Impostor by Susanne Winnacker

Impostor by Susanne Winnacker

There was happiness, there was love, and there was the imposter who didn`t belong. How could they not see through the mask?

Tessa is a Variant, one who can impersonate anybody by just touching them and absorbing their DNA. After training with the “Forces with Extraordinary Abilities” also known as FEA for a couple of years, Tessa is getting her first mission. To impersonate a dying girl, the victim of a serial killer and solve the case.

Right from the beginning of the story Tessa was relying on others too much. And by others I specially mean Alec (nothing bad could happen to her because he’ll protect her) and also Summers and Holly. Also after two years of training her abilities with the FEA, Tessa is sent on a mission however she doesn’t know how to fight and protect herself without the using her ability – so she’s given TWO DAYS of training. Yep I can see how well that’s gonna go.

Also she just can’t help whining and complaining about how her ability isn’t as good as others to her friend. I pity Holly at times. The only thing Tessa actually turns into is Kate, a little girl, Madison and Alec. She turns into the little girl a lot!  

Tessa has feelings for Alec but Alec has a girlfriend called Kate. You can clearly tell that Alec and Tessa have feelings for each other – so what do they do … Well there’s this really cringe worthy scene near the beginning involving Tessa impersonating Kate and betraying Alec’s trust. It was so cringe worthy – I skimmed through it. Anyway when Alec and Kate’s relationship is on the rocks clearly because of her – she doesn`t feel guilty for it, no she’s just afraid for herself. Seriously!

So her mission is to impersonate Madison, the victim. Tessa’s life from now till she solves the case is sacrificed. Most Variants work for the FEA, their lives are dedicated to training and working for the government.

Some aspects to this story were so unrealistic – after surviving and nearly being killed by a serial killer no sane person would let their child go to school the day after coming back from the hospital, Madison’s friend lies to Madison’s parents on her behalf so Madison/Tessa can go to meet a strange – after an incident like that!

There are various awkward moments in this story like checking out Devon, Madison’s twin brother. Very uncomfortable and can I say… I sense a love triangle in the next book.

Also the romance element of this story seemed to overtake the entire plot of the story – Alec this Alec that. Like seriously you’re bait towards a murderer do you really thing Alec is the thing you should be whining about.

We also find a lot of things about the seemingly perfect Madison – She’s pregnant with her English teacher’s baby and he’s cheating on his wife and she’s cheating on her boyfriend. This shows Tessa that she really needs to dig deeper and focus more on her mission not just to avenge Madison but because she doesn`t really know anyone’s secrets.

One thing that was really good with this story was that it had a couple of suspects and they were all backed up with solid evidence – so it was really hard for me to guess who the murderer was because there was so much mystery and the entire plotline on who the murderer was really built up.

A lot of things were very unnecessary in this book like the amount of side characters, the “enemy” variant army – the idea of Abel’s Army is such a cliché and also when Tessa was loosing control of her abilities and the only thing that kept her sane was Alec.

 But I still for some reason I enjoyed this book – It’s the type of book that gradually with a bad start gets better and better.