"Two of you exist. Only one will survive." In this dystopian world, everyone has two versions of themselves, genetic twins, and you will eventually have to fight your "alt" to the death, because this world is built on the "survival of the fittest" premise, where they only want those most deserving of a future to move on. I thought this was a very interesting and unique premise and was very much looking forward to reading this book.

Our female protagonist, West Grayer, has lost everyone she loves, and is waiting for her own battle to be called (or to be activated). She is determined to be harder and more prepared than the rest of her family was. In a world where only the strongest survive, will she be strong enough?

I enjoyed this book, but had a real problem with a world where every child is raised to kill a version of themselves. The reason why this is necessary was never really explained fully enough to satisfy me. It just didn't make much sense.

West was hard to like, but then she really didn't want to be liked, so that wasn't a bad thing. Her childhood friend, Chord, was much more likeable, and was always trying to save West from herself, and pull her back from the edge when she got too close to it. The book was definitely action packed, and this made it a quick read.

In summary, I enjoyed this YA dystopian fantasy, and as it is the first book in a series, I look forward to continuing with the story in the next installment.

4/5 stars. ( )

I could not finish this one. I didn't get very far, but the heroine wasn't someone I could connect with, and I found myself more interested with how much of the book I had to get through than the action taking place. The premise is interesting, but I didn't care enough about the characters to see how it played out.

This book would actually deserve a five star rating if not for the constant fragment sentences on almost every page. It's really a wonder I didn't put the book down simply from that alone. But what can I say? The story itself had an interesting plot and I found myself unable to put the book down for too long of a time. All I can say is that I really hope the next book has less fragment sentences, but I'd really prefer for there to be none. I mean, that's what an editor is for, right? But okay, I know we can't all be perfect with grammar. Still, I think I would have enjoyed the story a whole lot more if every sentence was actually a complete thought. Most of them just need one more word in order to make it a complete sentence, it was just lacking. Plenty of them would have worked perfectly together to form complete sentences too, just by changing a period to a comma. Still, the story was good enough to keep me reading. That's saying something, considering how I have stopped reading other things simply because of grammar that sucked less than it did for this book. So if you're someone who can look past plenty of grammar mistakes, then I highly recommend this book. If you're not someone who can, well, I still recommend it but know that there are a lot of fragment sentences.

Anyways, this book centers around a young girl who is tasked with killing her twin, her Alternate. Each of them grow up in a separate family and the way the government makes this happen is sort of interesting but I felt it could have been explained further. West is basically running from her assignment, though she has but a month to complete it. It's kill or be killed. If neither kills the other before the month is up, they both die. Yet, West keeps running, deciding she's not ready to kill her Alternate, that she still needs more time, more training. A month isn't that much time when you're being hunted by the very person you're hunting. The plot sort of felt dragged out to me, despite it being on the shorter side compared to other books. There's plenty of killing, however, and it does get pretty suspenseful at times. Over all, the plot was good and it felt original. I have no clue if there are other books out there like this, though. I am excited for the next book. There isn't a cliffhanger which leaves me wondering what the next book will be about but I'm ready (albeit a bit hesitant because of the grammar) to dive into Divided. ( )

Dualed had so much potential to be great. A world where everyone has an Alternate twin and only one can survive? How could that not be the makings of a great story?! I mean seriously am I the only one who randomly wonders if I have a twin when people swear they saw me somewhere I definitely wasn't? What if we all actually did have twins and there was only room for one?

My biggest questions going into this read were, why does everyone have an alternate twin? How did this happen? Why can only one survive? My biggest issue was the fact that these questions were answered very vaguely. Now, I'm not a reader who loves excessive world building but I needed way more than was provided and I'm not reading a second book about a world that seems to have been haphazardly thrown together.

On top of this vague world building I had some major issues with the plot and the characters. West is a character that I never quite understood. I very rarely understood her thought process or her motivations and consistently found myself confused and frustrated by her. Since her actions and thoughts are really what drives the plot forward it made it difficult for me to become too engrossed in the action. I think the biggest issue is that she was never really developed as a character and as such felt very flat. Then on top of that she starts the novel with all this big talk and had nowhere to grow as a character so instead she regressed as the novel progressed.

Then there is the random love story tucked in at the end. There really wasn't any history provided between West and Chord that made me think that they would have any sort of relationship besides friendship. I just didn't see a romantic love there yet all of a sudden at the end of the novel they are in love? Personally, I think they just have a hard time coping and like having someone else to rely on and to be needed by.

I'm not planning on reading the next book, but would really appreciate someone trying this concept out again. ( )

3.5 stars

Here, people are born with a doppleganger, a twin or Alternate (aka: “alt”) who they will grow up and have to fight to the death, sometime between the ages of 10 and 20. The winner, then, proves that they are the stronger, smarter person to survive and deserves to live to help defend the city. West has already lost two siblings and both parents.

******POSSIBLE SPOILERS (though this pretty much all happens near the start of the book)******
When her older brother, Luke, goes to help his best friend, Cord, fight Cord’s alt, Luke loses his life. West hasn’t had to fight her alt yet, but she is so angry that she decides to become a striker – an assassin for hire to kill other people’s alts before they have to themselves.
******END SPOILERS******

Then, her “assignment” comes up and she has to fight for her own life.

I like the idea of this story and it was good, but I felt like the striker angle took away from the rest of the story for me. I feel like it was more to add “filler” to the story. Just my opinion. Maybe strikers come more into play in later books in the series, but it just didn’t interest me as much as the main storyline. Although, overall, it was good, I’m not sure it’s enough for me to continue the series. ( )