Kagama -The Literaturevixen

Cameo lives in a caged supernatural city where all species are tagged at birth with silver brands embedded in their foreheads. Her X brand identifies her as a Mixbreed, but she’s so much more. Like a chameleon, she can shift from one person’s image to another.

It’s a great way to make money for a habitat street kid, or Cage Punk as most people call them. Wiz, her street partner-in-crime, finds her jobs to use her abilities. Some jobs entail changing into people to take academic tests. Others require more skill and involve higher risk.

When Wiz asks Cameo to stand in for a Were-wolf teenager who doesn't want to go to her debutante ball, it seems like just another job, until a corpse is discovered and an old friend of Wiz appears.

Cameo is a mix breed and her white hair and scaly white skin makes her odder than most inhabitants of Santeria,the compound or habitat where people of her kind live.

Together with her friend Wiz she takes on work as a stand in or decoy for people who can pay. Its risky but its a living.

It all goes to hell one day when the person she has been hired to impersonate turns out to be dead and they were actually being used as scapegoats.They manage to get away but in the process Wiz is hurt.

This catches the attentions of a man called the Bearded dragon who has a score unsettled with Wiz.But he is not telling her exactly what brought this so she decided to find out the truth herself together with her friends.

This book had potential I was especially excited about the shapeshifting abilites part of the maincharacter and it is explored in an interesting way and the way she goes about her shapeshifting is explained too.

Cameo doesnt like the way she looks since she was abused by her mother because of this she keeps cutouts of womens faces and bodies by her mirror so she can pick out those she like the best and mimic them.She just wants to be a normal girl.

I quite liked her personality for the most part even if she made some choices I didnt agree with or completely understand.

She felt like an authentic teenager albeit a shapeshifting one with scales and the supporting cast wasnt unlikable either apart from one person

But as you can see I only gave this two stars and the reason for this is that the plot was so unfocused and I was often confused about what was really going on.And when I was starting to think I was starting to get a grip on the story it got screwier.

I didnt find the love interest very appealing.

He kept confusing Cameo,stating that no all they could ever be was friends only to snap and turn into this creepy guy whose mantra was no one is allowed to touch you but me. And then in the next hes pushing her away again and refusing to tell her the full truth.

Towards the end I felt the author simply dropped the original plotline just so she could get to the ending and find a way for the two of them to have a happy ending. Despite there being loose ends with the plotline and having to leave supporting characters hanging. 

The sentiment between the couple can more or less amount to this sentiment:

"But what about the others?"

"Eh never mind as long as we are happy"

 There were also several grammatical errors wich irked me.