A Review of Impostor: think young x-men sponsored by the FBI

Impostor by Susanne Winnacker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Impostor was a decent book. Entertaining, good romance, interesting story, cool powers. But...even though I haven't read this exact storyline before, it just felt sort of formulaic. Girl pines over a boy who can't be with her for some mysterious reason. Girl has some cool ability that forces her to do something super important and dangerous, and boy must protect her. And...yeah. It was fairly predictable, though I'll admit I wasn't entirely sure about the who the killer was. I also was frustrated at the end, because it seemed like a lot of questions I had were just not going to get answered, and I couldn't decide if it was because they'd get answered in a later book, or if it was because the author thought she gave us the answers, and I just didn't find the answers satisfactory.

I did like the main character, Tessa, but you have to be very understanding of the fact that she is a completely normal teenage girl. She has a major crush and doesn't always know the best way to handle it, she sometimes acts rashly, she's highly influenced by emotions, and tends to trust her instinct over anyone else's. There were a few plot holes around her story--why had she trained for two years but still had no fighting skills? Why did Alec (her crush) have to be with Kate (to me, it seemed like part of some kind of secret mission, because I could sense NO attraction there)? Why did Tessa's variation have issues at time? I know it was supposed to be tied to emotions, but she had to have high emotions before, considering her history. Some things just didn't add up. And besides Tessa, most of the other characters were fairly one-dimensional. I did like Devon, the brother of the girl she has to pose as, but I suspect that's because he's going to pop up as a main character and even possibly another love interest in the next book.

Just a lot of speculation, and more unanswered questions then I'd like at the end of a book. It's a fast and fairly good read, as long as you don't feel the need to examine explanations too closely. I probably will read the next books in this series, just because I am curious to find out what happens with this group of characters.

This digital copy of Impostor was given to me by NetGalley & Penguin Young Readers Group in exchange for an honest review



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