Pursuing Amy
While at the mall, Tasha notices Amy’s mark has gotten darker. Then she starts asking a few too many questions and this irritates Amy and she snaps at her bestie. But Tasha says she has a secret but is interrupted. The secret of her going up a bra size isn’t nearly as big as Amy’s secret but she knows she can’t tell because she promised her mom. They pass a mother with quints and Tasha pities the mother ad says they’ll all have identity problems.
Amy checks out some newsgroups she’s subscribed to just to check and see if there are any exceptional girls her age. Girls like her. Then she goes outside when she hears Eric shooting hoops and they challenge each other ability to shoot the ball from different positions (far away). Eric (like in the last book) is impressed with her skills. But when she gets home, Nancy gives her a warning about keeping her talents on the dl. Nancy gets a message from a guy she meet at an art gallery, calls him back, and accepts a date with him for Saturday (which is good news for Amy because now she won’t be all up on her all the time).
At school, they’re going to put in a new swimming pool. Amy finds out that to be able to take swimming lessons they’re required to bring in a medical consent form. She tells her mother and she makes a call to Dr. Jelenski. Amy tells her to avoid talking to his daughter and then confesses what she did. Nancy tells her that she probably thought it was someone questioning him about the project he was involved in years ago. She then gives Amy another warning. Not only would the people looking for her try to clone her and make a massive race, since the notes were destroyed on how she was made they might also experiment on her.
Nancy has fun on her late even though the movie is bad and the restaurant doesn’t have what they want. Amy wants to know if while they were talking did Nancy tell him about her and she says of course not. She brings up what if they get serious. Nancy says it was just a date. Amy thinks about Eric who she’s hung out with the previous two days. Brad then calls and asks them both to the county museum. Nancy can’t help thinking that maybe her mother and Brad will get married and have kids as she goes upstairs to change her clothes. When she goes back downstairs someones at the door with an envelope. Dr. Jelenski has sent a medical constant at that she’s in good physical shape andition and is good to go for the swimming. When Brad takes them to the museum it’s closed. So, they decide to go to the zoo (suggested by Nancy). Brad seems to love the idea. Amy isn’t all that crazy about seeing animals caged up but they have fun all the same. Then Brad takes to a restaurant. Amy really hopes her mother will fall for Brad like she is starting to.
On the way to school, Amy forgets her certificate and has to go back for it. Tasha sees who it’s signed by and comments that she found him. Amy has to lie and say his nurse signed it. Amy has to pretend at swimming class to do less than a perfect job and gets put in Level 3. Taha’s in level 3 and again questions why they’re both on the same level when she’s seen Amy swim better. After school, she even bugs Amy about coming back to gymnastics. YEAH, Tasha asks too many questions!!! I agree with Amy. Amy’s mother has a surprise for her on this day. Later she takes her to meet Dr. Jaleski.
Dr. J (as he says to call him) wants to know about Amy’s personality and interests. She wants to know from him what it means to be a clone. He tells her she’s basically human but more advanced. She wants to know if she looked like a normal baby. He says yes. The embryos didn’t look different. He’s curious about the crescent moo mark and she tells him it and her enhanced senses didn’t show up until later (puberty). They discuss her dream and he tells her it's part of her enhanced senses. She then tells him she’s good at sports and he tells her (her) limitations. She can just do what humans can do (not superheroes). Amy wants to know where the other Amy’s are and he says he doesn’t know. He said it was best they didn’t know where the scienteist Amy’s were sent. Then he tells her a little more about the organization. They never found out what their goals were, but they knew they were evil. They might have even created male clones out there. Mary (his daughter) wants them to forget this project existed. She’s worried about her father being identified. Amy is overwhelmed and Dr. J says look on the positive side. She’ll offer the world so much. She asks who “Mr. Devon” is and Dr. J says he has no clue who he is.
The director says they’re closer. He says Jalenski isn’t a concern and neither is Devon because he’s made no further contact. Identification is now needed and a plan is put into place that Nancy won’t interfere with.
Brad and Nancy continue to date. Brad doesn’t seem to mind Amy coming along on their dates. Amy’s concentration slips and she’s promoted to Level 4. Brad is supposed to be coming over for dinner. While her mom steps out to pick something up from the store, Amy checks her groups. This time she sees a comment from a girl with her name that says she’s being treated like a freak because she won a national chess competition. Amy writes her back (and in my opinion asks questions that are way too personal). Then she sees Eric outside with a friend shooting hoops. So she joins them and starts showing off again. Brad arrives early and watches. He even offers them to buy them tickets to a Lakers game. Then Nancy shows up and he goes to join her. While she’s shooting again, Amy sees him watching her out the window, but when she looks up again he’s gone. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this but I’ll give it a brief mention Janine shows up with Tasha who’ll be spending the night. Janine wants Eric. Amy tries to warn Tasha. Tasha thinks she’s jealous (Typical cliché plot that we’ve seen before. Moving along) Oh yeah and Amy spends a lot of time in this book worrying about Janine and Eric and Janine and Tasha.
Tasha and Amy have a fight and Tasha calls their friendship off (because Amy and Eric are going to the Laker’s game). Tasha accuses Amy of being jealous of her mother’s relationship and having secrets. .Brad says he has some photos and when she looks at them she finds ..one of her in her swimsuit with a shot of hre in a swimsuit. She notices her mark (tho slight). After she goes to pick up Eric, she notices Brad looking at the photos. It’s the one with her back to the camera. He plays it off like he thinks it’s a bug. Amy is surprised he can even *see* it.
Amy has the nightmare again. Only this time it’s a man’s arms that save her. She wakes up feeling like something isn’t right. At school, again Amy gets pushed up a Level. When she’s alone, Amy decides she wants to talk to someone that understands her. Her mother had just hinted that she and Brad were talking about the future.So she gets Eric to go with her to Dr. J’s. He promises he’ll talk to her mother and hint that she shouldn’t trust anyone lightly and he’ll leave out that she came to see him. On the way back, Amy hears footsteps. While running away, a man grabs Eric, but then Amy knocks him down and they’re able to get away. Deciding to trust Eric with her secret, she tells them the truth about her with the promise he’ll keep her secret.
The next day (despite all the many warnings) Amy can’t resist showing uff her skills and challenges Jeanine to a siwim race. Of course, she wins. When she comes home, she gets her mom to call Dr. J o nly to find out .. he’s dead. Despite this, Brad convinces them they should still go on the pincnic outsing for Saturday he had planned. Brad gets weird about her mother having some of the fancy wine he’s brought. Her mother realizes what he did but too late. She passes out. He then grabs Amy and makes a run for it. Amy realizes he’s one of *them*. Amy knees him in the groin and takes off running. When she hears him coming after her. She jumps up in a tree. When he finally catches up and looks up and sees her sirens are heard. He takes off. Eric shows up (and was the one made the call). In the ambulance, the paramedic says her pulse is weak but otherwise she’s strong. It’s confirmed that she’s poisoned. Tasha and her mom show up and she has to lie and say Brad wasn’t there because it’s what she told the people at the hospital. Her mother in the past has warned her about getting the authorites infolved. So while Nancy is in the hospital, Amy is sent to stay with the Morgans. The nature of the poision remains a mystery.
Mrs. Morgan surprises Eric, Tasha, and Amy with tickets to the ballet. To Amy’s shock, the lead dancers looks identical to her and her name is Annie. She remembers how Mrs. Morgan said she was an unusually exceptional dancer. So after the show she sneaks around back to the bus and tries to find her. But somehow Annie leaves from the other exit. Tasha has seen the other Amy and wants to know what’s going on. She decides to tell Tasha her secret.
Tasha takes it well. Nancy is released from the hospital and Any sees Mr. Devon lurking in the shadows. She asks why heleft and he asks did she enjoy the ballet and then disappears. Amy realizes after hearing her mom and Mrs. Morgan talk that Mr. Devon was the one who left the tickets anonymously so she could see Annie. Later, Mr Jalenkski’s daughter pays Amy a visit and gives her a gift from her father. It’s a crescent necklace. She tells her that her father didn’t have a heart attack, he was shot. Amy knows that she’ll see the other Amy again and thinks of the necklace as a lucky charm.
My Thoughts:
This one started to fall back on series clichés I wasn’t happy about seeing. When there’s a series following a pre-teen or teen girl there is ALWAYS a boy. Then here comes the drama. I think the storyline was strong enough with Amy finding out she was a clone that the triangle could have been left out of her, (Amy), Eric, and Jeanine. Why is it always like this? Can’t a story about a female be good enough to stand on its own with a unique concept? Now up until the end of the series, we’l lget to hear Amy mooning and swooning over Eric and for me that’s going to take away from the story slightly.
We also get the chiche of introducing a character that could have been important but instantly he’s killed off not even giving us a minute to form any kind of attachment to him. Although I didn’t really see the purpose of Dr. J. When you think about it, he really didn’t give us anything that Nancy hadn’t already. But I was kind of hoping that he and Amy would develop a bond and he’d be like a grandfather to her. I was hoping he’d give us a little more than he did about Project Crescent.
Another eye roll worthy thy cliché thing was why does in every series book there has to be two sets of friends and then there’s a popular girl. The popular girl befriends one because she has a cute brother but the girl she befriends thinks overnight she’s somehow morphed into the hottest thing in town and the girl (who's usually the most popular) all of a sudden just NEEDS her in her life. And because of this the former friend is jealous?! This happens OVER and OVER and OVER. I swear there’s a guidebook on how to write about girls back in the days.
Another thing was if you couldn’t see Brad was shady. Why? Because HE’S THE ONLY CHARACTER INTRODUCED. Series books tend to do this too. At least throw some suspicion at another character to make it more interesting. Like could Nancy herself be the one that saved Amy because down the line we find out SHES working with “the Organization” Or can we find out that Dr. J WAS working with the organization and was the one that lead them to Amy and that’s why they knew she was leaving his house. Or maybe Monica. Don’t make it so obvious that the bad guy is the bad guy.
Despite this tho, the book still left a little intrigue with Annie. If you read the preview for the next book it even hints that she’s evil. And I also wanna see what the deal is with Mr. Devon.o, I’m still really invested in this series. It has a lot of potential in which directions it takes and it’s easy to read.
Rating: 7