Beta

Author: Rachel Cohn
Goodreads Rating: 3.58
Pages: 304
Format: ARC from BEA12

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 under-current of discontent among Demesne's worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care--so why are overpowering sensations cloud-ing 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 happi-ness 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 cor-rupted world.

I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the twist on the clones, that they are there to be slaves for humans. The whole idea of the air halving a calming affect, the 'Raxia, and that it makes people lazy was really interesting. I heard some thing about people not being a fan of this book, but I was excited by it.

For starters, I loved Elysia, and her voice (and her name). As far as character development goes, we got to follow her as she grew from this blindly thinking clone, into this young woman who realized that she could taste and really think for herself. She had feelings of affection for her family and for a boy. Note: at one point, she calls the other Beta fat, and that somewhat irritated me, but once you remember that she thinks without emotion when the book starts, its a little more forgivable. 

What I really liked about this book is that it really pushed the limits of a normal YA Dystopian book. There was sex, and drugs in this book, and I really loved that it was a bit more mature, but at the same time it was sad the way that things seemed to fall apart for Elysia and how her hopes and dreams slipped away.

I felt bad for her as she started to get some of her firsts memories of swimming and a boy, and how confusing that must of been. It sort of reminded me of Glitch, how these things were happening and she couldn't explain it, and she had no one to talk to. You would think that there were some characters that she might confide in, but she doesn't.

This book was action packed and had so many twists and turns and surprises that were really great. Warning though, this book does had a lot of heavy topics and got quite dark despite the beautiful light cover. I still can't wait to get my hands on it.

The Courts Decision: