Days before I requested this eARC, I had just been talking with a coworker about my love for Ellen Hopkins, which led me to look up if she had anything new since People Kill People. Lo and behold, I saw Sync on her book list. I promptly forgot about it as work took precedence, but after a few days, it popped back into my stream of consciousness and I searched it up. Thank you so so so much to NetGalley and Penguin for the eARC for one of my favorite authors!

Twins Storm and Lake have been through hell together, until they didn’t. Separated from each other in the foster care system, unsure of where the other is, they wonder what the other is going through. Storm has a juvenile record, but his new foster father and his girlfriend are helping him through life post-juvie, until a new incident has him seeing red and sending him right back. Lake is queer, and her bible-thumping foster parents would immediately disown her and send her away if they found out, so she must keep her situation-ship with foster sibling, Parker, a secret. Both siblings must deal with their past and present in order to have a future, but without the other, they are unsure of how to continue.

I am a huge proponent of novels-in-verse, and Ellen Hopkins will always be my first recommendation. She handles difficult topics with grace and with heartbreaking poetry. Sync is no different. She takes a look at teen homelessness, homophobia, prison/juvie, rehabilitation, drugs, and many more topics. She does not hold back making the audience feel the same intense and true emotions that our main characters feel, which makes the novel even more immersive. I could feel a connection to both Storm and Lake in many different ways, and this book could relate to many people with how much is discussed. Very lyrical writing but also very relatable and colloquial, so it made it accessible to read. Kudos to Ellen once again!

I have always been obsessed with Ellen Hopkins books and reading another book by her had brought all the nostalgia from my high school years. This book is just as captivating as all of her others while shedding a light on another real world topic that plagues so many. The foster care and juvenile court systems that sometimes stream in to each other, along with the homeless population, is portrayed perfectly through a set of twins who was split up by the system and continuously kept apart. Add in the LGBTQ+ aspect of what Lake is experiencing and this book covers it all. I’m obsessed as always

I started reading Ellen Hopkins books when I was in middle school. I'm now in my 30s and get just excited for new books from her.
This story is about a set of twins and their struggles with life and love in the foster care system.
It pulls at your heart strings left and right and was wonderful, like all of her others.

Absolutely loved this book about twins Storm and Lake who haven’t seen each other for five years because they’ve been in foster care. Now 17 Storm has been locked up a few times and now lives with his current foster dad Jim. Lake lives with a racist Bible humper and is in a relationship with Parker. When something happens to Storm’s girlfriend, he winds up in the same lockup as before but is given a new chance to help out at a ranch with guard dogs. When Lake and Parker decide to run away from their foster home, they become separated and Lake is sexually assaulted. Lake is placed in a new foster home and is happy her foster mom stood up for her. Do Lake and Storm ever see each other again?

Ellen Hopkins is one of my all time favorite authors, I’ve yet to read any author that lives up to her talent with verse. I’ve read every one of her books, Impulse being my favorite, but this one comes a close second. Seeing another book in verse was coming out made my whole year!

I loved reading from Storm and Lake’s points of views (twins separated in foster care). Both of their stories are completely different in circumstance yet stem from the same thing.

Overall, if you are a fan of this author this is a must read. Please look up trigger warnings, as always there are many in this book. I have already pre-ordered a copy for my shelf to add to my Ellen Hopkins collection.

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

It has been a really long time since I've read an Ellen Hopkins books. Glad to see the writing is still as beautiful and emotionally devastating as I remember it to be.