Twisted (Harlequin Teen) [Tapa dura]

What an aptly named disappointment. If you're looking for a continuation of all the wonderful things happening in the first two installments of this series, than be prepared to get nowhere fast.

Normally I write a brief summary of the book and then an evaluation but I am truly at a loss for a real concrete storyline. Yeah Aden got somewhere with the souls in his head but Showalter spent a majority of the book on Aden's new alter ego and complete character reversals for our two main couples. Everyone changed so drastically so fast that I found myself wondering who are these people and where did the wonderful characters I loved so much go?

When I first picked up Intertwined I was blown away, I mean vampires, werewolves, witches, necromancy, a couple of interesting wildcard paranormals and two love stories, this book has everything I love about the genre. I invested in this intriguing story and got involved with these characters. I looked forward to the continuation of these books every long year. And now I feel like the author just trashed everything I invested in.

I think Gena Showalter is the truly twisted one here. To wait a year for a book that makes me think even the author wasn't happy with the direction so she went completely insane with the characters, extra light on the storyline, and destroyed everything just so she could have a do over.

This book is about 98% filler. I get the idea of Twisted, but with a weak storyline and without the anchor of the characters and romances the fans have grown to like it became muddled and confusing at times. Showalter let go of everything all at once so it was hard to hold on to the bits and pieces I came back for. Just when I find a familiar character or relationship, it's pulled out from under me and I'm left flailing for some point of interest. Twisted was executed poorly and was an unnervingly drastic change from the previous books. I wish the author would have just kept the important parts, left out the weird character developments, and moved on with the story.

If you haven't read the book don't read this review. All I'm going to say before I go into detail is that it was extremely convoluted at times and that the characters end up going off of the deep end and completely changing and that the ending is a sad cry for help from an author confused by her own storyline.
*SPOILERS. BEWARE*
Let's start off with the good stuff: One of the interesting parts of the series is the subplots involving the soul's and their past lives. That being said it was nice to see Julian's backstory explained. However weird, it was still nice. Second, after all this time we get to see Aden's dad and go more into his backstory involving his parents, which was also cool, but also a letdown really because you don't get indepth at all, and end up with more questions. Thus we move on to the bad stuff because that is about all that was good in this book aside from silly jokes here and there.
The Bad: All of the characters end up doing a complete 180 that are, well, out of character. I mean Riley turning into a pansy ass druggie? No. Freaking. Way. We've established in the past 2 books that he defines the very term "Badass". Yes, he lost his wolf side, but the Riley we all know and love, wouldn't just take it. He'd get back up and keep fighting the good fight. On to Mary Ann. The girl was making some serious progress in Unraveled. She was learning to defend herself, being more courageous,and we got to see her grow in some really cool ways. But by the time we get into this plot she's weak, she's whiny, and ultimately more useless than she originally was. What's up with that?! Characters aren't supposed to DEvolve. Similarly, Victoria just gives up and decides to be useless when she starts to become human. Albeit she does come through as the strong character we know a couple of times, but still. Aden is really the only one who does okay, and as usual reigns everyone together when nothing makes sense. Plot wise, the book just dragged and dragged and dragged. I was under the impression that this was the final book, so I was expecting at the very least the level of kickass the last two books had. Instead the characters spend half the time moping, whining, and worrying about relationships, instead of focusing on the big picture and taking care of business. Several things are not explained at all, which begs the question "Why were they put in in the first place?" Like the bits with Victoria's mom randomly appearing. And then the ending. Dear god the ending. She kills off practically everyone for no good reason,basically destroys the personalities of all our main characters, and then when all is lost at the end, decides to hit the reset button so she can undo all of her wacked out storyline choices. The title of the book should be "Matted" because by the end everything is so convoluted and nonsensical that the author herself has to cut the big mat that is this plot out of the series altogether. Good riddance. I sincerely hope that book 4 makes up for the waste of paper and time that this books was. So mad. And so disappointed.

This is my favorite YA series out right now and Aden has changed so much since the series opened with Intertwined. This book starts with the aftermath of Tucker stabbing Aden and Victoria trying to turn him into a vampire to save him. In this series it had been stated that humans can't be turned because it can also kill the vampire. Aden isn't a normal human so the circumstances for him were very different. I knew when Unraveled ended that the dynamic between Victoria and Aden would change I just wasn't expecting it to change so much.

I had a hard time connecting with Aden at first but when I got into the book and really understood what Gena was trying to do it was a lot easier to accept. Aden has grown, he's lost one of the souls that grounded him, had someone almost kill him and woke up with more than Victoria's blood inside of him. He's not the sweet, loving boy he was before. While I missed the Aden I loved I grew to love the badass beast tamer as well.

So much happened in this book. I don't wanna spoil things so I won't go into detail but I will say I can't stand Tucker so I was happy with his storyline. I love Riley but I wasn't happy with what happened there or how his part of the story ended. I like Victoria more after this book and feel for both Shannon and Mary Ann. Poor Aden's been through hell and this book was the toughest on him both physically and emotionally.

Once again Gena ended things with a cliffhanger that will completely change Aden's world. I'm curious if what he tried will work and how it will change things. I'm kinda hoping it doesn't work but it could open up a lot of possibilities if it did. This wasn't my favorite book in the series but it was still good. I wish I didn't have to wait until 2013 to see how this series ends. I give this book 3.5 stars.