A Thousand Lives Lived: ARC Review: Echoes of Us by Kat Zhang // So The Questions Are Answered...

Echoes of Us (The Hybrid Chronicles #3), by Kat Zhang
Publication: September 16, 2014, by HarperCollins
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Science-Fiction, Dystopian, Romance
Pages: 354
Format: ARC
Source: Author
Rating:

All Eva ever wanted was the chance to be herself. But in the Americas, to be hybrid—to share your body with a second soul—is not tolerated past childhood. Now Eva and Addie, her sister soul, are constantly on the move, hiding from the officials who seek to capture them. But the tide is changing. A revolution is brewing, and people are starting to question the hybrids' mistreatment.
Then Marion, an ambitious reporter, offers Eva and Addie a daring proposal: If they go undercover and film the wretched conditions of a hybrid institution, she will not only rescue them, she'll find a way to free Jackson, the boy Addie loves. It's risky, and Eva will have to leave Ryan and her friends behind, but if she succeeds, it could also tip the scales forever and lead to hybrid freedom.
As Eva and Addie walk into danger, they cling to each other and the hope of a better future. But the price they might pay is higher than they ever could have imagined.

My Thoughts:

The last time I had the chance to read Kat Zhang's work was a long time ago, with the sequel of The Hybrid Chronicles. It's truly been a while since I've touched upon and jumped into this world of Eva and Addie, and I do admit that at first, I was very confused with the sequel. Is it possible to jump into a book in the series when it's been a long time since you last read the previous novel?

Echoes of Us lacked that kind of goodness, that kind of writing where I wondered what was going to happen next or how I'll ever be able to live without this great writing. It was boring and showed Eva and Addie's weaker side and how they're not able to live without each other in their heads. I don't know if it's just the writing, or if I've actually gotten bored of this concept now, because my rating of the trilogy just kept declining.

"We shouldn't be surprised by things like this anymore. I said as we zipped along the highway. [...] How many times have our lives changed utterly in a day?"

This story began straight off from where the sequel left us off at, and Addie and Eva are just trying to get home and be safe with their family, where they belong. They take risks, trying to find the people they love and be free, again. The world that they're stuck in, the Americas, seems to be a world full of hatred and inequality. Things never seem to be going in the right direction and their lives are getting more torn apart, slowly and slowly. The only cheesy phrase that I'm going to mention in this review is: At least they still have each other and friendship, right?

*rolls eyes* Friendship, romance, hiding from government officials, we've all seen these kinds of science-fiction stories. And I think that authors can only take a certain amount of steps into one of these cheesy plots and that's about it. Otherwise, readers will get bored and continuously rant on the novel. However, there are some people who enjoy these kinds of stories, and I'm sadly not one of them.

What did I actually enjoy about this? Something attractive that starts with the letter "R" and ends in an "OMANCE." Ah, Jackson and Addie! It's so crazy to think about how two girls, one hybrid, can be in love with two separate guys.

Echoes of Us had more of a weaker spin onto your average trilogy ending. It was boring, weird and confusing as I haven't gone into Eva and Addie's world for two years, probably. I'm not a big fan of the writing but at least, we had a better finish and romance to look upon on. I guess I shouldn't have wasted a lot of my time to read this?

*A review copy was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!*