More of Me by Kathryn Evans

Teva's life seems normal: school, friends, boyfriend. But at home she hides an impossible secret. Eleven other Tevas.

Because once a year, Teva separates into two, leaving a younger version of herself stuck at the same age, in the same house... watching the new Teva live the life that she'd been living. But as her seventeenth birthday rolls around, Teva is determined not to let it happen again. She's going to fight for her future. Even if that means fighting herself.

The first thing I thought when I finished this book: What the tingling Teva did I just read?

I was interested in the cloning part. The Sci-fi mystery part. Why does Teva duplicate every year? And it was interesting seeing the strangeness of living in a house filled with your older selves, and sharing memories with those selves, and...it was interesting!

But the author doesn't let the book be about that interesting stuff. Instead, she turns it into a generic high school drama with the sci-fi stuff in the background.

Why? I don't care about the creepy Ollie guy, or Tommo who wants Teva to rub baby oil on his chest. I don't care! They aren't interesting characters, they don't raise the stakes for what should be the main plot.

I do care about conflicts directly related to Teva's “condition”, like when she worries about showing too much of her weirdly-marked clone skin during a fashion show. But that's it.

The climax was kinda dumb.

Teva dies, and a new Teva comes out and yells at her lab dad (who completely appears out of nowhere. Well, I guess it was hinted at earlier, but come on...) to tell him YOU DID THIS! And everyone backs her up and they make a big scene out of it...And the clones all go to school and get normal lives...But there is no solution. Our protagonist just died for no reason. And will Teva keep cloning until she dies? Or is every old Teva gonna die, like 16, when the new Teva emerges? Nobody knows!

This book would have been good on Wattpad, but as a published book it's a bit disappointing.

2.5 stars

I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I finally convinced myself to pick this book up and I tried to get through it. The answer and resolution kept me going the whole time; I wanted to know the end. I was so interested in how things would end up, but I do feel a bit let down.

I don't even know how to talk about this book without spoiling it... because I truly did not know what I was getting in to and I don't want to ruin it too much for anyone.

Let me say that it is definitely an interest concept, although I just can't believe it. There has to be some realistic or believable moment in order to keep me hanging on, but I couldn't...

More under the spoiler:
The fact that all the "clones" were so different though just didn't make sense to me... it does??? because I know we change as people, so I suppose they will all change as they mature...if they mature... But, the fact that 16y/o Teva didn't love Ollie like 15y/o Teva did ever, but totally was falling for Tom was so weird to me.... Also, the mom was able to support 10+ children on a writer's salary???

I think people interested in clones, contemporaries with a twist, and/or coming of age novels, might enjoy this one.