The New One

Parents, how many of us have found ourselves almost wishing, in our children's difficult moments, that they could just be as sweet and loving as they were when they were small? How many of us have thought, if they could just lose this or that undesirable quality, they would be wonderful. If we're honest, all of us, probably, in some moment of deep exasperation.

That's where Ed and Tamsyn find themselves. They work multiple jobs trying to keep afloat in their ratty trailer. Their marriage is struggling. Their teenage daughter Scarlett is causing them no end of grief. And they don't have the bandwidth to deal with her bad behavior.

One night they try to stop her from sneaking out in the middle of the night. Things go horribly wrong, and Scarlett is hit by a car, seriously injured, perhaps never to recover. When a lifeline is extended, literally, Ed and Tamsyn feel like they have no choice but to take it.

VitaNova invites Ed and Tamsyn into what seems like the perfect solution: they'll create a clone of Scarlett and transfer her consciousness into the new body. The new version will be like Scarlett, only better. New home, new daughter, all the luxuries they could want, and they even find renewed interest in each other. Perfection, right?

Sophie (the new version of Scarlett) really does seem like the perfect daughter at first. She's so good at so many things. And she's so well behaved! Ed and Tamsyn, while the idea squicked them out a bit at first (especially Tamsyn), soon appreciate how much better they have it now. So there are cameras all over their new plush apartment. So Sophie has cameras in her eyes. So the VitaNova folks keep tabs on them. That's okay, right?

And then Scarlett wakes up, and things really get twisty.

Evie Green does a good job of making the reader think. How far would we go to keep a loved one (or a simulacrum of them) in our lives? How much would we be willing to sacrifice? And could we ever trust that someone offering all of this to us really had our best interests at heart?

The characters are well drawn. Sophie seems so realistic, so much like a normal, loving daughter, that you don't realize how much of her personality is programmed. Might that cause problems with Scarlett, her “origin source,” back in the picture? Ed and Tamsyn struggle with whether they should accept this new reality, and even when they do, we still see that internal conflict remains. We see Scarlett wrestling with feeling like her parents have replaced her with a “better” version. I can't imagine that – waking up from a coma to find out you now have a twin who's good at everything. How do you not feel like second best in that scenario?! My heart hurt for Scarlett the most.

Green throws a nice twist in about 2/3 of the way through. I wasn't really expecting it, and it changed my perception. It also confirmed some things about VitaNova. I'm not telling what the twist it. Read the book yourself and find out!

Five stars for making me read past my bedtime more than once! Highly recommended for fans of near-future sci-fi with shades of horror and thriller that explores what hasn't happened yet, but maybe could.