Twisted Fate ~ Norah Olson review [@KatherineTegen @TheNorahOlson]

Twisted Fate
Katherine Tegen Books
January 20, 2015
272 pages
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When Alyson meets Graham Copeland, the new boy next door, she instantly feels like he’s a kindred spirit—shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It’s impossible to resist having a crush on him.

As usual, her sister, Sydney, sees things differently. In Sydney's mind, Graham's odd personality and secretive past scream psychopath, not sweetheart. Her gut is telling her to stay away from him, and to protect a love-struck Alyson from her own naïveté. But despite her instincts, Sydney is surprised to realize that a part of her is drawn to Graham, too.

And the more Sydney gets to know him, the more she realizes just how right—and wrong—she is about everything.

Perfect for fans of Michelle Hodkin, and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars, Twisted Fate is an unputdownable novel, teeming with suspense.

We know from the very first narration change in Twisted Fate that sisters Sydney and Alyson see things very differently. It's not only their new neighbor Graham they see in different ways, but the other's actions and statements. Alyson views what she does one way, Sydney sees it differently. Sydney has one interpretation of what she's done, Alyson another.

As it is present and apparent from the very beginning, it's impossible to know if one of the girls' interpretation of a situation or of someone's actions can be trusted.

There are definite places in the story where the facts, characters behavior, etc do not quite add up. Most of it seems to be explained by the novel's ending and how everything comes together, when everything is revealed.

Having seen some of the reviews from people who didn't like Twisted Fate, I can understand their issues. (Though to go into it much would be spoilery.) Though I did have some similar issues, for me it ultimately worked.

Some of that may have been due, at least in part, to the fact that I kept thinking of the Twisted Fate characters as Finding Carter* characters. True, they have quite different storylines, but something about the 'good' sister, 'trouble' sister, and the boy that should be one's type but the other is more interested in led me to picturing them.

Graham mostly made me think of Max, but with a little bit of Crash thrown in, at times

and then it was Taylor for Alyson and Carter for Sydney

It's tricky for me to review this one because I'm not sure if I was attributing more to the characters than was actually present in the novel. If some of what I saw in them, in their relationships was due to the characters they reminded me of, nott the characters they actually were.

I liked the premise of Norah Olson's debut and I, actually, liked the twists even if the ending felt a bit rushed. Twisted Fate is a tricky mystery, where you know from the beginning things have happened - and will happen - but still have to discover what they are. The characters were interesting, if a bit less developed than I would have liked. I really enjoyed the glimpses into the sisters' relationship, their family and their past. It worked even better after knowing the full Twisted Fate tale.

The novel's conclusion did make me reexamine several events from earlier in the book. Things that I hadn't known whether they were carelessness or part of something more, made sense and lent more credibility to the ending.

After reading Twisted Fate, I'm very interested to see what author premises the author comes up with.


(*a show I definitely recommend watching)





finished copy received from publisher for review consideration