Precious Children

by Mary G. Thompson

A wealthy family trying to cheat death is overmatched—by a stubborn teenager hiding in a body that looks just like their son. In this taut tale of genetics and entitlement, nature vs. nurture goes horrifically wrong.



Dina Blake’s fourteen-year-old son, Geoff, has just died for the second time. But everything will be okay. The Blake family’s wealth has bought them thousands of clones of each of their children. These children are farmed out to loving families, but with the caveat that the bodies are always available to the Blakes.

After Geoff dies, the Blakes upload their son’s memories into Nathan, who is an unwilling host, desperate to stay with the family who loved him.

Dina’s younger daughter, Di, is terrified because she knows something her parents don’t—the memory transfer doesn’t always go as planned. The Geoff who’s been living with them since his first death isn’t the person her mother thinks he is, and the families of the bodies the Blakes steal aren’t all innocent.

When Geoff returns to life in Nathan’s body, he has to contend with Nathan’s frustrating desire to live and his unexpected ability to fight for his life. For some children to live, others must die. Dina must decide how far she’ll go to protect her children, and Geoff must find out if, and who, he’s willing to kill.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

Expected publication September 1, 2026

About the author

Mary G. Thompson is the author of Wuftoom, which Booklist called “impressively unappetizing and absolutely unique,” and other novels for children and young adults. Her contemporary thriller Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee was a winner of the 2017 Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the 2018-2019 Missouri Gateway award. Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Apex Magazine, and others. Mary is originally from Eugene, Oregon, where she attended the University of Oregon School of Law. She practiced law for seven years, including five years in the US Navy JAGC, and now works as a law librarian. A graduate of The New School’s Writing for Children program, she lives in Washington, DC. Find her on the web at http://marygthompson.com.

Reviews

[Bella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella is an extremely off-putting sci-fi horror about children being cloned and their cloned bodies being used to house their conscience if their host body dies. Very strange, but also familiar, this novella explores the divide between social classes, what could happen if technology became too advanced, and the philosophy of human existance in general.

I thought the story was quite interesting! I really enjoyed the anticipation that built up through the entire novella and the extremely dystopian ending. I do think there are a few plot holes, though, and a bit of undeveloped characters. I didn't feel connected with any of the characters AT ALL. I also found myself questioning specific points of the story and why couldn't a character do XYZ (trying not to spoil) and it did throw me off course of the overall mood.

This novella does need some polishing, but overall it is a fascinating read and those interested in sci-fi dystopian-esque plots would enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for this ARC.

[BookishKB · Rating 5 out of 5]

🧬 Precious Children 🧬

What in the Black Mirror episode did I just read?!? 🤯🤯🤯

I went into this novella completely blind and I’m so glad I did. To say this was dystopian is an understatement. The concept alone was horrifying and honestly just kept getting more unsettling the deeper it went. I seriously hope they release an audiobook for this because I would absolutely listen immediately. Easy 5 star read for me!

🤯What to Expect
• Clone horror
• Body snatching
• Unethical family
• Memory transfers
• Psychological
• Sci fi horror
_ _ _ _

📅 Pub Date: September 1, 2026
📝 Thank you to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

[DaniPhantom · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley & Tachyon Publications for providing me with an ARC copy. This was super interesting and a good commentary on issues today in the world. I liked the nuances of whether the Blake family were in the wrong for wanting their children to be the healthiest, even at the expense of other children. There were several times in the book though that the writing was kind of bumpy, but with work it’ll be an awesome book!

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell of a novella premise - what if you could back up your children to the cloud, and then just upload them into a new clone body if they died for some reason? We get a mental struggle between a son who's just been uploaded into a new body and that body's original personality, trying to hide what's going on from his overbearing deeply medicated mother, and his little sister. The full revelation of what's really going on and the shittiness of the Srs. are amazingly done. Highly recommended fall read.

[sof · Rating 3 out of 5]

To love unconditionally… to what end? At what cost? And who pays the price?

Precious Children is a sci-fi horror that touches on themes of bodily autonomy, social disparity, greed, and ultimately, the dangers of complacency.

If you like Black Mirror, you’ll love this book. The entire story is riddled with a wrongness that the characters internally try to justify. Told in three different perspectives—a mother, her son, and daughter—we experience the premise from varying, conflicting angles. I liked this narrative choice and thought it brought about a well-roundedness to the story. I also loved how no character achieved true righteousness in this story; no matter the angle you approach it from, it’s difficult to discern a comfortable verdict.

While I loved the themes and moral/ethical dilemmas this book presented, the sheer scope of the story was a massive undertaking and I think the author bit off more than they could chew. The writing struggled in both the specificities and the abstract, which left something to be desired.

Thanks very much to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the ARC.

3 stars

[Naz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moral and ethical implications be damned. If you’re filthy rich and childless why not sign up for the President’s Population Program and Generations Inc. cloning service? Never fear losing your child again, because in this futuristic Black Mirror-esque world money can buy you your children back anytime. Just don’t read the fine print and don’t think too hard about those disposable lives you snub in the process.

In Precious Children it has become increasingly difficult to naturally conceive, and children are dying at an alarming rate. To curb this decline the government has designed a cloning programme, where rich families can create their own clones as their children. To mitigate this child death epidemic thousands of clones are created to essentially compensate the original family should their chosen child die. This is made possible through a complex continuously backed-up consciousness. The other disposable clones are adopted into their own families with the caveat that they don’t own their bodies. If required the original child can take over their duplicates becoming Congruent in a new host body.

This story however begins with Incongruence; as Geoff Blake struggles to assert dominance over his new host body, with its original owner Nathan fighting for his own survival. It doesn’t help that Nathan is privy to Geoffs own secrets, which coupled with a anxious stim-addled mother, a image conscious father and an all too clever sister creates quite an interesting story waiting to be unravelled.

Thompson is able to evoke conflicting feeling surrounding the characters and I definitely feel this incongruence. There’s very little clear indications of good or evil; instead you have impossible yet thought-provoking situations. Humans are inherently selfish and self preserving; it’s understandable that they want outcomes to be in their own favour. The characters feel well written, real, pitiable and undoubtably flawed. Nathan’s demand for life in his own body is understandable, but on the opposing spectrum so is Dina’s desire as a mother to want to preserve her own child. If you had the chance to live you’d take it, just like you would fight to prevent someone from taking yours. Thompson writes this conflict so well that I can’t hate or love the characters; but just accept them and their circumstances.

The plot is twisty and dark and I was definitely invested and thoroughly immersed. The futuristic world building is interesting and despite the rich high-tech setting there’s something bleak about the fractured Blake family, and a strange hollowness is apparent, that even money can’t hide. There’s also the subtle enduring horror of an existence you have no autonomy over; whether a host or an original clone. Overall this was an enjoyable and highly entertaining read, with an ambiguous but satisfying conclusion that leaves many lingering thoughts thereafter.

Thanks NetGalley, Tachyon Publishing and Mary G. Thompson for the eARC, this was a brilliant read!

[Scarlet · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️: 3/5

Format: Ebook (ARC)📱🌟

Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror (Dystopian) 👽🔪


In a world where money can buy children, Preston and Dina Blake have bought thousands of them. Di and Geoff, their two children, are clones of their parents, facilitated by The President's Population Program. The other several thousand children were adopted out to families who couldn't afford the program, with one catch: if the original Blake children die, a clone is removed from their adopted family, their mind is wiped and then overwritten by the original Blake child's backed-up memories. When Geoff dies for a second time, Di realises her brother is fighting for his life against his body's original mind, Nathan, and he has other malevolent plans...The Blakes must choose the lengths they'd go to to protect their Precious Children.

I really like the premise of this book. The discussions around class and conception reminded me of The Handmaid's Tale and Never Let Me Go, which initially drew me to it. The story is really the backbone of this book which kept me reading. I'm not usually a fan of mixed media, however, the interjections of The President's Population Program between the thoughts of the characters served the story well.

This is a short novella and as such, I did feel that some parts were rushed over. I didn't feel particularly connected to any of the characters as I didn't have much time to connect with them. I wanted to feel conflicted at some of the characters' decisions but I just didn't care. For me, the world building felt non existent. The story moved quickly and I feel if the story moved slower, more tension could have been built. I think if this book was full length and had more meat on its bones, it could have gained an extra star from me.

This book is marketed as Sci-Fi/Horror, however I would file this under dystopian. For me, there weren't enough Sci-Fi or Horror elements for it to be classed as either. I was expecting the ending to have some kind of a pay-off, but unfortunately for me, it was a case of, 'oh, ok, that's it.' As such, I was left a little disappointed as I was expecting more from this book.

I really liked the idea of Precious Children, but it just left me wanting more. The story is what carried it for me, despite the weaknesses in the worldbuilding, it's ending and characterisation. Still, I would recommend this book to fans of classic dystopian novels such as The Handmaid's Tale or Never Let Me Go and to fans of the TV series 'Black Mirror.'

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC to voluntarily review.

[Alu · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5
Precious Children is set in a future where children are cloned. Rich families clone thousands of children, who are then given to poorer families to raise. When the rich family's child dies, one of the thousand clones is forcibly taken from their adoptive family and used as a host for the rich family's child.

This book is extremely unsettling, with well-developed ideas and distinct characters that point out the wrongness of such an unethical program.

I went in expecting horror, but after finishing it, I felt more uneasy than scared. At the end, the parents go on to abduct another pair of kids to forcefully insert the memories of their original children despite knowing that the souls/Congruence of their original children are already gone. That raises the question- what exactly did the parents want? The idea of "children" or children as individuals to love and care for? The real evil is not Geoff, but the adults who devise unethical systems and force their will onto children.


I also loved that each of the characters was distinct, 2 of the characters that stood out were -
Geoff/Jeff - who had been through a lot and would do anything to live free from obligations or other souls in his head. Personally, I didn't like how it ended for him. He is just a desperate, greedy human trying to survive and also help his sister escape their abusive original parents, even if it meant he would have to kill.

Dina - I found her to be the most unsettling. She knows what is happening is wrong but chooses to believe otherwise. She clearly can't handle it and chooses to drug/stim? herself to be rid of the worries that haunt her. It disturbs me that even after finding out her children are gone, she goes on to force their memories on other clones. To her, it's the memories that make the children, and not the children themselves.

This book gave me strong Never-Ending Darling vibes, an equally unsettling and gripping webtoon.

Overall, I liked it. The pacing was great, and I loved the writing style. It was disturbing, thought-provoking, and a quick read.

Thank you, the Publisher and the author, for giving me the chance to read this book.

[Xiibalba · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is pure Black Mirror in book form and I was here for it. Mary G. Thompson takes the cloning premise and pushes it into properly uncomfortable territory: in a near future where natural conception is collapsing and children keep dying, rich families can sign up for a state program that gives them backup clones of their kid, with consciousness constantly synced. If something happens to the original, you just transfer them into one of the spare bodies. Easy. The catch is that those spare bodies are real people living real lives, and the law says they don't own themselves. The story opens right in the middle of one of those takeovers going wrong, and from there it pretty much never lets you breathe.

What I loved most is how Thompson refuses to tell you who to root for. Geoff is fighting to keep his existence by overwriting Nathan, but Nathan is fighting for the exact same thing, and neither of them feels like a villain. Around them the Blake family is falling apart in a very quiet, well dressed way: an anxious mother medicated into a fog, a father obsessed with image, a sister who sees way too much. It made me think a lot about autonomy and how easily a society can decide some lives are basically backup files. As someone neurodivergent that part hit harder than I expected, because the whole machinery of the book is about who counts as a full person and who gets reduced to a resource.

The pacing is twisty and dark and the worldbuilding has that cold polished science fiction sheen I really enjoy, but underneath there is a hollowness in every scene, like all this money and tech cannot patch up what the Blake family actually is. The ending is ambiguous in a way that will probably annoy some readers but I liked it, it keeps the moral mess unresolved instead of tying a neat bow on it. A solid 4.25 from me. If you like speculative fiction that asks ugly ethical questions without lecturing you, this is a great one to pick up.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC

[Ananya Gupta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received the ARC of this book by Netgalley.

The book starts in the year 2071 with Geoff's second death, as his parents hold a funeral for him that is largely for appearances. They have unlimited backups of him, allowing a new human vessel to retain all of his memories except for the experience of dying. The concept is deeply unsettling and feels surprisingly plausible given the direction technology is heading. It's not difficult to imagine a future in which cloning and consciousness transfer become reality.

In this world, much like our own, the rich exploit the poor by taking what is not rightfully theirs in exchange for money. When Dina and Preston arrive to collect "Geoff," a boy named Nathan protests, insisting that he is a different person and that his parents cannot simply replace him. He is told that his parents have been more than adequately compensated. The nanobots work to erase the host's soul and replace it with the consciousness of the deceased. It gave me chills because the horror feels grounded in something that could one day be possible.

What makes the premise particularly terrifying is that the process does not always work as intended. Sometimes the new soul replaces the old one and lives on while pretending to be the person who died. Even when a resurrection is successful, the person who returns is not truly the same. The clones differ in personality and morality, raising fascinating questions about identity and what makes someone who they are.

I wish the book had maintained the same grip on my attention that it had at the beginning. There were too many instances of info-dumping and not enough time spent developing the characters, which made it difficult for me to form a connection with them. I found myself confused for much of the story. The concept is incredibly strong, but I think the novella would have benefited from further polishing and development.

[Tori Boudreau · Rating 2 out of 5]

🙏 Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for the ARC!

This was a quick read at under 250 pages, but the premise immediately grabbed my attention 👀. Dina Blake's 14-year-old son Geoff has died, but in this futuristic world that's not necessarily the end. Wealthy families can create multiple clones of their children and transfer memories into them. Geoff's latest clone, Nathan, has been raised by foster parents who are paid handsomely for the job, but once the memories are transferred, Nathan will cease to be Nathan and become Geoff. The catch? This isn't the first time Geoff's memories have been transferred, which raises the question: is it really Geoff anymore? 🤔

I thought the concept was fascinating and probably the strongest part of the book. The ethical questions surrounding cloning, identity, and what truly makes someone a person were really interesting. I also enjoyed the snippets of legislation and background information explaining how cloning became legal because those sections helped make the world feel more believable.

Unfortunately, I spent about 80% of the book feeling confused 😅. I wish there had been more explanation upfront about how this future society worked because the worldbuilding felt very fragmented. We get pieces of information throughout the story, but not enough for me to fully understand the setting, the history, or how society reached this point. Because I was constantly trying to figure out the rules of the world, I never became fully invested in the story itself.

Overall, this had such an intriguing premise and even touched on a few themes that reminded me of some of the tradwife books I've read recently, but the execution just didn't work for me. I wanted more worldbuilding, more history, and a lot more clarity. Great concept, disappointing delivery 📚.

[narrative.neurosis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book was not a good fit for me.

The premise initially caught my attention: a dystopian future where wealthy families preserve their children through cloning and consciousness transfer. On paper, it sounded like a fascinating exploration of identity, mortality, and the ethics of cloning. However, I struggled with the execution throughout the novel.

My biggest issue was the worldbuilding. Many of the core concepts that drive the plot were never explained clearly enough for me to fully understand what was happening. Technologies and systems such as Square, stims, Generations, and the consciousness transfer process itself are introduced, but I never felt like I had a solid grasp of how any of them worked or what their limitations were. Because so much of the story relies on these concepts, I often found myself confused rather than immersed.

I also found it difficult to keep track of the characters and their identities. With multiple clones, transferred consciousnesses, and shared bodies, I frequently struggled to determine who was actually speaking or inhabiting a particular body at any given moment. Instead of creating intrigue, the constant shifts became frustrating and made it difficult to stay emotionally invested in the story.

The writing style was another challenge for me. Although this title is categorized as adult fiction, the prose and character voices felt much younger than I expected. Many of the characters sounded remarkably similar, and I often found it difficult to distinguish between them through dialogue and narration alone.

While the novel presents some interesting ideas about cloning, memory, and identity, I felt that those ideas were overshadowed by confusing worldbuilding, unclear character dynamics, and a narrative that left too many important questions unanswered.

Overall, this was a disappointing read for me.

[Shelly Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review Precious Children for my honest review.

This book is not horror because of a ghost, a monster or even violence. This is a horror because some people consider some lives more important than other lives.

For me, this was a 4 star read because I enjoy a book that not only gives me a complete, full story but leaves room for my imagination to take it and review from multiple different angles. The lives that were not told in the pages.

Short version: kids are dying for unknown reasons, rich people can afford to make clones of their children so if their child dies, their “souls” can be uploaded into a clones body. The horror part is, these clones, thousands of them, have been adopted out to families unable to have surviving children of their own. If a rich child dies, the poor child will be erased and the rich kid will be the dominant soul.

This story made me examine what lengths would I go to in order to save my child and how would I justify those lengths? What would it feel like for the children to have 2 people in their heads and knowing it’s expected that inly 1 survives? What happens when the rich child is not the one that comes out on top?

Not explored in the story, but one I will be thinking about now that I’ve finished is how does the adoptive family go on? Console yourself that it’s for the greater good? The greater good for whom? How did the country get to the point that this was acceptable? What would it be like to walk in a world where there are thousands of people with my face?

This author really got under my skin and I will be looking into more of her work to get lost in.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary G. Thompson’s Precious Children was a quick, compulsively readable dystopian novel. I flew through it in two sittings. It leans much more sci-fi than outright horror, but there’s this constant layer of existential creepiness underneath everything that kept me unsettled in the best way.

The story follows a future where children are extraordinarily rare and are treated as priceless societal resources rather than actual people. Thompson takes that premise and pushes it into some genuinely uncomfortable territory about autonomy, parenthood, surveillance, and what happens when a society decides “protection” matters more than humanity. The worldbuilding is sharp without becoming overwhelming, and the pacing moves fast enough that I never got bogged down in exposition.

What I appreciated most was how believable the emotional core felt even when the premise became extreme. The horror here isn’t really monsters or gore. Instead, it’s the quiet realization that the systems in this world evolved from recognizable fears and desires. That made the book feel more disturbing than a lot of traditional horror novels.

I do think I wanted just a little more depth in some areas, particularly with the side characters and broader society, which is why this lands at 4 stars instead of 5 for me. But overall, this was a fun, unsettling dystopian read with a strong premise and a lingering sense of unease that stuck with me after I finished.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson is a sci-fi novella about a future where most Americans are unable to give birth to healthy children, and so wealthy families pay to have themselves cloned. They keep one clone from each batch to raise as their child, and the thousands of other clones are adopted out to poorer families willing to pay for healthy babies. But should the wealthy family’s child die, they may take their pick of the others, abducting the child from their home and uploading their dead child’s consciousness into the new body.

I loved this story. It reminded me of old episodes of Outer Limits, and even though the story beats felt predictable, I had a blast going along for the ride. It was a quick read that absolutely flew by, and the tension never flagged for a second. Plus, two people forced to share a body is one of my favorite horror tropes, and this book delivers in spades.

Precious Children is mandatory reading for any fans of horror or sci-fi, especially if you’re into shows like Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone. Even if you’re unsure, it’s such a quick read I’d recommend everyone give it a shot.

Thank you Tachyon Publications for providing this advance copy for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Reading After Work · Rating 2 out of 5]

I may have read a handful of clone books that this one has already juat become one of them books.

A kind of story that's not possible to happen in the near future or might already be happening now but it's own story got lost in the middle with all the mixed up characters that the cloning does. I even imagine them being just our cells overtaking each other inside of our body - the bad ones vs. the good ones.

It tries to be hardcore witht all the "bad scenes" but it's not. I am waiting for that climax of feelings to happen but it always just went down even before the main scene happened.

The twist was not also extraordinarily good. It's like watching the modern families in the Stepford Wives or Don't Worry, Darling getting caught with their bad doings - It suddenly felt one time a YA story of clone teens and forget that this is supposed to be a serious scifi book. Di tries to be the final girl but she's also like I am also an heir to this rich family so why should I be worried? In the end, well, that changes a little but still not the strongest character in this book. But is there even one strong character here?

[Queralt✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Precious Children by Mary G. Thompson has a very cool premise: wealthy families have immortal children because their consciousness can be cloned and installed in the brains of children who are bred solely to serve as their carriers.

The book is sort of political, and I’d say the highlight of the reading experience, besides the premise (and the cover!!), is seeing how the main characters justify their wrong actions to themselves. Unfortunately, I didn’t really enjoy the writing. I found the pacing too fast, the dialogue a little irrelevant at times, and the narration felt pretty shallow to me. On top of that, I felt the plot wasn’t fully fleshed out and the world-building wasn’t very deep, though I did love the little excerpts and logos throughout the book.

Maybe I read it at a time when I was already stressed out from work, but I just struggled to care :( I’d recommend it to anyone who likes fast-paced dystopias and enjoys the idea more than the execution (and the ending...), I guess?

ARC received for free, this hasn’t influenced my rating.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, money really can buy your way out of all your troubles, can’t it? Including, as it turns out, death itself. Of course nothing is as simple as it seems, and the greed of wealthy parents quickly comes to a head in this fast paced sci-fi horror novella.

Here the dystopian component is prodded by the extreme wealth of the Blake family. They are allowed quite literally to consume the young of less wealthy families in a bid to save their own. Horror and sci-fi elements enter into the story as we realize that multiple consciousnesses are present in the same body, duking it out for dominance.

This was an entertaining read for this horror sci-fi enthusiast. The multiple narratives were engaging and the world building overall creative. Admittedly I would have loved a deeper explanation into the mechanics of variables like congruence and square, but I do think the length and pacing was well done overall.

Thank you to NetGalley, Mary G Thompson, and Tachyon Publications for sharing an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

[El Fish | libro.vermo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought I'd love this book based on the premise but I did not have a great time with it. Parts of it were needlessly convoluted because characters had basically the same name (it would be a nightmare in audiobook form) and the worldbuilding was not all there.

I was personally a little weirded out by some bits of Geoff's chapters where he couldn't remember whether or not he'd lost his virginity. I know it takes place in 2071 and even now children seem to be growing up faster than they did when I was that age, but it still felt weird that he was only 14. With the talk of his virginity and naked ladies in Square (futuristic virtual-reality implant) as well as a couple other moments, he read more like a 16-year old to me and it was jarring to remember he was actually 14.

I did like the way Dina sort of fell apart over the course of the story, but I wish she had more chapters and that her unraveling was explored a little more.

Overall a miss for me, unfortunately.

Many thanks to Tachyon for the ARC.

[Sage St James]

The premise of this book was so intriguing that I couldn't help but request this ARC. This story provides such an unnerving future that is definitely worth the read. I spent the entire book not entirely sure of what was going to be coming next and couldn't wait to find out. I really enjoyed the structure of the story and having excerpts from studies to give extra information and raise more questions about what was going on. I did enjoy this story and the depth of the characters however, I felt that the ending was a bit rushed and the connection to who the characters were was slightly lost. i think that with an extra few pages on Di and Geoff before the final chapter would have given some more insight to how they progressed along with potentially having a chapter from Preston's POV to see what his experience had been would have been really interesting. The ending just felt a bit to neat for a book that had been so interesting.

[Krystelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I just didn’t feel like this story hit the mark for me. I really do love speculative fiction, and I think there’s a fairly interesting series of ideas to be pulled out of this. I feel like cloning is a pretty interesting concept, and there’s a lot of ethical and moral considerations that feed into it.

I just don’t think that the format of this gelled well with me. I didn’t find that it had much emphasis on the plot or the characterisation, and I was left feeling like there was a lot missing from the story itself.

I didn’t really like any of the characters, which I understand was part of the point, but I think there’s a humanistic element that was missing from this book for me.

I feel like this could have gone harder, been clearer, and while I enjoyed the archive style of some of the chapters, it wasn’t long enough or detailed enough to feel like a solid piece of speculative fiction for me.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨ARC Book Review✨

This book was literally so creepy!

The premise is basically rich people cloning their kids so they never really die. Ya know, on some level, at first I was like, okay, cool. I mean, if money was no issue, I see the temptation.

Finding out this is achieved by loading the deceased child’s consciousness into an unwilling clone child… that the host child’s consciousness will eventually pass so the preferred/ original child lives… yea, you can only imagine the story got wild after that!

I loved the competing consciousnesses trying to win as the prominent character in Geoff’s body. The internal dialogue was especially unsettling. It’s hard to really dislike any of these children. They are all just pawns in their parents’ games.

I thought this story was a unique take on the topic of cloning. The ending was just wild.

Just a perfect creepy little read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Black Mirror was a book, it would be this one.

I picked this up 2 days ago and honestly couldn't put it down! I was drawn to this book by the cover and was super intrigued by the premise as soon as I started reading. When I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about when I could pick it up again. I was really rooting for Di the whole time!

One thing I will say is I think the writing needs a little more editing because I did notice a couple typos here and there (but it didn't bother me too much because I was so invested in the story). Also the ending did feel a bit confusing and a few of the characters needed fleshing out a bit more, but regardless the book was such a pleasure to read. With a little work, I believe this book has the potential to become something really big!

Thank you so, so much for this ARC. I enjoyed every minute of this book!

[Tintaglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Di l'ha sempre detto, che suo fratello non è suo fratello; ma i genitori non le hanno mai creduto. Geoff è Geoff, la Generations, Inc. l'ha garantito: cloni di prima qualità, le cui memorie e personalità saranno sostituite con implacabile efficienza da quelle del figlio (o della figlia: anche di Di esistono diverse migliaia di copie sparse per l'America, affidate a famiglie che non possono avere figli, che sperano di non versi mai strappata la bambina che stanno allevando) che pagano per tutelare. Perché non possano mai morire, qualsiasi cosa succeda.
Ma.
C'è sempre un 'ma', e Di lo sa bene.
Una novella inquietante e complessa, ritratto insieme di una famiglia disfunzionale e di una società in cui il denaro compra tutto e tutti, e in cui i bambini sono gli unici a vedere l'ingiustizia e le storture che politica e denaro hanno costruito.

[Missy (myweereads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...and that's why I have to make my own luck."

Mary G. Thompson's novella is a sci-fi novella about a future where poorer families who can't have healthy babies are given the opportunity to purchase clones from wealthier families. The catch is that should one of the children from the wealthier family die, then the family can choose to bring back one of the clones to transfer the consciousness into a new clone. This way their children will live forever.

This was a twisted and unsettling story. The exploration into how the wealthy can guarantee their legacy live on through such extreme methods was wild.

The writer paints a picture that was entertaining yet unnerving when it came to certain characters. I like that for it being a novella it did pack a lot.

This was a quick but fun read.

Many thanks to @tachyonpub for the arc.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting concept but poor execution. I loved the idea of rich families having children that could never die due to having their consciousness being uploaded into children that were made specifically for that purpose. However, this book moved too quickly to flesh anything out properly. It was lacking lots of details and explanations. I didn't care what happened to any of the characters because the character development was basically nonexistent. The writing was very rocky, with many typos and just the style in general didn't feel cohesive. I can't say I recommend this one. The only thing I liked was the idea.

Thank you Mary G. Thompson, NetGalley & Tachyon Publications for the ARC of this book.

[booked.with.julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This one is creepy and definitely uncomfortable.
In this world, wealthy families create clones of their children as backups in case something terrible happens. Those clones are raised by other families, living completely separate lives… until the originals die. Then everything changes.
When Geoff dies, his memories are uploaded into Nathan, a boy who already has his own family, identity, and life he doesn’t want to lose. Will he be able to fight Geoff off in his mind?
This is a short book. The premise hooked me and I definitely could have dived a bit deeper and have been longer to get a better understanding. It definitely pushes questions about grief, privilege and what will are able to justify for love.

[Bailey (Myveinsbleedink) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was intense and I’m not sure how I feel about it. There is alot of detail, you need to pay attention and you really need to wrap your head around the concept of cloning and the idea of “congruence”. The idea that the body can die, the host, but the individuals “soul” is backed up on the systems database so when a new host is chosen the soul gets uploaded to the new body?! I’m not sure I had it figured out. I think it may take a bit of extra processing for me. I’ve never really read alot of science fiction style books. The idea in this book is terrifying that thousands of us can be artificially made then cloned and sold off to other people until we could possibly need that body!! Totally wild and I hope not something that ever happens in the future!

[Taylor Bonin · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

"Nowadays money is all that stands between parents and heartbreak."

What an interesting and unsettling science fiction novella this turned out to be.

There were a lot of concepts explored in this relatively short story: the ethics of cloning, bodily autonomy, social inequality and greed, trauma and morality, etc. and I think the execution of these ideas was done well.

The POVs each felt like their own person and were written well, although Di and Geoff's POV sometimes felt a little too similar. This is marketed as an adult novella but I did find that it read more YA to me. Which isn't something that bothered me though.

[See Kritz Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars rounded up.

This was an intriguing sci-fi novella that not only used the concept of cloning, but added the horror of having to be the dominant consciousness in order to survive.
There were times I found the story a bit confusing, as the clones also had variations of the same name on top of this mind-bending premise. I enjoyed the social commentary on the divide of social classes and how that impacts each character, as well as how each character deals with grief, loss, and the hand they were dealt in life. The writing was simple, but the ideas kept me interested until the ending, which was satisfying.

I did receive an e-ARC from Netgalley in return for my honest opinion.