Doublesight is a YA fantasy novel by Terry Persun.
In a world where people who can turn into animals are called doublesight, and humans without the ability fear them, murder seems to be the way to rid the land of the magic they cannot understand.
Zimp and Zora, twins, are of a tribe that turn into crows. After a brutal, sudden attack leaves her twin sister dead, Zimp finds that she has the responsibility to take her grandmother’s position in the tribe.
Never a leader, and haunted by grief, Zimp fights her destiny as rumors of doublesight slaughters throughout the land reach their ears.
A council assembles to assess the situation and five doublesight are sent to investigate, Zimp leading.
With the fate of her people resting on her reluctant shoulders, will Zimp be worthy of the task?
Doublesight had a bloody, distantly disturbing beginning with vivid images of crows morphing into humans as they fell, dying, from the trees.
The concept is original and grabbing, but the third person narration was difficult for me to connect with. Sadly, that was making it a sleepy read for me more often than not.
I based my decision on reading Doublesight on an endorsement quote from Janet Lee Carey. Her books have a lyrical, engrossing vibe to them – so I had hoped that her enjoyment of Doublesight would carry over to me. As I have learned, however, that is not always the case.
You know I’ve discussed it many times – we all have different tastes, different books stand out to different people. That’s why I NEVER want to encourage someone to not read a book. Here is a great example.
Doublesight, for me, would kind of fade in and out in interesting me. One second I would be sure I was ready to start skimming, that I was completely not invested. Then it would start to pick up for a chapter, events would absorb me a bit, only to fade back into the previous feel. Because of this, I did end up skimming a large portion of the novel.
In this instance, I felt that a really good book was in here somewhere. I almost wonder if another chance in the future would reveal something fantastic.
Because of this, I want to kind of reserve an opinion here. It was a bit gruesome in parts, that I know, but I feel like it could, possibly, be better than I gave it credit for.
So, do try it. I just struggled, for some reason, with finishing it.
Comments