Review: The Lost Girl - Sangu Mandanna

My name is Eva, I am an echo.
My time has come.

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination - and echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her 'other', if she ever died. Eva studies 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 fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything 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 . . .

Visit Sangu Mandanna's website for more information.

Review:
Eva is an echo and she was created by the Weavers to be a perfect copy of a girl called Amarra. Her sole reason for existence is to be able to replace Amarra if anything happens to her. Eva's entire life has been spent studying Amarra from afar, she must learn everything about her others life, Eva must eat what Amarra eats, read the same books, watch the same films, have the same interests and even learn about her friends and family. Every little detail of her life is planned for her and she is forbidden from doing anything that her other hasn't already done. Eva realised years ago that she couldn't be more different to Amarra, they may look identical but in every other way they are opposites. So when Amarra dies in a car accident and Eva is sent to India to replace her things are about to get complicated. Eva has studied her entire life for this role but sticking to it goes against every instinct she has. But if she can't convince the world that she is Amarra then she is putting not just herself but also her new family's lives at risk because in India echoes are not just reviled - they are completely illegal.

I have been wanting to read The Lost Girl ever since I first heard about it back in 2011 so it has been a very long wait to get my hands on Sangu Mandanna's debut novel! Thankfully it was worth the wait though and I loved every minute of this emotional and heart breaking story. The book raises so many questions about what it means to be human, about the importance of having our own identity and about how it feels to be moulded into something that you're not. It also touches on grief and the things that desperate people will go through to bring back lost loved ones. At the same time I think it highlights how important it is to let go of those who are gone, it shows that it is OK to miss someone but that you shouldn't let it stop you from moving forward with your own life. I love a story that can make me think and that is exactly what I got with The Lost Girl, add to that the wonderful writing, the fantastic characters and such a unique premise and you have a book that I highly recommend.

Eva has never had an easy life, from birth she has been raised as a replacement for Amarra, she isn't supposed to be her own person and is meant to be identical to her other in every way. She has been lucky that the guardians who have raised her and overseen her education, Mina Ma, Sean, Erik and Ophelia, have been fairly lenient with her. They even let her choose herself a name which is something that should have been reported to the Weavers and could have cost Eva her life. As much as she hasn't been raised by a traditional family Eva has always been loved by those who surround her and they have probably nurtured her hopes and dreams more than they should have because of that. I couldn't do anything but love Eva, she is such a strong person, for someone who goes through so much hardship she never gives up hope, she wants more from her life and she is prepared to fight for her future. I thoroughly enjoyed the first part of her story, watching her growing up and coming to care for Sean and I fell in love with him right alongside her. Sean is the kind of boy we all dream of having in our lives, he knows everything about Eva, even her darkest secrets, and he loves her anyway. He doesn't think that being an echo makes her any less of a person and he doesn't expect her to be anything other than who and what she really is deep inside.

I loved the setting when Eva moves to Bangalore to become Amarra, the descriptions are fabulous and I want to visit India more than ever now. I loved seeing Eva's interactions with Amarra's family, particularly her siblings Nik and Sasha, the whole family know the truth about who Eva is and they all have different expectations of her. Amarra's mother believes that Amarra's soul has come back in Eva's body but the rest of the family are a little more sceptical and it was interesting to see how this coloured their interactions with her. It was incredibly hard for Eva to lie to everyone around her, none of Amarra's friends know that she died so Eva has to spend all her time pretending to be someone she isn't and that wears her down. I can't even imagine how exhausting it must be to constantly be acting out someone else's life! There were times when I almost hated Amarra for the way she had acted towards Eva but even though I didn't agree with her actions I could understand them. As hard as it was for Eva to have to live someone else's life and never have control over what would happen to her it was equally as hard for Amarra to know that someone else was learning every single thing about her and being trained to take her place if anything happened to her. I had slightly less sympathy for Amarra at first because we never her, we only ever got to see her through the eyes of others, but that changed as I learnt more about her.

I really don't want to say anything else about the plot because I don't want to give you any spoilers. I am going to mention that although this is being marketed as a dystopian story I don't think that is a label I would give to the book. Don't go into it expecting an apocalyptic or futuristic society - this book could easily be set today. The only difference is the existence of echoes but they aren't a huge part of the population and most people don't even believe they are out there. I'm not telling you this to put you off reading the book because I really did enjoy it but I was expecting something very different to what I got because of the dystopian label and I don't want anyone to feel disappointed. The Lost Girl is a fantastic story, one that pulled me in and gripped me from the first page and didn't let go until I reached the end. It's a wonderful debut and I can't wait to get my hands on whatever Sangu Mandanna writes next!

Source: Received from Random House in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

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Sangu Mandanna's Literary Heroes and Heroines

To celebrate the UK release of her debut novel The Lost Girl I'm thrilled to welcome British author Sangu Mandanna to the blog today to talk about her literary heroes and heroines! Before I hand over to Sangu I want to give you a bit more information about The Lost Girl, I'll be posting my review later today but this is a fantastic debut that is sure to appeal to dystopian fans.

My name is Eva, I am an echo.
My time has come.

Eva's life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination - and echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her 'other', if she ever died. Eva studies 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 fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this. Now she must abandon everything 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 . . .

Visit Sangu Mandanna's website for more information.

Now please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Sangu!

Sangu Mandanna

(Picture linked from the author's website)

Literary Heroes and Heroines

If you’re anything at all like me, by which I mean you’re writer and/or raging bookaholic, authors feature predominantly on your list of heroes and heroines you look up, wish you were more like or just plain adore. I have so, so many of these heroes, some from when I was little and some from as recently as last month. It’s been difficult trying to trim them down to a manageable number for this post, but I’ve done my best.

1. Mary Shelley
Not only do I owe Mary Shelley a huge debt for The Lost Girl, she is also astonishing. To us, in the relatively privileged twenty-first century, Frankenstein is a great piece of gothic horror and science fiction. But when you put the novel into the context of Shelley’s time and place, what she created is astounding. I would give a great deal to possess that kind of imagination.

2. JK Rowling
Another piece of imagination envy here. How does she do it? She creates the most absurd, strange and fantastic things. She’s invented a whole world that, quite frankly, I’d quite happily abandon this one for. But Jo Rowling is on this list for more than that. She’s here because she wrote her first novel in snatches, while looking after a baby and struggling financially, and she kept writing it and fighting for it, and I deeply, deeply admire that. (Not least because I find that writing with a baby in your life is so incredibly difficult!)

3. Arthur Conan Doyle
Because he created Sherlock Holmes. That’s all. And what better reason is there? When you invent one of the most memorable, iconic and long-lived characters of all time… well, you can’t ask for much more than that.

4. Daphne du Maurier
She has been on my list the longest, has clung to it like burr through many, many other fantastic authors and phases. I was ten when I read my first du Maurier and I never looked back. She does things with words that makes my writing look like the clumsy attempts of a toddler. It’s mind-boggling and beautiful and I only wish I could write like that.

5. John Green
Because somehow, no matter what he’s writing about, you remember his characters and you love them, long after the actual story and the details of the plot have been forgotten. He creates people that feel so utterly real it seems impossible to believe, when you’ve finished one of his books, that those people don’t actually exist.

6. Audrey Niffenegger
For The Time Traveler’s Wife. It is, still, my most favourite book in the whole wide world.

7. Melina Marchetta
Books like On the Jellicoe Road don’t come along very often. At least not for me. Melina Marchetta worked some kind of impossible magic and wrote a book that made me want to live inside it, that broke my heart and made me laugh in highly humiliating fits, that stitched layer upon layer of story and character so that when you step back it’s impossible to really describe what the book is about – you just have to live it for yourself. I want to write that kind of book someday.

8. T.S. Eliot
I’m not a person who reads poetry because I particularly enjoy it. But I am so in awe of a person who can tell a story through poetry, because I think that’s incredibly difficult (not least because interpreting it is incredibly personal to a reader) and, if the poet achieves it, the result is incredibly moving. Case in point for me: ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. So Eliot is my favourite poet. (I’m sure the fact that a collection of his poems became CATS plays a not insignificant part in that choice, but hey.)

Who makes your list of literary heroes and heroines? And which of them has clung doggedly to that list the longest?

********************

Thanks so much for a fabulous guest post Sangu, you've really got me thinking about my literary heroes and heroines! To be honest I have so many that it is really, really difficult to narrow it down to just a few. If I think back to childhood favourites I'd have to say Roald Dahl, Dick King Smith, Enid Blyton, Rudyard Kipling, Terry Jones & Lloyd Alexander were all authors I absolutely adored. Looking at more recent authors I'd have to agree with you on JK Rowling and I'd add in Maria V Snyder, Tabitha Suzuma, Jana Oliver, Lara Adrian & Zoe Marriott. I could extend this list forever though so I think I'm going to leave it at that for now, I'm sure I'll end up coming back and editing this post though LOL.

Don't forget to let us know who your literary heroes and heroines are - I'm always looking for books to add to my to read pile so I'm looking forward to seeing your suggestions!

News: RHCB to Publish 4 New Dystopian Books

Some very exciting news for those of us who love dystopian stories, RHCB have aquired 4 new dystopian titles!  Here is the press release:

Random House Children’s Books has acquired four new debut dystopian novels for publication in 2012 and 2013. RHCB’s exciting wave of near-future titles, all acquired by Ruth Knowles, include:

Starters by Lissa Price, an American screenwriter, publishing in April 2012, is an action-packed thriller set in a world where eternal youthfulness can be had – at a price. One girl has the ability to bring it all tumbling down . . . RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Heather Shapiro at Baror International and will be launching globally alongside Random Inc for a truly international campaign.

A post- apocalyptic Los Angeles is the setting for Struck by Jenifer Bosworth, publishing in July 2012. After the city is devastated by an earthquake, Mia Price finds herself in the middle of a power struggle between two fanatical cults; one that wants to save the world and another that wants to destroy it. RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Alex Webb of the Rights People, acting on behalf of FSG.

Sangu Mandanna’s debut The Lost Girl publishes in early 2013 and centres around Eva, a feisty teen girl who technically has no true identity of her own. Eva is forced to abandon everything she's ever known and loved, finding herself torn between two worlds. RHCB acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Sarah Malloy of A.M. Heath acting on behalf of the Elizabeth Kaplan agency.

And finally, children’s librarian Emma Pass, releases ACID in early 2013. This action-packed novel introduces us to Jenna Strong, a truly kick-ass heroine who is serving time in an all-male prison for the murder of her parents. Set one hundred years in the future in a Big Brother style society; Britain is now under the control of ACID – a terrifying all-seeing police force. RHCB acquired world rights from Carolyn Whitaker of London Independent Books.

Ruth Knowles, Commissioning Editor comments, ‘Dystopian fiction is a much-talked about genre, particularly with the release of The Hunger Games movie next spring. We have acquired some fantastic futuristic thrillers that we know will appeal to this audience, and are confident that RHCB will have some of the most exciting novels in the genre. The worlds within them are very different from each other, but all completely hook you in from the first page and do not let go.’

So what do you think?  I was already excited about Starters and Struck but have now added another two books to my wish list!