by Rachel Cohn
Hardcover, 304 pages
Expected publication: October 16th 2012 by Disney Hyperion
ISBN 1423157192 (ISBN13: 9781423157199)
Thank you Disney Hyperion for allowing me to review this ARC!
Blurb
In a world constructed to absolute perfection, imperfection is difficult to understand—and impossible to hide.
Elysia is a clone, created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen year old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of teenaged clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to be created.
Elysia’s purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Everything about Demesne is bioengineered for perfection. Even the air there induces a strange, euphoric high that only the island’s workers—soulless clones like Elysia—are immune to.
At first, Elysia’s new life on this island paradise is idyllic and pampered. But she soon sees that Demesne’s human residents, the most privileged people in the world who should want for nothing, yearn. And, she comes to realize that beneath its flawless exterior, there is an undercurrent of discontent amongst Demesne’s worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care—so why are overpowering sensations clouding Elysia’s mind?
If anyone discovers that Elysia isn’t the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When Elysia’s one chance at happiness is ripped away from her with breathtaking cruelty, emotions she’s always had but never understood are unleashed. As rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her, Elysia must find the will to survive.
The Good
- The variety of topics addressed. What it means to be human, women’s rights, coming-of-age, finding your own way, determining who you are as a person, technology ethics, rape and abortion—there are so many different interesting topics addressed in this book and they’re all interwoven into the story so well, it’s unbelievable.
- The cloning process. To make a clone, the original person must die. Clones are then branded with two face tattoos: one side with a tattoo indicating they are a clone, the other with a tattoo indicating their job or function. These little elements of the world Cohn builds are what take this from being a good story to being a great story.
- The flashbacks. The flashbacks Elysia has of her First’s life that slowly reveal the origins of our narrator were very well done and interesting. I didn’t feel like I was reading an info-dump, I was experiencing someone’s memories.
- The almost love triangle. The competing love interests both develop in their own unique ways and feel natural—no instalove, yay! The fact that both boys are right for Elysia for their own reasons while still having their issues and obstacles made it harder for me to pick a side than it normally is in YA paranormal romances. To craft the story in this way was not a small feat, although when reading the story it feels natural.
The Bad
- The abrupt personality change. During the first half of the book, Elysia has a deep hunger to find out as much as she possibly can about her First—her memories, her death, her family, everything. Near the end of the book, this abruptly changes and Elysia wants to have her own personality and life. I understand this is a sign of her evolution as a character and her understanding that she is a person, too, and her life does not have to be a direct continuation of her First’s life, it just felt very abrupt when it happened as I was reading.
Overall Rating
This book is great for teens on a number of different levels. From the variety of topics it addresses to the strong female heroine, this is by far one of the best books I have read so far this year. Can’t wait to read the next in the series!
