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nigellicus's review
adventurous
emotional
5.0
Taylor Five is the story of Tay Walker, a teenager born and raised on a wildlife Refuge in the jungles of Borneo. Tay is also a clone, a fact which has had all sorts of ramifications for her and her relationship with friends and family, but she’s just beginning to cope when her home is raided by rebels and she is forced to flee through the jungle to the coast. Halam pulls no punches: in one terrible swoop, Tay loses her family, her friends, her home, all the things we use to define ourselves, all the things whose relationship with Tay were in flux because of her identity as a clone. Stripped of these things, alone but for the support of the Refuge’s mascot, an orang utan called Uncle, Tay’s struggle to survive is not only a physical one but a mental one as she tries to keep her fraying sense of self together.
This was almost as good as Dr Franklin’s Island, except the latter had the element of surprise which is what pushes it ahead by a beak. Oddly enough, for me at least, the book doesn’t really kick off properly until Tay reaches safety, about halfway through, meets her clone-sister and tries to rescue Uncle from being sent to a zoo. In fact, it’s fair to say that Tay goes a bit mad at this point and the reader is carried along on a wave of pure sympathy as we urge her to get through this and find some sort of peace of mind.
Taylor Five has the same sort of concerns Dr Franklin’s Island did, about scientific endeavour and the very human consequences thereof. Another unputdownable book.
Well, I’ll be looking out for more Ann Halam books. In fact, I think her new one, Siberia, is in one of the shops in town and I do believe I’ll be investing in that on Friday.
This was almost as good as Dr Franklin’s Island, except the latter had the element of surprise which is what pushes it ahead by a beak. Oddly enough, for me at least, the book doesn’t really kick off properly until Tay reaches safety, about halfway through, meets her clone-sister and tries to rescue Uncle from being sent to a zoo. In fact, it’s fair to say that Tay goes a bit mad at this point and the reader is carried along on a wave of pure sympathy as we urge her to get through this and find some sort of peace of mind.
Taylor Five has the same sort of concerns Dr Franklin’s Island did, about scientific endeavour and the very human consequences thereof. Another unputdownable book.
Well, I’ll be looking out for more Ann Halam books. In fact, I think her new one, Siberia, is in one of the shops in town and I do believe I’ll be investing in that on Friday.
theartolater's review
4.0
An interesting sci-fi-ish YA novel recommendation by Amanda about some kids in an African reserve and a very smart primate. It took a while for me to get immersed in it, but ended up being quite good.
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