Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

The Diminished had such a cool concept. Basically, almost everyone in the world are born as twins, this is explained to be so that they can balance each other out and keep each other morally just (or something like that, I'm bad at explaining it properly). There are a very few people who are "singleborn" who should have the morals of two people within them and are therefore chosen to rule the country as they're supposed to be morally above everyone else. People who were once part of a pair of twins, but have lost their twin, are called "diminished", and their fate is to basically go mad from grief.

While The Diminished had a really interesting concept, I did have some trouble understanding the basics of the magic system i.e. the twins. It was a bit tricky to understand why having a twin was such a good thing, and why Bo (a singleborn) and Vi (diminished) were yearning after twins of their own, especially Bo, since being singleborn is supposed to put you above others. It seemed like twins were magically linked, where if one died the other one can "feel it", but I wasn't sure how else the bonds extended.

The plot itself I think was a bit more generic, with a conspiracy for the crown and a rebellion on the rise. I'm writing this review quite a while after reading the novel, and can only remember a couple of events in the novel (although actually that's probably not bad, because I have really bad book amnesia). I honestly can't even remember if there was a romance...

I think I will be reading the sequel (probably after doing a quick reread of this book since I seem to have forgotten some chunks of the plot). Now that the world has been established, the next book (and supposedly last book, as this is a duology) should be able to direct and tie things off nicely.

Ratings
Overall: 7/10
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
World Building: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 3/5

I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

In the world of The Diminished, everyone is born with a twin, except those who are singleborn who are destined to rule. If a twin dies, the remaining twin becomes ‘diminished’ – cursed to go insane, they are shunned by society. This is the story of a young singleborn man named Bo and a diminished woman named Vi, and their journey to discovering the truths about their destinies.

This book had one of the most intriguing synopses I had come across in a long time and I was quite keen to dive in. And like Vi diving for pearls in the opening pages, I thought I had the potential to uncover something rich and worthwhile. And there are elements of awesome in this. The worldbuilding is original and solid. The two main characters are at least entertaining, if not likeable. But for me it was the inconsistencies presented in the text itself that kept me asking, “What’s really going on here?”

I read an ARC kindly provided via Netgalley and I don’t know what date it appeared there, but there seemed to be a substantial amount of work needed to whip this into publishable state. Little inconsistencies abounded that reflected badly on the characters presenting them, such as Bo referring to someone’s hair as black on one page and white-blonde on the next, referring to a sum of money as both ‘a large sum’ and on the next page ‘negligible’, and Vi thinking that ‘perhaps’ a group of people had already found her when she’s standing right in front of them. The inconsistencies made the characters seem stupid. It is specifically with examples such as the last one that made me think sense had been thrown out the window in favour of pretty or dramatic sentences, rather than giving us consistencies within the writing itself.

Whilst trying to ignore what is obviously going to be edited before release, I wanted to make a note about several things:

The love triangles were incredibly lukewarm.
Both Bo and Vi meet their love interests while travelling, and I was never, ever convinced that anything was genuine, and I was always fearful that any of them would betray the main characters for financial or otherwise gain.
The worldbuilding was pretty cool, with a moon split in two halves which obviously influenced the whole ‘twin’ ideologies and appears on the cover of the book in some instances.
The characters largely make OK decisions, except when it was necessary to the plot for them to make incredibly stupid ones.
The characters seemed largely unfocused on their goals and only remembered them when it was time to make a dramatic statement.
On the plus side, some people might be interested to know that Bo is gay, if not bisexual.
I think this would make a really good TV show, especially if It centred on casting real-life twins or siblings. There’s lots of travel and scuffles and locations and things that go boom.
Look, the whole thing was just underwhelming but I can’t figure out if it’s because I was frustrated and annoyed by the editing needed or if the whole book was just underwhelming, or if I was let down by such a great concept.

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to HarlequinTEEN Australia and NetGalley for allowing me to read The Diminished. All opinions and thoughts are my own and do not represent the publisher or author.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book. I requested it based on the amazing synopsis, but sadly the execution of the writing style kept me from finishing. I found the book to be boring, poorly built and sadly a bit confusing. We get a rush of information in the first few chapters, but not enough to properly explain everything. I loved the idea behind the plot, and the characters sounded interesting. The only issue was as the book went on, it was not enough to continue my interest. The idea of a twin only world intrigues me and I'm sure this is a fantastic book for most readers, it just wasn't for me.

The Diminished is a story with an interesting premise that, for the most part, works well. The world building was done cleanly, avoiding info dumping, and I found Vi and Bo to be appealing characters. There is an element of the dreaded YA love triangle in the tale, with two guys (brothers, no less) after the same girl; however, it is not a huge focus of the book and so didn't make me roll my eyes too much. On the whole, the pacing of the story worked well. Nevertheless, I did find the last few chapters a little rushed as the author tried to provide all the necessary info to create a lead-in to what will be book two. That aside, The Diminished is a book that kept me turning the pages and which left me intrigued to see how Bo and Vi's stories will conclude. Fans of YA fantasy with a dystopian twist will want to check out this new read.