Danielle Rollins

Literary Merit: Good
Characterization: Good
Recommended: Maybe
Level: High School

This one might be a shorter review, as I came into this series as a newcomer and don't have a ton to say about it. While I thought it was interesting and decently written, I can't say that I had a particularly strong reaction to it either way. It was more middle of the road for me, though I do think some of the concepts explored in it are interesting. At the risk of rambling on for too long, however, let me get into this review.

Twisted Fates is told from the point of view of two young teens: Ash and Dorothy. In this sequel to Stolen Time, Dorothy has found herself at the head of a ruthless futuristic gang known as the Black Cirkus, whose ultimate goal seems to be to bring back equipment and tech from the past to improve the lives of those in the present. Ash, meanwhile, has been desperately searching for Dorothy, a girl he met in 1913 who he may or may not be in love with. What Ash doesn't know, however, is that Dorothy has teamed up with his former friend Roman to become Quinn Fox, the bloodthirsty leader of the Black Cirkus. She is also the one fated to kill him, though she doesn't yet know it. As their paths collide, the two begin to unravel the mystery of time travel, and learn that the very fate of their world hangs in the balance.

For starters, I thought this book had a unique setting and premise. It's set in 2077 in New Seattle, a city that has been devastated by earthquakes that have taken out much of the population and left the city in a dystopian state. Though I jumped into this series in the second book of the series, I was able to piece together what had happened in the first book through context clues and exposition. From what I understand, Roman and Ash were once good friends studying time travel under a man named Professor Walker. During a trip to the past to find his missing mentor, Ash encountered Dorothy, and the two formed an instant connection. For whatever reason, however, Ash chose not to take Dorothy with him to the future, and she jumped through an anil (or time travel portal) to reach his current time. Now in 2077, she has teamed up with Roman and the Black Cirkus to forge her own destiny.

Like I said, this book has a cool premise. Any time I see a book about time travel, I'm usually both intrigued and a bit confused. Time travel is a hard concept to master, especially in YA, and the paradoxes involved usually leave me with a headache. While I was mildly interested, I couldn't bring myself to really care about these characters, likely because I hadn't read the first book first. In an effort to be gracious to the author's hard work, I will attribute my lack of interest to the fact that I came in with a blank slate and no knowledge of these characters. That being said, I did really enjoy some of the characters, the intelligent and feisty Zora being my favorite of the bunch. Ash and Roman also seemed interesting, and I liked seeing their "friends to enemies" dynamic play out throughout the story.

I also enjoyed the romantic subplot, as I am usually a sucker for romance, especially romance that seems muddied and complicated. I liked that the two lovers had somehow found themselves on the opposite sides of a major conflict, but that they still longed for one another. I also love the twist of knowing that Dorothy will somehow be the one to kill Ash, but neither character knows how it will happen. That added a whole new layer of intrigue and suspense to the plot. While I'll admit I was a little lost at times (I didn't know who all of the characters were, and I had to backtrack to remember certain plot points for the twists to hit), I really liked the "forbidden romance" dynamic the two leads had.

While the writing in this book is by no means bad, it wasn't spectacular either. The characters didn't feel fully fleshed out, and none of them ever felt truly authentic. While there were certain moments when I felt a lot of empathy for some of them (Roman's history with his sister was particularly depressing), I had a hard time feeling particularly invested in any of them. Again, this could be because I was jumping in on the second book, but it overall felt very middle of the road. There was some interesting stuff going on with the professor's logs and Nikola Tesla, but there wasn't nearly as much as I would've liked to further the plot and reveal secrets.

Sadly, I don't have much more to say about this book, as it didn't hit me particularly hard in either direction. I didn't absolutely hate it, but I feel no need to gush about it either. It's simply an average dystopian/time travel YA novel. While I do believe teen fans of sci fi and fantasy will enjoy it (especially if they love time travel plots), it wasn't necessarily for me. I was, however, intrigued enough to want to know what happens with Ash and Dorothy, so I might just read the third book sometime in the future (if I can find time amidst my giant stack of books). For now, however, I will leave this particular series in the past.… (mere)