Impostor by Susanne Winnacker

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Title : Impostor
Author : Susanne Winnacker
Genre : Sci-Fi
Published Date : May 28th 2013

Publisher : Razorbill
Pages : 274
Source : Bought
Rating : ✿✿✿✿

From Goodreads :
Can Tessa pose as Madison . . . and stop a killer before it’s too late? 

Tessa is a Variant, able to absorb the DNA of anyone she touches and mimic their appearance. Shunned by her family, she’s spent the last two years training with the Forces with Extraordinary Abilities, a secret branch of the FBI. When a serial killer rocks a small town in Oregon, Tessa is given a mission: she must impersonate Madison, a local teen, to find the killer before he strikes again. 

Tessa hates everything about being an impostor—the stress, the danger, the deceit—but loves playing the role of a normal girl. As Madison, she finds friends, romance, and the kind of loving family she’d do anything to keep. Amid action, suspense, and a ticking clock, this super-human comes to a very human conclusion: even a girl who can look like anyone struggles the most with being herself.


Review

From the moment I saw the cover of this book, I had practically hit the "Want-to-read" button on Goodreads without ever reading its summary. The cover was seriously that convincing. And when I read the description and found that this book had somehow an X-Men-ish feeling to it, it only made me want to read it more, because honestly, I just love X-Men. The awesomeness of their superpower, plus the badass Wolferine. Need I say more?

"I’d recognize that smell of spring and spearmint, and the steely strength behind his careful touch, any time. He’d found me; he always did."
—Tessa

Impostor told us about the hidden branch of FBI—the FEA—which housed people with Variations power, and one of its member, Tessa, who can imitate pretty much anyone's appearance. Assigned to investigate a serial killer in the small town of Livingston, Tessa suddenly had to do things she never had before : Impersonate the dead girl Maddison, the latest victims of the serial killer. But with the killer still lurking around trying to kill her for good and the black organization had its eye on her ability, what will Tessa do when she realized that living the dead girl's was far more happier than living her own life?

The beginning of this book was pretty nice and full of tension, which I think was exactly the right way to start off a thrilling novel. The surrounding and the characters emotion were very easy to imagine too.
The real culprit was, unfortunately, way too obvious and predictable. Even when we were served by red herring in the beginning with convincing clue and all, I could still pretty much guess who the real killer was halfway through the book.
But I do still love the way it ended with a satisfying ending, yet managed to make readers curious with its cliff hanger.

Tessa, as our main character, was pretty dependable and can stood out for herself. The things I love about her was that she was able to fight for her life and not expecting help every time her life was in danger. She also has brains to some with it, and her narration was very strong too.
The side character, however, only touched the surface and weren't really developed like Tessa. They only had like on special trait that distinguish them, and then their acts was all based on that trait. Like, duh, really?
And then, there were also some useless characters in this book, although it's not too much. Like Tanner, who didn't play any meaningful role, or the cook Martha.

But, despite the somewhat crappy side-character, I do really love the chemistry between the characters here, especially the brother-sister chemistry between Devon and faux-Maddison a.k.a Tessa. It was real and warm and fluffy, exactly how I imagined it to be. And also Tessa's romance with Alex, which thankfully didn't only consist of mindless kissing and more kissing, but actually a real emotion.

Some things that I'm not too frond of this book was Kate and Alec's relationship,which started before the book took place. Their relationship was later said as 'for a matter of reason' but it was honestly never explained, what the reason was. Like, really? Must he be in relationship with Kate just so Tessa can feel all angsty and heartbroken about he love?

And one more thing for this list: the killer's Variation ability. I, to be honest, still don't understand why the killer must have the super useless ability of controlling mist. But then, magically turned out to be not so useless since the gas-based mist can be used to strangle people to death. Like, for real? Ha. It's gas, people. Gas. Could I strangle you with oxygen?

But the unbelievable way of killing aside, this book was actually quite good. The government legal organization—branch of FBI—was a fresh change from the usual organization in YA novel, which was usually a small, family-like, unknown organization. And the organized feeling and all that also help in making this novel way more believable.
If you're looking for an urban-fantasy novel, which surroundings was very easy to imagine, completed with strong narration, and quite a good chemistry, you should totally give this one a try.

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2 comments

  1. This is a book on my TBR list. It's interesting to read what people are thinking about it. I'm glad to see it's not a bad book despite its flaws. Very nice review. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review! I really want to read this book, it sounds awesome:) Pity the mystery was predictable.

    Eveline's Books

    ReplyDelete

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