Published by: Greenwillow Books, September 22nd 2015
Genre: YA, Thriller, Science Fiction
Pages: 464
Format: Ebook
For most of her life, Lirael has been training to kill—and replace—a duplicate version of herself on a parallel Earth. She is the perfect sleeper-soldier. But she’s beginning to suspect she is not a good person.
The two Earths are identical in almost every way. Two copies of every city, every building, even every person. But the people from the second Earth know something their duplicates do not—two versions of the same thing cannot exist. They—and their whole planet—are slowly disappearing. Lira has been trained mercilessly since childhood to learn everything she can about her duplicate, to be a ruthless sleeper-assassin who kills that other Lirael and steps seamlessly into her life.
An intricate, literary stand-alone from an astonishing new voice, The Unquiet takes us deep inside the psyche of a strong teenage heroine struggling with what she has been raised to be and who she really is. Fans of eerily futuristic and beautifully crafted stories such as Never Let Me Go, Orphan Black, and Fringe will find themselves haunted by this unsettling debut.
I liked this book from more or less the first page. It starts with a creepy child-assassin thriller that reminded me so much of Nikita, one of my favourite shows of all time. Kids from one earth are being trained to kill and replace their Alternates (from the other earth) from a very young age, kept captive in cottages in the countryside, and the weak ones either don't survive training or are killed by their masters. It's so so original.
And then it transitions into a sleeper spy novel, when the MC is sent to take over the life of her Alternate. I loved that this book was set in France, not the typical American setting. And there were so many elements of the story that it felt fast paced, yet drawn out and suspenseful all the same.
I didn't love the characters but I didn't dislike them either. It was interesting to see Lira growing from the killer the cottages trained her to be into her own person, with her own wants and fears despite having them trained out of her.
This book was just really cool and rare and a total surprise. If you like awesome thrillers and sci fi that feels real, add this to your to-buy list.
And then it transitions into a sleeper spy novel, when the MC is sent to take over the life of her Alternate. I loved that this book was set in France, not the typical American setting. And there were so many elements of the story that it felt fast paced, yet drawn out and suspenseful all the same.
I didn't love the characters but I didn't dislike them either. It was interesting to see Lira growing from the killer the cottages trained her to be into her own person, with her own wants and fears despite having them trained out of her.
This book was just really cool and rare and a total surprise. If you like awesome thrillers and sci fi that feels real, add this to your to-buy list.
Characters ★★★★☆
Setting/world-building ★★★★★
