Today we are SO excited to be the stop for Twinmaker‘s official blog tour, organized by Book Nerd Tours. Twinmaker by Sean Williams is a young adult dystopian novel that was released (TODAY!) November 5, 2013 by Balzer + Bray.
About the Book
Twinmaker
By Sean Williams
Pub: Baltzer + Bray
Pub Date: 11/5/2013
Genre: YA, DystopianSynopsis:
High-stakes action combines with issues of friendship and body image in this timely and thought-provoking exploration of the intersection of technology and identity.
You can be Improved….
In a near-future world in which technology can transport you anywhere instantly, can a coded note enable you to change your body—to become taller, stronger, more beautiful? Clair is pretty sure the offer is too good to be true. But her best friend, Libby, is determined to give it a try, longing for a new, improved version of herself.
What starts as Libby’s dream turns into Clair’s nightmare when Libby falls foul of a deadly trap. With the help of Jesse, the school freak, and a mysterious—but powerful—stranger called Q, Clair’s attempt to protect Libby leads her to an unimagined world of conspiracies and cover-ups. Soon her own life is at risk, and Clair is chased across the world in a desperate race against time.
Action and danger fuel Sean Williams’ tale of technology, identity, and the lengths to which one girl will go to save her best friend.
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My Thoughts
Right away this book reminded me of The Uglies series — there is a lot of lingo and background information that you have to catch on to by intuition and context clues. For someone like me who has read a lot, I was able to pick up the intentions pretty quickly. Plus I’m used to books like Feed and Uglies where there is a different set of parameters for everyday speak. If you aren’t, don’t worry, you’ll catch up. It is probably the reason people said they had a hard time in the beginning of the book.
I loved the world that Sean Williams created. It was rich in technology and pretty vividly imaginable. The world is now run by d-mats, or devices that will transport you anywhere on earth. You and your best friend can live in different countries and go to the same school half way around the world together. What an amazingly brilliant concept! Along with d-mats, there are fabbers which can reorganize particles and create items (food, clothing, stuff in general). The rule is once the item has been in the fabber, it can be recreated.
Of course, with every good technology, there is a downside. In this instance, there is the fact that you body is being particularized every day. When Clair looks to a boy from school, Jesse, for help, we get to learn a bit more about Abstainers (or Stainers). These are people who are off the grid and don’t use the d-mats to jump. Jesse talks about how his father believes that even going through one time actually breaks apart who you are as a person, killing you in essence and removing your soul… This concept was pretty thought provoking and made me think on a different level about what makes us who we are.
From the synopsis, you should be able to glean that Clair’s friend is in trouble. She is beautiful, but of course sees her one blemish as something hideous that needs fixing, so when she is offered Improvement, she takes a chance to fix herself. This idea of body image was thrown out in the first few chapters, but I wish we could have seen a little more inside Libby’s mind — getting to the root of the body issues. Instead, we see things from Clair’s POV, understanding that she hates things like her nose, but would not try to change who she is. She doesn’t seem to understand Libby’s plight against her issues.
I read a lot of reviews before I picked this one up and a lot of people don’t seem to like Clair. I do, but not because she is some great person — she is a real girl and her flaws just made me like that. She doesn’t always make great decisions, and is jealous of her best friend, but those are things that make her human.
If you’re looking for romance, then you should probably move to another book. There are romantic issues, but it isn’t a focus, which is pretty great because there is already a LOT going on in this book.
There are a lot of REALLY cool things happening in this world. There is action and a lot of the crumbling facade of the ‘perfect world’ our main character has come to know. This is one of my favorite aspects of dystopian novels — how we can build up a society and trick the people into believing the world is perfect — and that it only takes a handful of people to knock that world on its side.
For me the best part of this book is the science — it’s fresh, original and kept me glued to the book. We created a world that didn’t rely on economics and what should be a better society is still just as screwed up as we are. There are people that use the technology to make life better, but then there are people that use the technology to create chaos and terrible things. This is a great lesson for teens (and adults!) to learn.
Rating
About the Author
#1 New York Times bestselling Sean Williams lives with his family in Adelaide, South Australia. He’s written some books–thirty-nine at last count–including the Philip K. Dick-nominated Saturn Returns, several Star Wars novels and the Troubletwister series with Garth Nix. Twinmaker is the first in a new YA SF series that takes his love affair with the matter transmitter to a whole new level. You can find some related short stories over at Lightspeed Magazine. Thanks for reading.
Connect with Shelley
3 Winners will Each Receive a Copy of TWINMAKER
Must be 13+ To Enter – Shipping in the US Only
Click HERE to Enter
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Check out the rest of the tour!
Literary Meanderings
5 Random Things
Such A Novel Idea
Review
YA Bookmark
Dream Cast
Ex Libris
Review
Gone With The Words
Tens List
Bookish
Review
Curing Up With A Good Book
Interview
[B.O.O.K.L.I.F.E]
Review
Review
A Dream Within A Dream
Review
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Such A Novel Idea 
I have been wanting to read this! The cover is FANASTIC! !! 😀 Plus, the premise? SO GOOD.
I know right! 🙂
I love the premise of this one and your review makes me think about the ethics of technology in general. So many issues to think about with that! I really enjoyed The Uglies series so I’ll probably end up reading this one. Great review!
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