**REVIEW**. Linked by Imogen Howson

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.

Release Date:  June 11, 2013

Published By:  Simon & Schuster 

Review Copy:  ARC

*provided by publisher for honest review

Review

  I thought this book was going to fall victim to what seems to be my current reading slump.  I was worried and took a lot longer than normal to get through the first 50 pages.  What ended up happening was quite the opposite, Linked not only ended up being a riveting read but also seems to have broken my reading slump.  The biggest surprise of all in my mass enjoyment of this read was that I thought that this was a dystopian read but it read as more of a sci-fi/dystopian.  For those of you that are hesitant now, don't be!!  I am not the biggest lover of sci-fi and this really blew me away.

  There is a decent amount of world building done in this book.  It was quite detailed in the way the worlds were set up and how things ran.  Each new planet ran kind of as Countries are now, they can be prosperous or unsuccessful/poor.  Most of the true development doesn't come right away but give it time because it does come and it is worth it.  Keep in mind that the author really does set up a lot about how Elissa thought and who she was in the first bit of the novel and although I didn't appreciate it to start, I really did by the time I was part way through the book.  Who Elissa is and was is extremely important to everything and maybe I'm being a little overboard about it but honestly that is how it all played out with me.

  The thing about the truth is that it's not always the easiest thing to swallow and Elissa was cold hard proof of that.  As a character I think she was written quite well and though there is always flaws, how could you ever relate to a person that is perfect and even more so when this person exists in a world that you can only connect with through reading?  Elissa and her conflicted mind were what made me enjoy her, she wanted to do the right thing but how do you decide exactly what is right when you were raised one way and then find out it all may be a lie.  Not to mention find out that  most of your life was a lie.  Her reaction to finding out she has a twin and the behavioural difference that caused problems was bang on.  Personally the inner conflict was killer but when you are unsure what and who to believe it is totally understandable.

  When the romance isn't a prominent feature of the novel, I find myself in a love it or leave it situation and in this case it was a love it.  I won't completely throw away the fact that there was some hormones flying around because there was but it was always the problems at hand that came first.  Admittedly I did want something a little more heated to start happening but I was kind of okay with the way things played out between Lissa and Cadan.  With all the action and chaos figuring out just how you feel and swooning over someone just isn't your top priority but there were moments and in the end everything played out well enough.

  The ending was basically perfect knowing that there is still another book.  Yes I want more but I am not left in a red haze that makes me want to consider hurling the book across the room.  Imogen Howson has dazzled me with her creativity and over all literary talent.  I have some hopes for the next installment but if it even has half the action that this one did there is nothing to worry about.  This is a great read for sci-fi and dystopian lovers alike!

Quotes

  If for some unknown, beyond-bizarre reason, she was picking up thoughts from a real person, it had to be because of her illness-the abnormality, whatever it is, in her brain.

  But for three years, three years, they'd let her struggle with misery and loneliness and attacks of pain like lightnig strikes, loosing her friends, losing any kid of normal life...and they'd let her think it was her fault, that something was wrong with her.

  She led the way onto a sidewalk, heading toward the nearest twenty-four-hour mall.  Lin followed her obediently, the unquestioning trust in her face making her look like a little girl.  She's not a sociopath.  She's damaged, that's all.