chelseareads's Reviews (449)

My opinion of this book changed many times while I was reading it. Interesting (if basic) concept, moderately interesting characters, slow-moving plot.

The way the story was organized (the rambling and somewhat cyclical narration) often annoyed me, but in the end I think it was a good choice. It served to endear the clone narrator to the reader, to make it seem like someone was casually telling you the story of her life, as she approached the beginning of her death. It might have worked better as an audiobook, but in text, it was not my favorite approach. I wanted to stop listening to Kath every time the she said, "that's why I was so [emotion] about what happened next," or "but to explain that, I'll have to go back several weeks."

My only real "problem" with this book is that I never enjoy coming-of-age stories, and despite the speculative fiction element, that's all the story was.

This is a fun book, but not a good one. The ending was highly unsatisfying, most of the characters were flat, there was little character development, and the haves vs have-nots dynamic was frustratingly simplistic.

As a warning: this book contains some descriptions of violence, including rape and genital mutilation. They made me (an easily nauseated person) queasy.

Such a nice weekend read. I feel like I should be at the beach.

Okay.

This book. I feel like the plot didn't start until I was two-thirds through, and it kind of dragged until that point, when the "truth" of what was happening started to emerge. That said, the idea of the book was pretty cool, even though some (most) of the world-building was a little hazy. The writing was also good.

I would have loved a more compact, more cohesive version of this story.