One – Sarah Crossan | Hit or Miss Books

One by Sarah Crossan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Received: Borrowed
Published: 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Recommended Age: 13+
Pacing: Normal/Fast
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Poetry, Romance, Family Drama, Siblings, High School

BLURB:

Grace and Tippi. Tippi and Grace. Two sisters. Two hearts. Two dreams. Two lives. But one body. Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins, joined at the waist, defying the odds of survival for sixteen years. They share everything, and they are everything to each other. They would never imagine being apart. For them, that would be the real tragedy. But something is happening to them. Something they hoped would never happen. And Grace doesn’t want to admit it. Not even to Tippi. How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?

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My heart goes out to these two young women.

Grace and Tippi are conjoined twins but, to the insensitive and uneducated people, they are monsters who belong in a circus.

They are beautiful, each in their own way, and truly sisters. All they want is to be normal, to feel normal and to be treated normally.

But everywhere they go, they are gawked at. Until they meet Jon and Yasmeen, who welcome them with open arms, whereas the rest of the students prefer to stay far away.

I rarely read novels in verse, and when I do I choose them carefully, but this one I could not resist. I often get tired of reading mindless stories, written for your entertainment only. I need substance in my life.

This is substance. This is powerful. This is real.

However different from the rest of the world Grace and Tippi may be, they are realistic teenagers who want to experience high school and life like the rest of the world population.

The reason why I avoid novels in verse is because they don’t always work. Sometimes it’s more poetry than story, but this is… very well-executed. In the beginning it is slow, since the twins haven’t yet gotten used to being non-homeschooled students. Yet, once they let themselves *be* and dream of a future that may just be brighter than before, everything changes and I, for one, could not stop reading.

Sarah Crossan, you have a gift. Yes, you do.

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