Claire and Ethan went through the tragedy of losing their son due to a genetic disease that passed through Claire’s mitochondrial DNA. Years have gone by and they are finally ready to go down the path to have another child, that is when they go to a doctor who has been trying to make the world’s first genetically engineered baby. Therefore, the baby, Abby, has three biological parents rather than just the typical two. When Abby is a preteen, she starts to notice that some things aren’t exactly normal with her two parents and then a stalker comes along ruining the life that she thought she knew.
As thrillers are supposed to go, there were many twists and turns. Not necessarily just with the plot. I was constantly having to reconsider who the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ guys were. If some of these people were actually evil. These characters are complex and they all have a proper fight to fight rather than it all being over something petty. It really makes you think if science does go down the path of genetically engineering humans, what can that do to someone’s psyche, even if it is through something indirect. This book is filled with unreliable narrators but the reader does not realize it until far into the novel. That style of storytelling is usually a miss for me but this was a hit out of the park!
I was never really scared while reading this. I am not extremely familiar with the horror, mystery, and thriller subgenera. However, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know where the story would go. Again, I never felt creeped out but I did like trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle in my head.
The writing felt like someone was actually telling me a story and I was sitting there waiting to be told what would happen next. It just felt like a friend, a very familiar feeling of storytelling. This was also fast paced and I think it could definitely be turned into a movie.
This is a genre binding story mixing in scientific themes with those typical of a thriller. I think that added into my enjoyment as I usually have a hard time finding a thriller story that I like but this one added in the science of genes. Some people might just fly through this and have a fun time which is great and others might really sit here with the story that they are given and start a debate, also great. It really makes you think how far we as humans should go with ourselves and with science before we end up hurting ourselves rather than improving. My dislikes of the story though are that some points just felt so far out of left field, or points that really made me stretch my belief.
These characters are complex and they all have a proper fight to fight rather than it all being over something petty. The style of storytelling presented is usually a miss for me but this was a hit out of the park! I was never really scared while reading this. I did like trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle in my head. The writing felt like someone was actually telling me a story and I was sitting there waiting to be told what would happen next. I think it could definitely be turned into a movie. This is a genre binding story mixing in scientific themes with those typical of a thriller. My dislikes of the story though are that some points just felt so far out of left field, or points that really made me stretch my belief. I loved this book but it is not a new favorite.
4 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 