Replica

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Replica

The only life Lyra knows is the one locked behind Haven's walls. There are endless rounds of needles and medicine, tests and doctors. She lives with other replicas, humans created from the cells of their duplicates. To watch another replica die is just another day to Lyra. When the chance to escape arises, Lyra is thrown into a world she has no idea how to survive.

Gemma lives a sheltered life, with parents who are afraid she is made of glass. As a child, she endured countless surgeries to stay healthy, and grow into the young woman she is now. She's always been annoyed but understanding with her parents. Until Gemma begins to noise around in her father's business and discovers a place called Haven.

I loved the dual stories told in Replica and the writing style Lauren Oliver chose. Readers can read the two stories in whatever order they want. But, instead of alternating chapters between the two characters I read Lyra first and then Gemma. Lyra's story carried more of a sci-fi feel as she was brought up in the lab. A large part of her story revolved around what happened in Haven, and how different she felt being a replica. She was raised to believe she was an object; she wasn't an actual person.

Gemma's storyline was more of a typical young adult novel. She's an insecure girl, sheltered and lonely. She's learning about boys, and how she's beginning to see them differently and is embarrassed about it. She is a bit vain, which did at times annoy me, but she grew up being teased for her surgery scars and being overweight. Of course, she sees the world in from the eyes of someone who thinks being skinny and pretty is better.

While there was some overlap in dialogue, which is to be expected, Lauren Oliver did a great job of keeping the two characters separate. They ran parallel stories that came together in moments of tension and helped propel the story forward. Even the way the two characters were raised ran parallel and created a great contrast to one another. This was another great book from Lauren Oliver, and I can't wait to read the sequel duology.