REVIEW: Impostor by Susanne Winnacker

Impostor by Susanne Winnacker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A girl who can take on anyone’s form takes the place of a victim to hunt the serial killer who killed her? What an exciting blurb! I’m all in.

Woah was the blurb was somewhat misleading. Half of the book was about the heroine’s boy troubles. Ew.

+ the characters

Tessa spent the first quarter of the book, i.e. the ENTIRE beginning, bemoaning about her unrequited love for her friend, Alec, who had a girlfriend. But wait, it’s okay for Tessa to pine for Alec because his girlfriend, Kate, was a bitch and Alec deserved better. Alec deserved Tessa. They’re good friends, gosh darn it. They belonged together. Ugh! Tessa not only lacked inner strengths but apparently some self-respect.

Alec, on the other hand, lacked respect for girls because he pined for Tessa too and treated Kate like she was not even his girlfriend or even a friend. His poor treatment of Kate was to the extent that I didn’t understand why he and Kate were a couple in the first place. Their entire relationship was a sham and a hugely contrived obstacle between Alec and Tessa.

The book was a quarter in before the plot commenced and Tessa began her mission, but not without my patience half depleted. Things were good from there on for a handful of chapters, till the boy troubles reared their ugly heads again to topple the plot. Alec had successfully completed missions, and with his training and power he could obviously handle danger. But with Tessa on the field for the first time, he let his heart take control and often got distracted from what he was supposed to be doing, which was protecting Tessa in the shadows and investigating. That was not his heart taking control; that was his dick taking control.

Tessa could barely handle her ability, let alone any danger. The book successfully persuaded me why someone with her ability was highly coveted but not Tessa herself because the damn girl was so incompetent it would not have taken a New York minute for someone to discover that she was a fake.

My suspension of disbelief was kicked in the knee by the fact that Tessa had two years of training. Two years! What the fuck was she training for? Instead of being trained as a spy, it strongly seemed more like she was trained for the role of Victim #1 in some B-rated teenage horror movie. Not Victim #4, but Victim#1 because the girl lacked so much common sense that there was very little chance she would not be the first victim. Case in point, she chased after her stalker in the middle of the foggy night without any weapon, and it was far from the first time the dumb-ass unnecessary put herself in danger. The book teemed with examples of Tessa’s TSTL-ness.

The other characters were no better. Though no one was stupid as Tessa, they all felt flat as characters. In addition to Kate, Franny was the stereotypical mean girl. Obviously, she must be slutty and gossipy too. Ryan was the popular abusive jock. Jocks, nice? As if. Phil was the isolated nerd with such poor social skills that he came off as a creep. See how the pursuit of intelligence is detrimental to one’s life? Say no to studying! The cast even included a handsome young teacher whose marriage was failing and who was having an affair with a student. Let’s throw in illicit sex to spice things up! Speaking of which, there was also Devon, Madison’s brother. Madison was the victim whose life Tessa assumed. Devon was so nice and handsome that Tessa felt tingly. OMG, where is the barf bag?

+ the plot

The only good thing the book had going was the mystery plot which I did like but the way things were revealed and ended left me disappointed. The mystery wasn’t much of a mystery because it focused too much on a limited number of characters and didn’t explore things with the other characters who were equally suspicious. The investigation was a joke. Our good guys stumbled onto the bad guys.

In Conclusion

I rate Impostor 2-stars for it was okay. The book was good enough that if you set your expectations low and turn off your brain, you’ll reap a decent amount of enjoyment.

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