Scan barcode
A review by christajls
Beta by Rachel Cohn
4.0
Originally posted at More Than Just Magic
Maybe it was the all pink cover but I really wasn’t expecting that much from Beta. I mean I was expecting it to be good - it is Rachel Cohn after all, but I wasn’t expecting it to blow me away.
But boy was I wrong.
Beta is not your run of the mill young adult novel. It is pure science fiction gold. In quite literally a perfect world (or a perfect island if we’re being specific) humans have created clones to wait on them and take care of daily tasks like cooking, cleaning, party planning etc. Though this practice is fairly common, Elysia is different. She’s a Beta, a prototype if you will, of a teenager and she’s brought into one of the influential family who are looking for a kind of replacement for their daughter who has gone off to university.
Instead of making this world simplistic in it’s perfection, Rachel Cohn does an amazing job, layering in the detail. And she does so in such a seamless way, you almost don’t notice all the information you’re absorbing. The island Elysia lives on, didn’t spring up out of no where and the author gives us a brief history of Demesne (the island) and the people, without simply dumping information on the reader. But in addition, she also shows us the cracks. What problems the society has, how it’s viewed by those internally, how it’s viewed by those externally, their treatment of others etc. It may not be a solid foundation for a society but it is a solid foundation for a novel.
I also didn’t expect Beta to be as deep and meaningful as it was. I found the text was constantly asking questions about what perfection really means, and who has to suffer/sacrifice for that perfection to come about. I also found that I spent a lot of time thinking about what it is exactly that makes someone “human” during my reading of Beta. How would clones fit into our society and how would be treat them? As a vegetarian I often think about how we treat other creatures on our planet and this book really hit a nerve with that part of me.
Being a Beta, however, Elysia is quite a regular clone either. We’re led to believe she experiences things a bit differently than other clones on the island and I found this a great way to frame her character because it allowed you to really watch her grow throughout the novel. She goes from knowing almost nothing about the outside world, to question all that she is confronted by. I liked watching this transition and it made Beta an interesting character study on top of everything else.
Recommendation: As you can probably tell from this review, I loved Beta. I thought it was beautifully written and incredibly thoughtful and I recommend it to anyone who wants a science fiction novel they can talk about for days.
Maybe it was the all pink cover but I really wasn’t expecting that much from Beta. I mean I was expecting it to be good - it is Rachel Cohn after all, but I wasn’t expecting it to blow me away.
But boy was I wrong.
Beta is not your run of the mill young adult novel. It is pure science fiction gold. In quite literally a perfect world (or a perfect island if we’re being specific) humans have created clones to wait on them and take care of daily tasks like cooking, cleaning, party planning etc. Though this practice is fairly common, Elysia is different. She’s a Beta, a prototype if you will, of a teenager and she’s brought into one of the influential family who are looking for a kind of replacement for their daughter who has gone off to university.
Instead of making this world simplistic in it’s perfection, Rachel Cohn does an amazing job, layering in the detail. And she does so in such a seamless way, you almost don’t notice all the information you’re absorbing. The island Elysia lives on, didn’t spring up out of no where and the author gives us a brief history of Demesne (the island) and the people, without simply dumping information on the reader. But in addition, she also shows us the cracks. What problems the society has, how it’s viewed by those internally, how it’s viewed by those externally, their treatment of others etc. It may not be a solid foundation for a society but it is a solid foundation for a novel.
I also didn’t expect Beta to be as deep and meaningful as it was. I found the text was constantly asking questions about what perfection really means, and who has to suffer/sacrifice for that perfection to come about. I also found that I spent a lot of time thinking about what it is exactly that makes someone “human” during my reading of Beta. How would clones fit into our society and how would be treat them? As a vegetarian I often think about how we treat other creatures on our planet and this book really hit a nerve with that part of me.
Being a Beta, however, Elysia is quite a regular clone either. We’re led to believe she experiences things a bit differently than other clones on the island and I found this a great way to frame her character because it allowed you to really watch her grow throughout the novel. She goes from knowing almost nothing about the outside world, to question all that she is confronted by. I liked watching this transition and it made Beta an interesting character study on top of everything else.
Recommendation: As you can probably tell from this review, I loved Beta. I thought it was beautifully written and incredibly thoughtful and I recommend it to anyone who wants a science fiction novel they can talk about for days.