Title: Beta
Author: Rachel CohnEdition: hardcoverSeries: Annex #1Released Date: October 16th, 2012Publisher: Hyperion
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. Elysia is a teenage beta, and one of the first ones. She was genetically engineered to serve as the perfect daughter and loyal friend. That's what she's supposed to be, anyways. Elysia is different, as she has actual feelings. She has feelings for Tahir, ones that can only be described has love. She has feelings for her new father, and that can only be described as hate. Elysia knows she's malfunctioning, possibly even a Defect.
I think Elysia was an interesting character, but it was hard to relate to her just because of the circumstances. She didn't think like a normal person throughout the beginning of the novel; mostly because she wasn't a normal person. As she began to relate more to her teenage friends and family, she started to break through a little more and actually have feelings. Overall, she didn't really have much personality, which made her a bad main character to experience things through. It was still kind of hard to relate to her because she was part clone and didn't know of basic things, but it was intriguing to see her journey as she tried to be normal.
Her relationship with Tahir kind of seemed bipolar. There were some interesting and sweet parts, but then there were just some bland boring scenes with Elysia and Tahir. As we learned more about Tahir, he became even more interesting, and I really liked him towards the end of the novel. I think there could have been more to their relationship, but for the circumstances it was understandable.
The setting, however, was fantastic. The land of Demesne captivated me and I got sucked in by all the descriptions of the fancy houses and pools. One of the things Rachel Cohn did very well at was describing certain scenes and situations.
At the end of the novel there are definitely a few cliffhangers, and it's one of the reasons I plan on picking up the sequel when it's released. If you're looking for a novel to bring out emotions in you though, I wouldn't recommend this one. There isn't anything that excited going on with the characters, but I have to say that the setting and plot was most definitely intriguing.
