Before I review this awesome book, I wanted to share this library gem:
I will avoid the obvious “Harriet the Spy” references. But doesn’t she look like she should play opposite Keanu Reeves?
Keanu: Tubman, look out!
Blam!
Harriet: He just bought a one-way ticket.
Thought you might appreciate what comes across our scanners daily.
Genesis Alpha (almost as exciting as the Underground Railroad) is about a young boy who was created for his stem cells. His birth was sped up at month 8 to be able to save his older brother who had cancer.
Flash forward to his teen years and now his brother is on trial for murder. Should the older brother have been saved at the expense of the victim? Crazy questions arise throughout the entire book. This is suspense in the M. Night Shyamalan sense, less Clive Barker or Darren Shan. The reader constantly has to guess who’s crazy, who’s hurting, and who’s a mix.
One of the coolest parts for me is that the killer, whoever it is, left clues inside a World of Warcraft-esque MMORPG. The main character has to investigate in game (but it’s not one of those lame, “If you die in the game, you die FOR REAL” books). What’s really cool is that violence in video games is brought up but discussed quite eloquently. Yay! (for a change)
Questions of if we are more than just our DNA show up as people freak out about the genetic similarities between the two brothers.
Unlike my in-person library reviews, I can’t give too much more detail. It would be like saying, “Bruce Willis is already dead.”
D’oh.
(We’ll see what the 7th grade class thinks about it as I’m brought in for a second round of booktalks.)
Today’s Haiku:
Sharing DNA
Can it make you a killer?
Or just a big freak?
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