Author: Holly Hook
Release Date: December 15, 2013
Release Date: December 15, 2013
Pages: 204, eBook
Goodreads Rating: 4.00 Stars
My Rating: 3/5 stars
My Content Rating: PG (Nothing more than kissing)
Summary from Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Allie isn’t like other girls. Instead of spending her summer break sitting around on the beach, she takes the epic vacation of a lifetime.
Tornado chasing.
And she’s not disappointed. Just a few miles from the town of Evansburg, Nebraska, Allie meets her dream of seeing a tornado. In person. She can’t wait to tell her friends back home. Never mind that her parents are going to kill her.
But her dream soon turns into a nightmare, and a strange event leaves her shocked. Confused. When she returns home to Wisconsin, something’s…different. Allie now bears a curse so awful, it could destroy everyone and everything she’s ever known.
With her best friend, Tommy, Allie must return to the plains to find a way to reverse it. She enters a world that she had never imagined, where she becomes a pawn in a fight to save the people of Evansburg from her fate…or to destroy them.
I really enjoyed the concept of Twisted, but I had a bit of difficulty connecting with the characters, which made it a three star book for me instead of a four star book.
The book revolves around Allie, who finds herself cursed - when a storm rolls in, she turns into a tornado! Fearing that she will bring nothing but destruction to her family and friends, she goes off in search of a cure. Along the way, she finds that she's not the only person with this strange power - she is an Outbreaker. And she also finds that reversing the curse may not be a top priority after all because she has bigger problems on her hands.
The negatives:
- Lack of connection to the main characters. In general, I just had a bit of a hard time connecting to Allie - or to Tommy (I liked fellow Outbreaker, Dorian, a bit more). Allie just seemed to whine an awful lot. I mean, I understood that what happened to her was bad (who wants to be a tornado and be responsible for ruining people's lives and possibly killing people!), but I still just got a bit tired of hearing her complain about it. I also felt like she was really selfish - at the end of the book when Allie realizes that turning more people into Outbreakers might actually be necessary (the greater good?), her attitude is basically, "That's fine, just don't turn any of my friends or family - I don't care what happens to anyone else." (That wasn't exactly true - she did seem to care, but she was WAY more concerned with keeping her family from being cursed than she was in anything else). It all just felt a bit petty and selfish - I understood her being conflicted about everything that was happening, but most often her conflict ended up seeming like childish whining rather than actual pain over what was happening to other people around her. I just ended up feeling frustrated with her. I also didn't care much about Tommy - even though he didn't have the character flaws that Allie had. I just felt like his character fell a bit flat and I didn't find myself particularly interested in him.
What I enjoyed:
- The concept. I thought that the idea of people becoming tornadoes and being unable to control the destruction that they were causing was a great one. I found out after I read this book that this is actually a companion series to Hook's Destroyers series (but this book definitely stood alone - I didn't feel like I was missing out by not having read the original series, which is very unusual for me). So, it looks like Hook has had a chance to really delve into this idea of people who turn into storms. I love it!
- No clear bad guys. I love it when a book doesn't really have "bad guys" - instead there are people who are doing their best in impossible situations. This is definitely the case in this book. It honestly seemed like every character in this book was trying to work toward the greater good in one way or another. None of them were evil villains who just sought power or their own dastardly ends. Instead, they were forced into difficult situations and were just trying their best to hurt as few people as possible (and in the least harmful ways)! In fact, one of my favorite characters turned out to be one of the "bad guys" but I won't reveal who it is because that would be a spoiler!
- Dorian. Dorian was probably my favorite character in the book. I liked his combination of despair over what he was (an Outbreaker) and resolve to try his hardest to do the right thing. I was definitely rooting for a romance between Dorian and Allie (there was a bit of a love triangle between Dorian, Allie and Tommy, which I'm assuming will be explored more in the next book). Dorian and Allie had a connection for some reason, and I would definitely like to see where that connection goes in future books!
Twister was an interesting paranormal read with a great concept. Overall, I give it 3/5 stars.
***Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given. All opinions are my own***
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