Replica by Lauren Oliver

This story follows Lyra's tale on one side of the book and the other (if you flip it over) follows Gemma's tale. Lyra has been raised at a place called Haven and knows only that she is a replica. She is "disposable" and has had only a few nurses in her life show any kind of affection towards her. Gemma has been raised by her parents but was very sick as a child. She was in and out of hospitals when she was younger and now her parents are extremely strict. Her mother is always drinking and taking pills to cope and her father never seems to be present in her life. 

Through a series of events these two girls end up meeting and their worlds collide. Both girls learn new things about themselves that would turn anyone's world upside down. The truth or at least most of it comes out by the end of both tales.

I was really excited about reading this and being able to read basically two stories. I like the idea of being able to switch perspectives this way instead of just having each chapter switch to someone else in the story. So many books now go back and forth sometimes I seem to get lost when reading them. I chose to read one until I thought I wanted to see what was going on with the other girl. I liked the fact that they do seem to be different stories about the same series of events. And that there was some small overlapping in those events. They are not a complete mirror of stories.

For me, there was more of a connection with Gemma. She seemed to be a typical teenage outcast. Though, I ended up finishing Lyra's story first; her story was just that more interesting and I felt sorry for the things she had gone through. Once I finished Lyra's story though I found it much harder to finish Gemma's. At the point of finishing with Lyra I had of course already pieced together what the outcome of Gemma's would be.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting read. I struggled on whether to give this a 3 or 4 stars out of 5. While I really enjoyed the book I do not think it was anything spectacular. I finally decided on a 4 star rating mostly because of the writing. I love the way Lauren Oliver writes her stories. This book seemed to flow well and it was like there was a movie playing in my head. I was able to pictures the things going on with ease. I also do think this book is worth the read.

Thanks for reading my review!

Happy reading everyone!

~~~~~Bonnie

Returning

Hello! I seem to have stopped blogging for awhile. I hope everyone has had a great year. Now that it is almost over, I think I will try and pick this back up.

I have not been reviewing any of the books I have read on Goodreads.com. My depression this year has been worse then it has been in a long time. I am still reading, but much more slowly then normal. There hasn't been as much joy in it for me as normal and that in itself is depressing.

I hope that maybe someday this blog will lead people to books that they normally would not have read. That people will discover new worlds that interest them from the reviews that I write. That will never happen if I don't continue to post.

So, let's get back to reading tons of books and reviewing them!

Thanks for reading!