Review: The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

The Lost Girl 
Sangu Mandanna
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication date: August 28th, 2012
Number of pages: 432
Format: Kindle
Purchase: Amazon | The Book Depository
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Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination--an echo. She was made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her "other," if she ever died. Eva spends every day studying that girl from far away, learning what Amarra does, what she eats, what it's like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But sixteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything and everyone she's ever known--the guardians who raised her, the boy she's forbidden to love--to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.

What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

Just imagine you are a replicate of someone in case something might happen to the original and you would have to replace her.
This is what Eva's life is. She has known this her entire life... that if something were to happen to Amarra, her other self, Eva would have no choice but to go be her.
Of course that is exactly what happens. She has prepared herself in case it might happen, but she never thought it would happen this soon. How would she say goodbye to those she loves? Her family and friends..
But she has to, she has no choice.

Not too soon after arriving in India, Eva finds herself having to pretend to be someone she isn't. She has to be the perfect daughter, the friend to Amarra's friends, and girlfriend to her boyfriend.. except, something isn't right.  She isn't meant to be there. But how can she protest to something that wasn't up to her in the first place? What gives her the right to say no to something that is out of her hands?

I really loved this book. It was different, even amongst the dystopian world. Even though Eva isn't allowed to feel or do anything that is against what has been grained inside her for sixteen years, she can't help but suddenly fall for the one person she shouldn't.
As she discovers things while posing as Amarra that will shock her, it also makes her determined that she too should be allowed a choice in her own life, and in the end... she might do something that could cost her everything.

This was a great stand alone novel, where the end was not what you might expect, but also leaves things up to interpretation of your own imagination.

Verdict