Review: Fated by Sarah Alderson

THE DETAILS:
Pages: 312
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Release Date: February 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
RRP: $16.99
Received from publisher

THE BLURB:
What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?

THE REVIEW:
'Fated' was an interesting book to review. It's quite different from Alderson's other book 'Hunting Lila' and yet I had the same feeling reading 'Fated'. That feeling where I just wanted to keep on reading and where I was genuinely worried that the worst was going to happen. I think it shows a lot of skill when an author can do this in a novel. Especially a YA novel where most endings are typically happy ones.

One thing that I've noticed about this author is her ability to create good vs evil in her books and challenge which is which. Is the individuals morality defined by which side they stand for? Is the person in question good/evil because they really are that way or is the protagonist just positioned to think that way? Do you have to pick a side? These questions amongst others tend to pop up in the story and in my head while reading something by Alderson. I think it's nice to read books where you can't exactly be sure who the protagonist should side with, because it's a little more original than what I'm used to.

I thought that this book was probably a little bit far fetched. The villains seemed a bit comical in their descriptions. For some reason this didn't bother me. I felt like it should have bothered me, but it didn't. I guess I didn't mind because it made it feel a more fake and therefore not too scary. I guess towards the end the descriptions of these characters seems a little bit more realistic.

I thought the relationship between the two protagonists was a little odd. Lucas was attempting to get close to Evie so that he could kill her, while Evie was trying not to let anyone in because she was afraid of something bad happening to any future love interests because of who she was. So for part of the novel Lucas is nice to Evie, while Evie tells him where to go. Which is kind of the opposite to a lot of paranormal romances. I did believe that the relationship was "real" though. I think the two protagonists were very similar characters and suited each other well.

Overall I think this book is worth 4.5/5 stars. Not a favourite, but definitely a good book. I loved all the action and I thought it was like a modern day fantasy tale of romeo and Juliet. Except in this version Juliet is a whole lot more kick-ass. It is a little too far-fetched, but in a good way. I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoyed the likes of 'Hunting Lila' or the 'Unearthly' novels by Cynthia hand.

I also think this book is one that's really difficult to rate and review, because it is really different to a lot of stuff in this genre. Definitely a great author to keep your eye on.

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