What's Left of Me (Hybrid Chronicles #1) by Kat Zhang

Overall Rating: 3 stars

Date Finished: September 27, 2016

This is hard book to review, and unfortunately a lot of has more to do with the fact that I have a very hard time imagining a world in which the concepts the author introduces can actually lead to a functioning society. So, I will try to divide my review and focus first just on the book itself and later on the concepts or questions the book raises that, to me, felt a bit unresolvable.

As far as the book itself goes I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. Going in I was expecting this book to be told from the perspective of the soul in control (Addie) but it was actually told from the perspective of Eva, which I feel like worked better for the book. We still hear Addie and her inner dialogue with Eva but Eva is always our narrator.

Having said that, the book was often frustrating because while Eva was narrating, Addie was in control of their body, and Addie was not really one to act. She shied away from conflict, ran away whenever she was afraid, and spent a lot of time crying. And I understand her frustration and her fears, but I feel like things got better once they were kind of taking turn controlling the body.

The other worry that I had was the romance. You have two girls in one body which can complicate any romance and when Eva started to show interest in Ryan I was so sure that the author was going to have Addie fall in love with Devon and wrap it all up in a nice shiny bow and ignore all the potential complications of a romance when two people share the same body. But happily, she didn't. Addie has no feelings for Ryan or Devon and was not too happy about Eva using their body to kiss Ryan. And while that brings up a whole round of other complications, I feel like they are part of the reality of this world she is trying to create and they need to be addressed so I am glad that she didn't shy away from that.

Now, romance is one of the things that I just can't see a good work around for in this fictional world we've entered. Just looking at the example the book gave us. Eva falls for Ryan and Ryan loves her back. But Devon doesn't like Eva or Addie and Addie doesn't like Devon or Ryan. Now, Addie is starting to show some interest in Jackson but Jackson is a hybrid too. So imagine for a second that Addie is with Jackson and Eva is with Ryan. But then what about Devon and Jackson other soul? So they each find another girl. So, now we're talking 5 bodies and 10 souls. But what about the second souls in the new girls they find? And so and so forth until there is almost no end. So then what? How do they marry and have children and create any form of meaningful society. Do you share weeks or days. And what about the children? Does that mean they only see their parents every other week or every other day? The whole idea just doesn't seem to really pan out very well.

And then you think about the general running of a society. Addie is an artist, but Eva is not. So does that mean that everyone in society only does their job every other day and the other soul does their chosen job the other days? Does the dominant always get to choose or how can they divide life in a way that makes it meaningful for both. And what if one of them is a criminal. Does that mean you punish the other one too, even if they had no control over the other one's actions? Do you suppress the criminal, or does that just equate to the death punishment for every crime?

Just imagine trying to elect a president. Would have to vote for both souls or just the one soul that wants to be elected. The fact that one would make a good president doesn't automatically mean that the other would. And then what happens when the other soul takes over? You just don't have a President for the day? The same problem exists with any necessary officials. Even simple things like police officers, school teachers. And while the concept worked in the book for the small group of hybrids among a society of one soul people, I just don't see a society functioning with all hybrids.

So, if we go off the idea that settling isn't natural and the government is forcing it to happen, so how does the rest of the world actually function? And they say the hybrids were in control before the great war, what exactly does that mean? If settling isn't natural, then wouldn't everyone have been a hybrid before then. Or is this double soul thing something that happened later? There is just a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of things that I just have trouble believing that the author will be able to resolve in a believable way.