Two of a Mind~S M Stuart | Review

Title: Two of a Mind 
Author: S M Stuart
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Length: 256 Pages
Release: March 2015
My Rating: 3/5 Stars

I received a free copy of this novel through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

What’s the response when diplomacy fails? How will it affect our future? Do we really want to know?

24th July 2110: When the midnight chimes end at Dez’s 16th-Eve Party she realises she’s destined to be an 'Empty'. Her subsequent attempts to connect with her Psyche-Twin have startling consequences and she soon finds herself facing the worst of nightmares.

Seth has his own demons. He needs to unearth the truth about his mother’s death and enlists Dez to help in deciphering the clues hidden in her diary.

Little do they realise that they will soon be searching for a merciless killer - one who is connected to them by a cruel twist of fate. Unwittingly their enquiries bring them to his attention.

Review

Most of this novel is told in first person from Dez's perspective, but there are some portions told from various third person perspectives of past events. I really like this method of storytelling. I think it makes for a great story where you get more than just one view of things. I found it somewhat choppy in this story.

The jumping from present to past (with a rather large cast of characters in these scenes from the past), was somewhat hard for me to follow at times. Most of the characters were connected somehow through family ties, but even this was sometimes difficult to remember. The past and present scenes all tie in together eventually and overall it worked fairly well, I just think a bit more polish on these transitions would have helped me stay connected. 

I found the concept of the "psych-twins" very interesting. The way it was presented was very intriguing and I was always interested to see what else was going to happen, particularly with Dez and Seth and their issues with their PTs. 

  

At times I found the choices the characters were making to be a bit abrupt. Or the novel would just jump from fighting to laughter in a way that I didn't really find made much sense. I just found it rather distracting at times for things to be so back and forth. I also found the use of exclamation points (particularly in these situations) to be rather distracting. 

With some polish I think I would enjoy this novel a great deal more. As it is, I thought it was a fun read, but not overly gripping or brilliant. I will be interested to see where the author goes with the rest of the story.