best version of herself. This questioning was so crippling that even when presented with an easy hit, she couldn't kill her Alt. It's this internal struggle that keeps the book going.
West isolates herself and I think we see the world of Dualed through her eyes. She is just now waking up to the true reality around her. I always felt like it was clear that there was much more to the world around the characters that hadn't been revealed, so this added to my initial disappointment. But I don't think we would have understood West's predicament if the author had given us more information. We had to feel like the book really only had West and Chord. Two people. Everyone and everything else was insignificant. None of it mattered because the book was about West's struggle to believe she should live.
As far as characters go, I found West to be perfectly likable but I couldn't help but love Chord. He's perfect for her. West's brother, Luc, seemed to be so full of life. Even looking back, West and Chord are both so grim. Chord hopes for the future. West is solely focused on survival. But Luc always struck me as a fun character. He was realistic but he wasn't afraid to maybe let loose once in a while.
The writing was fine. I'm not partial either way. I think its style served the book's premise very well. The names are a little weird though.... They don't bother me but they're definitely different. I wonder what made Miss Chapman use them.
I can't say I've ever read a book that focuses on the internal struggle of the MC. There isn't a lot of dialogue in Dualed and dialogue is like the best part of a book for me. For some reason though, this didn't bother me. Miss Chapman kept the story moving forward without the dialogue which, if you ask me, is pretty amazing when you take into account that I was never bored.
I can't wait until the second book, Divided. It is going to be epic.
