What's Left of Me

Gr 8 Up–Everyone is born with a twin: two souls–one body. Only, in America, it’s illegal to remain that way–to be a hybrid. The dominant soul is supposed to take over, and the recessive, or weaker, soul is supposed to disappear, usually by the time the child is six. But even though Addie was the stronger soul, Eva held on. Despite the fact that she could no longer move or speak to anyone but Addie, she didn’t go away. Now that they are teens, Addie and Eva have adopted rules of behavior in order to survive: don’t stand out, don’t be exceptional, blend in at all costs. But then the girls become friends with Hally and her brother Devon, and the siblings show the sisters that there’s another way to live–Eva can reemerge. But Eva’s freedom comes at high price: imprisonment in a hospital that wants to “cure” kids of being hybrids and where patients who "go home" are never heard from again. This uniquely imagined novel doesn’t fall short in the execution. Zhang’s prose is lovely, and the plot is compelling to the last page. If there’s one complaint to be made it’s that the differences in characterization of the hybrid siblings are very subtle, and it’s occasionally difficult to immediately see the change when different personalities take over. It will be easy for this book to be categorized as yet another dystopian novel, but What’s Left of Me is remarkable and will stand out from the rest.