Title: Vitro
Series: Corpus #2
Author: Jessica Khoury
Genre: YA, Science Fiction
Rating:
Brief Overview: Sophie has always known that her mother works on Skin Island researching cures for diseases like Alzheimer's. Sophie lives with her father in the U.S. and her mother visits only a few times a year. When Sophie receives an urgent email from her mom, she goes to Skin Island to see her, but when she gets there, she discovers that there are secretive and dangerous things happening and maybe her whole life has been a lie.
Impressions: Even though this book is in a series, it stands alone well and I was able to read it without reading Origins (Corpus #1). Vitro was basically Frankenstein meets Lord of the Flies. Intrigued yet? I definitely loved the weird science and unexpected twists. I'm not a huge fan of science fiction, so when I do read it, a couple things stand out:
1. In this type of book, the focus is plot over character development, so in Vitro, like other Sci Fi books I've read, I found the characters impersonal and lacking in depth.
2. It was a little unbelievable. (Thus the fiction part of the Science Fiction genre, of course).
For those two reasons, I only rated this book 3/5, however if you regularly read Sci Fi, I doubt these things will bother you. I really got into this book, wanting to find out what secrets were hidden on the island. The book left me with a lingering eerie feeling. I think this book was a good "starter Sci Fi" for people like me who aren't usually into that sort of thing.
If you liked Vitro, you might like:
Origin by Jessica Khoury or Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
or GFC!
