Review: Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Publisher: Random House
Published: February 26, 2013
Pages: 304
Source: Won from Novel Sounds
Rating: 1.5 Stars

You or your Alt? Only one will survive.
The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.
Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.
Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

In short: Unfortunately, I could not get past Dualed's completely ridiculous concept and world building and was not able to enjoy the story.

Get a load of this concept: When a cold vaccine causes infertility in the human race, the city of Kersh is established as a safe haven for the remaining members of humanity. It is decided that the best way to ensure that humans evolve to be a superior race for their protection is to create, via gene manipulation, two of every person and then have each person fight their twin, or Alt, to the death in an ultimate test of the survival of the fittest. Only then can they prove that they are worthy members of society. Between the ages of 10 and 20, twins are given their assignment to hunt down and kill their Alt before 31 days are over. If 31 days are up are neither twin has killed their Alt, they are both killed.

I knew going into Dualed that as entertaining and thrilling as the concept is, Elsie Chapman was going to have to come up with a pretty dang good explanation as to how this particular dystopian world came to be. And unfortunately, the explanation of getting children to fight their twin in a battle to the death to create a superior race? That's just dumb. And it makes no sense whatsoever. It would not create a population of superior people; it would create a population of violent, disturbed nut jobs. And even if it did make sense, or if the real reason was to create a population of soldiers, it would be an incredibly inefficient way of going about it.

Kersh is described as a "safe haven". This statement is BEYOND ridiculous. Kersh couldn't possibly be further from the description of a safe haven. Because in reality, Kersh has a murder rate of at least 50% with COUNTLESS of innocent bystanders getting killed in the crossfire. There are no gun restrictions either; anyone can just walk into a gun shop and buy whatever they need to kill their Alt. Citizens are encouraged by The Board to try to avoid killing bystanders when hunting for their Alt, but when you put dangerous weapons into the hands of desperate children, it will never end well. I could not for the life of me understand how the citizens of Kersh could be so stupid and idle; why almost no one seems to question the system and revolt against the government is beyond me.

I wanted to like West, Dualed's protagonist, but ultimately, I could not get behind a character who murders countless of people (children, really) for money and feels very little guilt over it. You see, after West loses every single member in her family to senseless killing, she decides the best way to deal with this and fight the system is to become a hired assassin - someone who offs other people's Alts for a price - and to continue senselessly killing other people! UGH, I can't even. And I was so disappointed that West never even has that realization, that what The Board is doing is utter BS, and pledges to fight the system in an actually legitimate way that makes sense. But she never once questions or fights what The Board does to its citizens.

Unfortunately, I could just not get past the complete ridiculousness of the concept and this severely affected my enjoyment of Dualed. Notice however, that even after learning of the explanation of the premise in the beginning of the story, I continued to read Dualed to the end. This is mostly because I find myself unable to DNF books, but also partly because for what it's worth, Dualed was a thrilling read. I will say that Elsie Chapman seems to be a gifted thriller/suspense writer. I would recommend Dualed to people who are looking for a fast-paced thriller and are willing to just roll with the story and not ask any serious questions about the world building.

Other Reviews:
Alexa Loves Books
Alluring Reads
Taking It One Page at a Time

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