Once We Were by Kat Zhang Review

Once We Were by Kat Zhang
(The Hybrid Chronicles, #2)
Release Date: September 17, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins; 352 pages

"I'm lucky just to be alive"

Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.

Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.

Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.

If you have NOT read What's Left of Me please read with caution. There are some spoilers that were unavoidable. Proceed with caution . . .

I really enjoyed the first book, What's Left of Me and I couldn't wait to read more about this unique series, especially Eva and Ryan. The concept of these books still blows my mind; two souls sharing the same body. Things will get complicated when both souls fall in love with different guys, which we start to see in this second book. You're sharing the same body with different guys, it's just weird and awkward and probably everything you imagined it would be. I do have to say, while I enjoyed this book, the first half was a bit lackluster for me.

That being said, it's alright because the second half of the book totally made up for it. Sometimes slow isn't necessarily a bad thing; it's just a lot of information. I just don't like slow because I like breezing through books. We get to see what life is like outside of the institutes boring white walls. Eva and Addie are surrounded by people who are just like them and they're teaching them all sorts of things like how to have the one soul disappear so Eva or Addie can actually get some alone time which will come in handy for when Ryan and Eva want to lip lock (which should be all the time, in my opinion). But you also get to see them interact with more hybrids around their own age.

I want to start off with talking about Addie. I'm not sure how I feel about her; I wasn't crazy about her in the first book and I'm liking her less during the second book. She started coming around toward the end but I just . . . there's something about her that just doesn't sit well with me. Where I really, REALLY like Eva and I think she's pretty awesome I get the opposite feeling with Addie. I would like to think I'd like both souls but I don't. I like both Devon and Ryan though I like Ryan more (easily). The hardest part is I can't really put my finger on why I don't like Addie so much . . . it's just that she's a hard character to swallow, you know?

Could you imagine being a soul that went in to your dream state to give the other soul some privacy to suddenly return with your lips locked with another guy who isn't familiar? I can't even imagine something like this but it's a possibility of being a hybrid and it would be full of weird.

Peter, who is like the headmaster of hybrids is very thorough about his plans and in the process he's very slow. There's an institution opening up near where these hybrids are hiding out and there's much disagreement on how to handle the problem in front of them. The younger generations of hybrids decided to take matters in to their own hands and the planning goes from bad to worse in no time flat. Eva and Addie have to figure out how far they're willing to take their revenge and at what cost to not only to themselves but those around them.

The ending has me eagerly wanting the next book because that's when we're really going to see a lot of action and in the process, no doubt a lot of lives lost; both innocent and not so much. There's also a character who took the whole book to warm up to me that I am dying to find out their fate. It sucks that it took so long to like this character and then boom, we're left hanging.

If you enjoyed What's Left of Me, I think you'll enjoy Once We Were. I, personally, feel like I enjoyed the first book more but I'm not saying this wasn't good. This whole concept just still boggles my mind; sometimes it's just hard to wrap your head around it. It's fascinating and creepy.

Thank you to Harper for having this ARC at BEA and thank you to Kat Zhang for being so awesome and signing it.