Rachel Cohn

On a futuristic island paradise where humans are served by enslaved clones, a 16-year-old clone named Elysia seeks her own freedom. By the New York Times best-selling author of 11 young adult novels, including Gingerbread, Shrimp and Cupcake and, with David Levithan, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Dash and Lily's Book of Dares.

Beta

Monicap

Reread:

Holds up quite well on a reread. I'm really strongly compelled to buy it now and have it on my shelf, were I not poor. Moreover, how is it I wait 3 years and when I finally reread it, only 2 of a proposed four are out? This is why I don't read George R. R. Martin.


Originally read July 2013
4.5 stars

the fact that i stood up an did some fist-pumping victory dances in the latter half of this book compels me to think i should buy it, and, you know, have it on my shelf.

Melissa Railey

Manda

Elysia is 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 a teenage clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to exist. 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 induces a strange, euphoric high, which only the island's workers-soulless clones like Elysia-are immune to. At first, Elysia's life is idyllic and pampered. But she soon sees that Demesne's human residents, who should want for nothing, yearn. But for what, exactly? She also comes to realize that beneath the island's flawless exterior, there is an under­current of discontent among 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 her one chance at happi­ness is ripped away 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 first in a dazzlingly original science fiction series from best-selling author Rachel Cohn, Beta is a haunting, unforgettable story of courage and love in a cor­rupted world.

Beta

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