More of Me

by Kathryn Evans

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 stars

Teva, version 16, is well aware of her fate. She knows she has one year to be the Teva who interacts with the outside world. She has one year to live her whole life before she is replaced by Teva version 17, and is then forced to spend her days locked away with her previous versions. But it appears the later version Tevas are not happy with this arrangement, and they are willing to fight for the right to live their lives, but will Teva survive long enough to accomplish this task?

When I first discovered this book, I thought the concept sounded really interesting. I love science, and genetics is an ever-evolving and growing field. I have to admit, when I started reading this book, it was a little weird, but then I remembers, SciFi books not set in space are a little weird, therefore, I kept reading. I am glad I gave this book a chance, because the story did hit its groove, and I grew to enjoy reading about all the Tevas.

Something I really liked, was trying to figure out if this was legit or if we were dealing with an unreliable narrator. Evans did a great job keeping me in that grey area. I was vacillating between the two scenarios, and found myself analyzing past passages to figure out if there were really clones or was it all in Teva's head. Well play, Ms. Evans.

I also thought Evans blended these out-of-the-ordinary parts very well with the ordinary parts of every day life. These Tevas never came across as science experiments or less than human. In fact, the two oldest versions, fifteen and Teva, were preoccupied with such average teen girl issues, that it read almost like a contemporary (my favorite genre). That SciFi twist added an extra layer to the story and brought up the intrigue factor.

The story was interesting, and there were some great characters supporting this story. Two of my favorite were Maddy, Teva's best friend, and Tom, Teva's classmate. Maddy was a fun and faithful friend, who challenged and supported Teva. Tom provided most of the comic relief, in my opinion. His character was quite amusing, but we did get to see that he had some depth later on, and I really loved where Evans went with him.

Now, I am going deep. When I was trying to decide if the multiple versions were real or not, I started thinking of them metaphorically. This idea, that each year you shed your younger self, thus emerging with some of your former thoughts and beliefs, but also open to forming new ones. I even saw some symbolism in the physical pains Teva experienced as her new, older self was battling to emerge. Growing up is hard and can be painful, and I thought this was illustrated in an interesting way throughout the book. OR that was totally not the author's intention, and I am reading into it too much. Either way, I love that it made me think so much.

Overall: An interesting portrait of growing up sprinkled with romance, mystery, drama, and humor.

**I would like to thank the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. Quotes are from an ARC and may change upon publication.

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