Ramblings of a Daydreamer: Review: Entanglement by Dan Rix

Entanglement by Dan Rix

Series: Standalone

Published: November 16th, 2012

Publisher: Self-published

171 pages (ebook)

Genre: Young adult science fiction/dystopian/alternative history

Acquired this book: From the author in exchange for an honest review

Warning: May contain spoilers

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Read the first three chapters

"...the scientific explanation is quantum entanglement, whereby the boy and girl—even when separated by great distances—react instantaneously to changes in each other's states..." —Dr. Casler Selavio, on the entanglement of halves.

In a world like ours, humans are born in pairs. When a newborn boy takes his first breath in the coastal town of Tularosa, the exact time is noted, recorded in the Registry, and later compared to the birth times of other newborns around the globe. There will be one identical match—his half. They will meet on their eighteenth birthday and they will spend their lives together. Except this time, there is no match.

Hotheaded heartthrob Aaron Harper is scheduled to meet his half in twenty-nine days, and he doesn’t buy a word of that entanglement crap. So what if he and his half were born the same day and share a spooky psychic connection? Big deal. After breaking one too many teenage girls’ hearts, he’ll stick to brawling with the douchebag rugby players any day.

Until the day a new girl arrives at school and threatens everything he takes for granted.

Cold and unapproachable, Amber Lilian hates the growing list of similarities between her and the one boy she can’t read, Aaron: born the same day, both stubborn, both terrified of meeting their halves. . . . All the more reason not to trust him. That she would rather die than surrender herself as her half’s property is none of his damn business. But once lost in Aaron’s dangerous, jet black eyes, she’s already surrendered more than she cares to admit.

Tangled in each other’s self-destructive lives, Aaron and Amber learn the secret behind their linked births and why they feel like halves—but unless they can prove it before they turn eighteen, Aaron faces a lifetime alone in a world where everyone else has a soul mate . . . and he’ll have to watch Amber give herself to a boy who intends to possess not only her body but also a chunk of her soul.

Entanglement is unlike anything I’ve ever read. When I first read the synopsis, I thought it would be set in a post-apocalyptic world where everything has changed, but it’s not - it’s set in our world, our time, but in an alternate reality. The concept of ‘halves’ was discovered several decades ago, and since then every person has been born with a half: their soul mate, who they can’t live without - literally.

As Aaron’s eighteenth birthday draws closer, he’s afraid of what his future will hold. His clairvoyance channel - the part of his brain that recognizes his half - has been damaged, and he worries what they might mean. When he meets Amber and convinces himself that she might just be his half, despite the fact that she’s been told her whole life that Clive is her half, Aaron becomes embroiled in drama, danger, and secrets surrounding the Brotherhood - an organization that believes a man’s half should be submissive.

This book is full of action, tension, and mystery. The concept was absolutely brilliant, and I thought it was well executed. The villains were great and believable. Their motivations were clear - obsession and power. Casler was a tricky one because he was so charming and charismatic, it was hard to decide where he stood and whether to trust him or not. There were moments when I thought one thing about him and was sure I knew how things were going to play out, but then it would take a completely different turn. I liked that the story kept me on my toes and kept me constantly guessing what would happen next.

The story felt a bit hectic at times - there was so much happening at once, it was hard to keep up. Other times…I don’t want to say it dragged, because that’s not the case, but it felt a bit long - and at only 171 pages on my Kobo, it’s obviously not a long book, but it took me several days to read, and I kept thinking ‘I’m halfway through or three-quarters of the way through, how much more can there be?’

There was also a whole lot of testosterone and teenage boy antics - fights (both physical and verbal), threats, swearing (which doesn’t bother me, but would likely bother some people), and other hormone-fuelled scenes. I still can’t decide whether I liked Aaron’s best friend, Buff, or whether he just annoyed me. He was a good friend to Aaron, which I liked, but he seemed like such a meathead, and a lot of the things he said, particularly his ‘catch phrase’ left me rolling my eyes. Not that the testosterone-fest was necessarily a bad thing - the main characters were mostly male, after all - it’s just something that stood out to me that seems worth mentioning.

Overall, Entanglement is a well-written, creative story that captivated my attention and kept me guessing until the very end. I would recommend it to people who enjoy stories that are a good mixture of both plot-driven and character driven, with lots of tension and action.