Replica (Replica, #1)

by Lauren Oliver

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

I think what Lauren Oliver set out to do here insofar as format is really interesting and original – Replica is a flip book, meaning that instead of having an integrated POV, you can literally flip the book over and start the other POV afterward… or read chapter-by-chapter. Reader’s choice! As an audiobook listener, the choice was made for me (all one, then the other) but I do appreciate the concept and think it was a cool idea.

The audiobook read’s Lyra’s POV first, then flips the book over to Gemma’s POV, so I’m going to address it like that… almost like two different stories that intermingle.

Lyra’s POV is interesting. In Lyra’s perspective, we see a little of Haven. We see a world where people are cloned in order to grow viruses and test medication. An illegal operation of a science-fiction (maybe even dystopian) sort, I thought that the world building in this half (44%, realistically) was promising. Had the story continued with the revelation of Haven and further development of the sci-fi elements, I think I may have enjoyed Replica. I’ve always found cloning to be an interesting dystopian element, but unfortunately, Lauren Oliver did not follow that storyline. In fact, I felt like Lyra’s POV stopped rather abruptly.

Gemma’s POV was such a contrast to Lyra’s. Gemma almost always describes herself in terms of her weight. She talks constantly about her lack of experience and how her weight keeps people from looking at her… generally, there was a lot of focus on this, and there’s a difference between representing a minority and making the whole thing unnecessarily uncomfortable by saying, “hey! look at his! an overweight MC!” over and over again. So immediately, as we’re getting into Gemma’s POV, I found myself a bit repelled by it. The deeper into the book I got, the less believable her situation seemed. She runs away to Florida and ultimately, her parents let it happen, and so does her best friend. She becomes quick friends with two different boys who are both attracted to her and speak to her in an uncomfortably familiar way, and there are no red flags about this? In fact, her first kiss and main romance is with a guy she herself calls “Pervy Pete”.

So, you know, that’s the quality of romance we’re working with here.

If I had started with Gemma’s POV, I absolutely would have DNF’d this book. But Lyra’s POV was interesting, with a lot of potential in world building. I kept waiting for some proper closure for Lyra, and that’s what kept me going through Gemma’s POV. But honestly? I found the ending unsatisfying. There were so many things that could have happened, so much more excitement, but I never felt we got plot closure.

So while the physical concept was cool, and plot had promise, I don’t particularly recommend Replica. It did not deliver.