by Kat Zhang
Hardcover, 352 pages
Published September 17th 2013 by HarperCollins
ISBN 0062114905 (ISBN13: 9780062114907)
Series The Hybrid Chronicles #2
Blurb
"I’m lucky just to be alive."
Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.
Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.
Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.
Mini Review
I have just not had good luck with books lately. This is yet another book that had such great potential, but simply did not live up to my expectations. When you’re on the run from the government and part of an underground rebellion, you’d think your life would be filled with suspense, secrets, excitement, fear, etc. Apparently not, in the case of “Once We Were.” The most frustrating part of this book, though, wasn’t the fact that it was filled with a bunch of sitting around doing nothing. What got me was the fact that the only big plan discussed to stick it to big brother is horribly thought out and the logic/reasoning behind it is absolute nonsense. I have no idea how a group of people could honestly believe that something like this would really make things any better for hybrids living in hiding. My complete and total frustration with the characters’ bad decisions combined with the total lack of anything else even remotely interesting going on made this book a real chore to get through. At no point in this novel did Zhang effectively instill fear, suspense, danger, excitement—nothing. I felt absolutely nothing the entire time I read this, apart from annoyance. I will probably read the third installment, just to see how everything rounds out and with the hope that this next book will at least be less boring. I would recommend this series to fans of books like “The Host” by Stephanie Meyer.
