Book Review: Beta by Rachel Cohn

Image (c) Hyperion

Beta (Annex #1) by Rachel Cohn
Release Date: October 16th, 2012
Book Format: Library Book
Rating: Three stars

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. Praise for Beta: "A terrific premise that is equally well executed...Readers can only hope [the sequel] will be as thrilling as this series kickoff."--Los Angles Times

 Trigger warning for rape.

There are many others, just like Elysia was born to be, but we follow her own path. She already knew she was different from the get go: she's a beta and one of the first few of the teenaged betas. Most, if not all like her, are adults because the scientists aren't sure teenagers can handle being a clone being so young. Still, the human that used to own this body died for her to live. Certainly she's lucky enough to be the one alive.

But her 'mother' that adopted her takes a liking to her. Elysia is lucky: she gets to live with one of the wealthy and it seems sure that she'll live a lucky and pampered life as well. But things aren't as they seemed and she soon discovers that she can feel- just like humans can. But she's a clone- and feeling is one thing that's not suppose to happen.

She lives on an island with wealthy people and it seems like everyone (at least, the ladies who hung out with Elysia's mother) concentrated more on drinking rather than focusing on anything else. It makes it slightly easier for teenagers to hide their addiction to a drug called 'Raxia'. (Were there many other teenagers on the island in the first place?). But, even then, Elysia's co-workers are found to be sick- just like her. She knows she needs to hide her sickness even more so than ever, but something is going on behind the scenes. Now, Elysia's home doesn't seem so safe anymore and she can't help but wonder if there's something about the clones that she doesn't know about.

This book was slow for me, at first. There wasn't much going on other than the teenagers taking 'Raxia and Elysia getting memory bursts of her past that she can't get rid of. Then her 'mother' hangs out with her friends and drink to their hearts content. All of this is repeated a lot, nothing too interesting. It doesn't really become interesting til one of the clones takes a rebellious jump, so to speak, but even then it remains sort of static. Things don't start taking a turn until the party. I'll leave the rest out for the reader to form their own opinions.

It's an interesting book. I'd like to know more about 'mother's' daughter before she left off to college, but seeing how things were left off with this book I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon. I'm left being curious about what's going to happen so I'm still interested in the next book. Maybe I've had enough sci-fi books in a row which is why I didn't find myself fully into this book. But, with that said, it's definitely for those who are fans of sci-fi. Don't pick it up if you are sensitive to rape.

Originally released and shared on January 25th, 2014