Wow. I didn't really know what to expect from this book but I got surprised with how fast-paced and awesome this book was. The concept was brilliant and was immediately what got me excited and intrigued about the novel.

Linked is about Elissa and how she finds out that she has a Spare (aka Twin) who was taken by the government for experiments at birth. Her parents were made to forget/lie but it becomes obvious to her Dad when she hits puberty and starts experiencing "hallucinations" which are really just flashes, through a telepathic link, to the inhumane experiments that are happening to her twin sister. These hallucinations are destroying Elissa's life because she is consistently in pain because of them. It is not till after she's been signed up for a brain surgery appointment that she realises that they aren't hallucinations and that the person she sees through is real and needs her help. After meeting each other for the first time, Elissa's life gets turned upside as the attempt to get "Lin" away from the government and find safety.

It is a wild ride from the get-go because Lin is a bit of wild-card because she immediately lacks empathy for anyone other than Elissa. Elissa has to try and teach Lin that not everyone deserves her wrath. I found this transition for Lin to go through was particularly interesting because she has spent her whole life being told that she isn't human and to try and change her viewpoint on the world and other people is incredibly realistic and a central point of stress for Elissa throughout the book.

The relationship between Cadan and Elissa is incredibly interesting because there is a lot of background there. I'm glad of the direction it took and that it wasn't some pointless YA romance that was slotted into the book for the sake of it.

As a twin myself, it was weird and interesting to try and imagine myself or my sister being viewed as non-human or a clone just because we were born at the same time and look alike. I don't share any telepathic link with my sister but it sure is interesting to read about those kind of connections. I find that a lot of other stories I read about twins are quite pathetic because they cast twins as being fully compatible and as a twin, this is so false. I'm glad that the relationship between Elissa and Lin was as complicated as any sister's relationship. It definitely helped to relate more to the situation (not that I can really relate to fleeing from a government that is trying to kill me and my sister.)

Overall, I don't have anything bad to say about this book except that it was released in June this year and I'm going to have to wait awhile to complete the series. This book is also Imogen Howson's debut novel and since it was so excellent, I'm quite excited to see more from her. ( )

Wow. I didn't really know what to expect from this book but I got surprised with how fast-paced and awesome this book was. The concept was brilliant and was immediately what got me excited and intrigued about the novel.

Linked is about Elissa and how she finds out that she has a Spare (aka Twin) who was taken by the government for experiments at birth. Her parents were made to forget/lie but it becomes obvious to her Dad when she hits puberty and starts experiencing "hallucinations" which are really just flashes, through a telepathic link, to the inhumane experiments that are happening to her twin sister. These hallucinations are destroying Elissa's life because she is consistently in pain because of them. It is not till after she's been signed up for a brain surgery appointment that she realises that they aren't hallucinations and that the person she sees through is real and needs her help. After meeting each other for the first time, Elissa's life gets turned upside as the attempt to get "Lin" away from the government and find safety.

It is a wild ride from the get-go because Lin is a bit of wild-card because she immediately lacks empathy for anyone other than Elissa. Elissa has to try and teach Lin that not everyone deserves her wrath. I found this transition for Lin to go through was particularly interesting because she has spent her whole life being told that she isn't human and to try and change her viewpoint on the world and other people is incredibly realistic and a central point of stress for Elissa throughout the book.

The relationship between Cadan and Elissa is incredibly interesting because there is a lot of background there. I'm glad of the direction it took and that it wasn't some pointless YA romance that was slotted into the book for the sake of it.

As a twin myself, it was weird and interesting to try and imagine myself or my sister being viewed as non-human or a clone just because we were born at the same time and look alike. I don't share any telepathic link with my sister but it sure is interesting to read about those kind of connections. I find that a lot of other stories I read about twins are quite pathetic because they cast twins as being fully compatible and as a twin, this is so false. I'm glad that the relationship between Elissa and Lin was as complicated as any sister's relationship. It definitely helped to relate more to the situation (not that I can really relate to fleeing from a government that is trying to kill me and my sister.)

Overall, I don't have anything bad to say about this book except that it was released in June this year and I'm going to have to wait awhile to complete the series. This book is also Imogen Howson's debut novel and since it was so excellent, I'm quite excited to see more from her. ( )

Linked by Imogen Howson LinkedImogen HowsonReleased: 11th June, 2013

Book Summary:
Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere. Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes. Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed. Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world. Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.

 
What I like: Elissa was a very ordinary, if spoiled, girl from what we gather from before her hallucinations started to gather force. At the same time, she's different from that and we known she's fallen out from everyone because of something she doesn't understand and people have witnessed the side affects and not understood what was happening to her, so they shunned her, mocked her, and left her feeling out of what she wanted to be, ordinary. Lin is a clearly emotionally unstable and ignorant about how the world works, not to mention she seems to only seek the acceptance of Elissa, the one person she believes will help her despite being categorized as a "nonhuman". All the terms and technology we're introduced to gets explained in some form or fashion that makes it comprehensible to understand, which I really liked and the technology was actually believable.
 
What I didn’t like: On a personal opinion I didn't like Elissa and Lin's mother, especially the last time we see her. I thought what she did was incredibly revolting to do, especially trying to take her daughter's free will away over a procedure. I also felt like the romance was unnecessary, and it didn't really fit in to the plot very well.
 
Overall review: Going in to this book I didn't expect to enjoy it so much, I barely read the beginning of the summary since it was the cover that drew me in. I was hooked by the opening, I had to know why Elissa was at a doctors office, and I had to know what she seemed so afraid of. As the book progressed the fears did change, and a few new ones were added while some of them were resolved by the end of the book. The worldbuilding was done in drops, letting us know bits about the world Elissa grew up on and the galaxy she knew. It wasn't dumped onto us and we didn't learn everything about the galaxy or the planet she grew up on. We learned things when they became relevant to the plot, or are a good time to mention. The idea surrounding the book, giving twins of the far future a strange link and interesting powers, was something that I felt was different. It's a very good book, very well thought out and written.
 
Recommend?: Yes! I loved it so much! YA readers who enjoy Sci-Fi, and good worldbuilding should definitely read this one, but I make no promises about the sequel since I haven't read it yet!
Goodreads: 3.7/5    Amazon: 3.9/5    Barnes&Nobles: 4/5
 
My Rating: 4.8/5
 
Rated Material:Cover=4.7Story=4.8Idea=4.9Character=4.8 ( )

This book was slow at the beginning but towards the middle/end it gets better. For a while I almost gave up on it, but I didn't. It has many twists and unexpected things at the end that you can't put it down, you have to push through. 4Q3P The cover art is okay and I'd recommend this for middle school and high school students. I chose to read this book because the title sounded cool. RachelP

This story takes place more than a thousand years into the future, on another planet colonized long ago from Old Earth. Yet, you would never know it: the teenage protagonists bully each other in high school gym classes, hang out at the mall, and defy their parents. But they also live in a world like The Jetsons - there are flying cars and moving sidewalks and food that appears with the push of a button. However, there are also serious dystopian elements to this future, and this is where the book distinguishes itself.

In this future, “twins” are unknown. That doesn’t mean, however, that births of twins don’t still occur. But why doesn’t anyone know about it, and what happens to the second baby?

Elissa (“Lissa”) White has had “visions” her whole life - almost as if she were seeing life from another person’s eyes. When she is thirteen, the visions not only become violent and painful, but she becomes plagued by debilitating headaches, blinding pain, and mysterious bruises. Her friends think she is hurting herself to get attention, and gradually, she has no more friends. Even her family seems to scorn her. They take her to doctor after doctor, and finally, when Elissa is 17, a new specialist decides she needs brain surgery to stop these visions. But just before the surgery, Elissa discovers she hasn’t been hallucinating at all. There is another real person out there getting tortured, and this person looks just like her. A lot of people have been lying to Elissa, and she no longer knows who to trust, or if she can even trust anyone.

Discussion: Some of the YA tropes in this book are quite hackneyed and the inevitable romance - we hate each other therefore we probably will end up in love - is extremely unsubtle. But the secret of what happens to twins is quite imaginative, and the story is loaded with suspense. It turns out a sequel is in the works (if it’s YA, it must be a trilogy....)

Evaluation: This series is worth checking out, especially if you like science fiction. ( )