Beta - Nowe pokolenie

Annex #2

by Rachel Cohn, Berenika Janczarska (Translator)

Zabójcze emocje w świecie klonów
Porywająca historia o odwadze i miłości rozgrywająca się w niemoralnym świecie, gdzie emocje są zakazane. Na rajskiej wyspie Dominium, zamieszkanej przez bogaczy, przeplatają się losy dwóch dziewczyn. Zhara jest Pierwszą, a Elizja jej klonem. Wydają się identyczne, ale wygląd może być bardzo mylący. Elizja odebrała Zharze wszystko, a nawet zajęła jej miejsce u boku ukochanego! Dlatego Zhara zrobi wszystko, by się jej pozbyć.
W końcu Elizja poznaje szokującą prawdę: choć jest klonem, posiada duszę, a jej Pierwsza żyje… Rozumie, że Zhara cierpi, widząc ją z Alexandrem, ale nie może z niego zrezygnować. Postanawia stanąć u jego boku i wraz z armią zbuntowanych klonów obalić panujące na rajskiej wyspie niewolnictwo.
Nic jednak nie jest w stanie przygotować jej na tykającą bombę, która wbudowana jest w jej własny organizm. Czasu zostało niewiele, ponieważ termin jej „wygaszenia” jest coraz bliżej…

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction, Romance, Fiction, Teen, Futuristic

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Rachel grew up in the D.C. area and graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in Political Science. She has written many YA novels, including three that she cowrote with her friend and colleague David Levithan. She lives and writes (when she's not reading other people's books, organizing her music library or looking for the best cappuccino) in New York City.

Reviews

[amaya]

Why is the cover so...porny? Imagine your mother asking you about the book and you trying to explain that it's just teen fiction

[Erikka · Rating 2 out of 5]

How? How do you go from a pretty great book like Beta to whatever the hell this is? Last night, my husband and I watched the MST3K riff of "Parts: the Clonus Horror": That movie was a better-produced clone story than this book. If the guy from CinemaSins was given this book in movie format, the list of sins would rival that of Transformers 4 (and that movie took 2 episodes to enumerate its flaws). It was just very very bad. Imagine if you set up a little island play area, and then gave a small child figurines of the characters from this book, and then let them tell you the story. That's how choppy and disconnected this book is.

"I am Zhara. I love him now. No, now I love him. Here's a scene where we did the sexing. Now we are on an island. Now we are leading an insurrection kinda. Now we're going to a different island. This other girl and I are the same girl, but we don't like each other. Watch us be mean to each other and call each other "bitch" all the time. We don't really have a love triangle, because there are four different boys and we just go through them like days-of-the-week underwear. Now look! We're revolting again. And the clone people get sick when they get old, but we don't call it expiration or anything cool. We call it "the Awfuls," which is the most awful name from a sickness ever. There's a baby in here somewhere, and something about the government. Oh, we forgot a character from last book, so let's bring her back. And now it's done. Ta-da! Now bring me juice, it's nap time."

I can't even dignify this book with a listing of it's flaws. I just can't. I don't have the time, energy, or motivation. It was just terrible.

So why two stars? Because I finished it. It was hard-going, but I did finish it. And the "clone's rights" discussions were fairly thought-provoking. Unfortunately, that was, like, 10 pages of the book. Ugh. This book had the Awfuls.

[Angela]

LOL @ the cover.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5 star rating*

*A finished review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!*

Let's take a time machine back into time—one year ago. Or actually, a little more than a year ago, to be honest. That was when I read Beta, the first book in the Annex trilogy, and that's where I found one of my most strongest loves, dystopian books. From there, or even a little before that, I've grown to be obsessed with this unique genre where anything is actually possible. Although the wait for Emergent felt extremely long and precious, it was so worth it. Emergent was everything I was looking for in a sequel, and there surely was no signs of second-book-syndrome anywhere nearby, not even a speck.

"Now, I understand—truly understand—what it means to have a soul, because in this moment, mine feels like it literally just exploded with exhilaration. The feeling spreads to each and every cell in my body, fireworks of joy."

As most dystopia trilogies are formatted, the first book is where the action makes all of the events prior to happen. It's the starting point and formation. Whatever happens in the second and third books are because of the first. It's like a formula. Many authors decide to follow that formula in order to create sci-fi success.

At the end of Beta, there was a huge plot-twist that was revealed that would obviously change the sequel's setting and storyline. That was the main thing that struck me the most and made me want this book a hundred times more. As we begin, we're reading in the point-of-view of Zahra, Elysia's First. The beginning basically shows the points in her life that revolve around Elysia, but she herself doesn't even know that she has a clone. In the beginning, she was having a death party and then got resurrected, and woke up. The funny thing is, is that she expected to die at the moment when the pirates found her. Next thing you know, she was brought to a deserted, truly unliveable island where the Emergents are. There, she tries to forget about Xander, the guy who she's loved for her whole life, and decides to move on. And from there, she finds out that she has a Beta, and she's with Xander.



And of course, that's where Zahra gets fed up and her attitude spews all over the place like lava from a volcano. If you read the first book previously, you'll obviously know that Zahra is the bitchiest bitch around. She's like the Evil Queen from Snow White, after eating twenty poisoned apples and still living.

The mind-blowing thing in this situation is that I ended up loving Zahra. She was such a drag queen in the beginning, I must admit, but the magic and personality that Cohn added into her sprouted her into someone better. She even, PSST began a friendship with her Beta—a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"I can be patient. Paradise will be mine, next time I get there."

This was like a Lost remake. Probably taking place in the third season, where the action through the island really began. Rachel Cohn truly created a Survival 101 book with sexy romance, thrill and heart-pounding fangirling moments.

The only thing that I didn't really like was the beginning. I do wish that the author gave us a better recap on what was happening at the moment. I obviously eventually got it, but it did take a while for me to remember the characters and who was who. It's been more than a year, people.

The story was honestly so perfect. It's something that would come out of an inspirational person's dream, since it was so smart and logical. There was suspense at the end of every page and I honestly couldn't stop reading. Every word was like something I need to follow by. (OBVIOUSLY NOT THE CRAZY THING THAT ZAHRA DID, DUH.)



I just didn't want the end of the book to come. AND IT HAD TO, IT HAD TO. AND NOW I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER GURGRJGRUHGEOGHEUOK YEAR. *sprouts anger*

"I only want you when I can have all of you." Aidan places his hand over my heart, which is the one part of me that's in no way ready to give itself to a clone."

The romance was so agonizing in this book. First of all, because there were so many get-together moments where characters were either (a) pissed because they're with someone else or (b) confused with who they really love. And honestly, that's not a bad thing because Cohn really made everything seem real. This wasn't picture-perfect romance, it was much more realistic and special. I had so many ships, and they all sunk. :(

This book actually had it all. What a fantastic comeback from Rachel Cohn—who's books I'm so obsessed with. This was action-packed, gorgeous and even had hints of discrimination and mystery. (What dystopia adds that in?) If you haven't picked up Beta yet, I DARE YOU TO, because you'll need to get ready to be obsessed.

This review can also be found on A Thousand Lives Lived, check it out for more reviews!

[Tez · Rating 4 out of 5]

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This book contains slut-shaming, ableism, gaslighting, and pregnancy by rape.

This book was delayed. Originally due out in 2013 (maybe March), it didn't release until October 2014. Never heard any explanation for the wait, but that's okay - probably none of my business. And maybe because Emergent is the second in a series (no word yet on the next book, though I think the series sold in a four-book deal), there seemed to be little publicity for it. It's only just barely mentioned on the author's website. ("And, it's official: Beta book 2: Emergent is now available!") Not even a summary for the book there, but I suppose that's fine, too - maybe to prevent spoilers? And managing a website can be troublesome.

I gave the first book, Beta, five stars, and like with other five-star books I was concerned I wouldn't enjoy the next as much, so I put off reading Emergent when it was finally published..

And thus I have mixed feelings about Emergent. It starts off from the point of view of Zhara, who took a drug that slowed her heartbeat, so when she crashed at sea at first her rescuers thought she was dead...so they cloned her. (It makes sense in the context of the book.) Anyway, now Zhara lives on an island, Heathen, with self-actualised clones who are planning an Insurrection against the people of the island paradise Demesne, from whom the Emergents escaped.

Then Zhara's clone, Elysia, arrives and there are love jealousies and...not much happens until the ambush. When the characters move to Demesne, the plot gets going. But is it a case of too little, too late? The conveniences of someone acquiring someone else's lightning finger abilities; the two women-in-fridges (i.e. females who aren't Zhara or Elysia) are the first to die...

I love Demesne's setting, such a vibrant and vivid world of colours. It's fascinating to learn about cloning, and the plight for clones' rights. And while I do rather like this novel, I wonder how much of my score is due to nostalgia. I was hopeful of another five-star read after Beta, so I think my own expectations brought me down.

All this said, I'm very much looking forward to the next book, or books, in this series. Hopefully the wait for Book 3 won't be as long, but I'll understand if it is.

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first book was pretty good. This sequel how ever was awful, it felt like a completely different author wrote it. The storyline is all over place with so many diffrent things trying to occur at the same time that it is not believable for a sci fi book . Too much teenage angst and moodiness for me, the story really did not get going until the last couple chapters were the insurrection was just rushed through and not explained very well. Overall a poor book, and I will not be reading the next in the series.

[Lupe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Beta so I was so excited when I heard about the second book Emergent. I tried to read twice butit was a little difficult to get thru. I dont understand why this book was so different from Beta I think what made it different is the perspectives. I will reread this book again sometime soon.!

[Stacy Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

Emergent by Rachel Cohn - This book was reviewed by my co-worker, Emily:

A sequel/companion book to Beta. While Beta was about Elysia, a clone of a teenage girl, Emergent focuses on Zhara, the girl Elysia was cloned from, with Elysia’s POV mixed in once their paths cross.
The book is supposed to be about the Emergents—clones who have become self-aware—preparing to rebel against their human masters and gain freedom. While this rebellion does eventually happen in the very rushed final 20 pages or so of the book, with little success, it takes a while to get there. First we have to slog through Zhara’s backstory, which is told in several flashbacks scattered through the narrative. She was addicted to the mood-altering drug ‘raxia and sent by her father to a rehab camp; while there, she and a few delinquent friends commandeer a boat and get in an accident. She washes up on an island and is assumed dead because ‘raxia slows the pulse down so drastically. Aiden, the leader of the Emergents, is there when she wakes up and he tells her that someone attempted to clone her while she was unconscious, but it was unsuccessful. Then, with nothing better to do, she decides to join him and the other Emergents on a remote island, where they prepare to induce a tsunami/earthquake that will help them overthrow their human masters on the paradise-like island of Demesne. Zhara is apparently happy living with the clones on the island, being treated as Aiden’s consort, though she repeatedly explains that while she thinks he’s hot for a clone, they don’t have sex. She’s still in love with Xander, the boy she was with before getting sent to rehab. She tells us he betrayed her, but actually he just chose to leave the island for some sort of military mission. (They call the organization the Uni-Mil, but don’t really explain it.) This is all told in out-of-order fragments for no good reason, which makes it really hard to understand.
Once we’re finally settled into the present, Zhara gets word that Xander is out on a nearby island, so she joins the scouting party in hopes that she’ll see him and win him back. This is where she finds out that not only was she cloned successfully, but that clone, Elysia, is with Xander.
For the next few hundred pages, we deal with Elysia and Zhara’s catfight over Xander. There is a recap of Elysia’s troubles from Beta: She was owned by a prominent family in Demesne, treated as a servant, and then lent to another family where she fell in love with Tahir, a clone of the family’s recently deceased son. When the son in the first family, Ivan, hears of this, he rapes Elysia in a jealous rage, and she kills him in self defense. Later, she discovers she is pregnant. It was assumed clones couldn’t reproduce, so Elysia’s unexpected pregnancy is treated as too special, even referred to as “miraculous,” to abort. She is punished for killing Ivan, and meets Xander, who “imprints” on her—irrevocably transferring all his feelings toward Zhara to Elysia. In this book, Elysia is still angry about being forced to go through with the pregnancy, but for some reason the other Emergents are treating her as a savior because of it. She is still in love with Tahir, but stays with Xander because she is relying on him to take care of the child when it is born. Also, she is afflicted with a degenerative disease called the Awfuls, which sounds to me like a disease you would read about in a Dr. Seuss book.
After many repetitive pages of feelings, flashbacks and drama, some helicopters with people from Demesne show up to take Elysia away for study. There is a slight scuffle over this before Elysia gives herself up for the sake of the others. Zhara and Xander go with her, and Aiden is presumed dead somewhere along the line, but is revealed later to be imprisoned in Demesne.
Inexplicably Zhara and friends get to enjoy themselves for a while on Demesne with Tahir, who also has the Awfuls and is living out the remainder of his time with his “parents.” Then they find out the scientists there plan to study the Awfuls and make a vaccine out of it called Mimetic, which is designed to “save teenagers from themselves” by taking away their hormonal impulses to do reckless things. This revelation is what makes the group decide to finally start the Emergent rebellion, but it is unsuccessful. Elysia’s unborn child is surgically removed from her body and placed in an incubator to be artificially brought to term for further study later, and she and the others escape Demesne, except Zhara, who resolves to go back and save Aiden and the child. To be continued in the third book, which I will not read.
The writing and thematic content throughout the book was a mountain of fail:
Horrible word choices and sentence structure. Zhara often refers to sex as mating, or a lover as a mate. Characters use the word “kinky” to negatively describe non-sexual things. Xander calls Zhara “hellbeast” when she’s being stubborn in a way that exasperates him, and Z-Dev when she’s being stubborn in a way he likes, neither of which endeared him to me. There are many awkward, inverted sentences and repetitive, choppy passages, some of which made me feel like I was reading a sci-fi Dick and Jane book, like the passage below:
“I stare at her.
The girl is me.
The girl whose hand Xander is holding is my clone.”
The way the characters are written makes them all seem like robots. Both Zhara and Elysia POVs have emotion/expression words in italics, which makes it seem like either they don’t fully know what those emotions are, or they doubt the other person is actually feeling that emotion, just imitating it. The only trouble is, they use it to refer to humans and clones alike. Zhara talks about Xander’s “Aquine programming,” which took me forever to figure out wasn’t literal brain programming, but a semi-religious set of beliefs about having a simple life. Zhara frequently uses these beliefs in attempt to manipulate him. (She literally compares this group to the Amish, which I found overly simplistic and out of place considering the uber-futuristic setting. If there are any other factions/cultures in this story, no one mentions them.)
Messages about sex, rape and women’s rights were disturbing, especially for a teenage audience. The treatment of Elysia’s pregnancy and everyone’s refusal to give her an abortion, and their reasons why not, felt like a blatant anti-choice message; no one showed any sympathy for the fact she was raped; Ivan’s mother and Zhara both assume she’s a slut for getting pregnant, despite knowing/finding out she was raped. Zhara herself tries to ensure Xander’s faithfulness to her by forcing him to have sex with her. He refuses her multiple times, but eventually she strips naked and gives him a hand job—while body parts are not described, it is obvious what she is doing—but doesn’t finish, after which he finally gives in to her. He cries afterward because it makes him realize he can’t bear to leave her now for his mission, and this makes her happy because she figures her plan to get him to stay is going better than expected. She reads his leaving anyway as a betrayal against her no matter how he tries to explain he doesn’t mean it that way. She never shows any remorse for forcing herself on him.
If any of this were well written I could interpret it as social commentary, but to me it just came off as the author trying to be “edgy.”

Content is inappropriate for anyone under 17. The first book must be read first to understand the worldbuilding in this one, but I don’t recommend either one because of bad writing and bad messages.

[Diana · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I enjoyed the first one I stopped reading this one at 75% of the book. Much more centered on relatin ships,plus I don't buy the story of parent's Tahir being able to help so much giving the way things are.

[Kolczyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mega nie wiem co o tym myśleć xd końcówka Mega zła ale reszta moze byc nawet

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars


I liked the old covers so much better!

There will be some spoilers from book 1- Beta.

I really enjoyed Beta and had been looking forward to Emergent for quite a while. I thought that Emergent was okay, but the first part was not that exciting (the book is divided into two parts).

Beta was narrated by Elysia (a teenage Beta clone who had a soul and could feel). At the end of that book Elysia killed the Governor's son and escaped. Also it was discovered that Zhara (Elysia's first - the girl who died and who she was cloned from) was not dead at all.

Emergent is narrated by both Elysia and Zhara. This was interesting. And while these two characters were quite different it did get a bit confusing (mostly because it was not indicated who the narrator was at the beginning of each chapter). It did say when the narrator changed. But if Zhara was the narrator for 3 chapters then you had to remember that.

Instead of a love triangle there are actually two love triangles. One love triangle for Elysia (Xander and Tahir) and one love triangle for Zhara (Alex who is Xander and Aidan). This made things kind of odd (and not everybody ended up with who I thought they would end up with).

I guess Emergent is not the final book because things did not end. As with the first book things really picked up towards the end. I think that the book did end off in a very interesting place. I just wish that more happened in the rest of the book.

[Adriane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the original quite a bit, but this sequel felt too rushed, and ended too abruptly. A shame, since Beta was such a great story.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

MEINE MEINUNG
Nachdem ich den 1. Teil dieser Reihe vor 7 Jahren gelesen und geliebt habe, habe ich unendlich lange auf den 2. Teil gewartet. Als dieser dann endlich dieses Jahr von cbt übersetzt wurde und (leider nur als E-Book) erschienen ist, konnte ich es kaum abwarten, endlich die Geschichte von Elysia und Zhara weiter lesen zu können.

Die Handlung setzt etwas vor dem Ende des ersten Teils an und zwar als Zhara auf die Insel vor Denesme kommt. Es wird ihre Geschichte erzählt und wie sie schließlich auf der Insel voller "defekter" Klone landet und einige offene Fragen aus dem ersten Teil werden schnell geklärt. Schließlich landet auch Elysia nach ihrem Todes-Sturz dort und während Zhara ihren Groll auf den Klon hegt, planen die anderen Klone eine Revolution, um die Unterdrückung der Klone zu stoppen.

Zhara ist Elysias First und die einzige First, die noch lebt. Sie ist eigensinnig, rebellisch und wurde wegen ihrer Raxia-Sucht in ein Erziehungscamp gesteckt, das sie mit einem waghalsigen Fluchtversuch verlässt. Sie ist taff und beißt sich durchs Leben, aber sie scheut sich auch nicht davor, ihre Gefühle zu zeigen, von denen sie sich häufig mitreißen lässt.
Elysia wird immer selbsbewusster, auch wenn sie nach wie vor sehr naiv und unschuldig durch das Leben läuft. Ihre Gefühle und Emotionen sind noch immer noch vollends ausgeprägt und sie hinterfragt nur selten die Aktionen oder Aussagen anderer.

Beide Figuren sind sehr ähnlich, aber gleichzeitig absolut verschieden. Elysia ist deutlich ruhiger als ihre First und handelt weitaus weniger impulsiv. Das Verhältnis zwischen den beiden hat einen schwierigen Start, der vor allem Zhara geschuldet ist, doch fand ich die Entwicklung zwischen beiden sehr schön.

Die Nebenfiguren waren allesamt aber eher schwammig und weniger ausgeprägt, mit vielen konnte ich nichts anfangen. Vor allem Alexander hat mich einfach nur genervt, ich habe seine gesamte Gefühlswelt absolut nicht verstanden. Während er zuvor Zhara große Liebe war, hat er nun Elysia "ausgewählt", was alles sehr verwirrend und unlogisch auf mich wirkte.
Tahir und Aiden mochte ich da zwar lieber, aber die Distanz zu ihnen war zu groß, sodass ich sie kaum wirklich kennen lernen durfte.

Geschrieben ist der Roman in der Ich-Form, wechselnd aus Elysias und Zharas Perspektiven. Der Schreibstil war ganz angenehm zu lesen, vor allem die Wechsel der Perspektiven wurden hier sehr gut eingefangen. Elysias Sicht hat sich etwas anders gelesen, ihre Naivität wurde sehr gut wiedergespiegelt, was ich sehr mochte.

Die Handlung war allerdings anders, als ich erwartet habe und sie hat auch leider nicht meine Erwartungen erfüllt. Während ich den ersten Teil über alles geliebt habe, hat es sich hier sehr gezogen und irgendwie ist nichts passiert. Ich könnte es nicht einmal wirklich zusammenfassen, weil wirklich einfach nichts passiert ist.
Eigentlich habe ich eine große Rebellion, Kämpfe, emotionale Szenen und erschreckende Ereignisse erwartet und leider habe ich all das nicht bekommen. Es wird zwar die ganze Zeit über eine Rebellion geredet, aber einen wirklichen Plan scheint es nicht so richtig zu geben. Es gibt viel Liebesdrama und einige "Trainings"-Einheiten, aber insgesamt war die Handlung einfach super langweilig. Das ganze Drama zwischen Zhara, Elysia und Alexander hat sich sehr gezogen und war aus meiner Sicht wirklich nicht nötig. Es hat die Rebellion total in den Hintergrund gestellt und immer wieder unnötigen Platz eingefordert.
Gleichzeitig fehlte es mir an überraschenden Erkenntnissen und schockierenden Wendungen, wie es sonst immer in solchen Geschichte der Fall ist. Leider hatten wir da nur kleine Szenen, die viel viel zu schnell wieder abgeflacht sind, als dass sie großartig Eindruck hinterlassen hätten können.
Es wurde hier sehr vieles angeschnitten, was super interessante Theorien und Ideen waren, die aber nur kurz und oberflächig angesprochen und nie tiefer thematisiert wurden.

Und vor allem fehlte eins: DIE REBELLION! Die ganze Zeit hat mein Leserherz auf einen großartigen Sturz des Governeurs oder ähnliches gehofft und leider kam da nichts. Als erst 30 Seiten vor Schluss langsam immer mehr Spannug und immer mehr Pläne für die Rebellion aufkamen, war ich super enttäuscht. Das offene hat mir überhaupt nicht gefallen. Es passt in diesem Fall leider überhaupt nicht und hat meine Liebe zu den Betas leider zerstört.

FAZIT
Leider eine sehr enttäuschende Fortsetzung, auf die ich viel zu lange gewartet habe. Es passiert nicht viel, der Fokus wurde auf die falschen Dinge gesetzt und einen Großteil der Handlung hat sich sehr gezogen. Die Spannung blieb aus und es wurde immer wieder das seltsame "Liebes"-Dreieck zwischen Elysia, Zhara und Alexander thematisiert, was leider eher störend war.

[Jaden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Response:
I gave Rachel Cohn a four star rating on her book Emergent, the follow up story to Beta. I felt she kept a great amount of detail in describing the future world she created. I enjoyed reading about the action. Although, I felt she dragged on into too much detail in areas. Overall, the plot line of the story was intriguing, and i was constantly reading more.
Plot:
Elysia escaped the governor's death wish for her, but she was still left to fight for her life. Once coming ashore, she was reunited with the Aquine, Exander, and another clone. Although, she found out she was no longer just fighting for her life. She was also fighting for her hybrid baby as well. She and the Aquine had to fight to make it to The Rave Caves where they joined the other emergents. Here she met her First, Zahara. Once united with her, Elysia was able to have her questions answered. The Emergents planned to take back Demesne, but the humans attacked them first. The clones were forced to resume to their designated jobs on Demesne and serve the humans until they expired. Elysia was reunited with Tahir, because of his parents’ money and political status. Zahara and Exander stayed with them, as well. However, this designated life until expiration was not accepted by the clones, and they soon rebelled again.
Characterization:
Elysia was a teen Beta, and she was carrying a her deceased “brother’s” child. She was strong and stubborn in her actions living for herself. Exander was strong, handsome, and caring, and he was kind enough to take care of Elysia. Exander was Zahara’s first love, and his presence caused Zahara to act irrational and bull headed in her decisions. Tahir was Elysia’s love, and his secret clone life had now been revealed. He was strong and educated. Together, the four planned to escape Demesne.
Setting:
The story took place on the island, Demesne, in a future time. The island was part of the U.S., formed from volcanic debri. The Water Wars were fought over this piece of land and others like it, after countries lost many cities to rising sea levels. Demesne was considered the paradise of earth. The climate, weather, water, natural disasters were prevented and oxygen were to always to be set to the most pleasing settings for the island’s residents. The technology of the humans supported the idea of being set in a future time: clones, driver free cars, hover crafts, and fantaspheres. The luxury and extent of technology allowed for Elysia and other clones to become knowledgeable, because the humans were always focused on the appearances.
Theme:
The theme of Emergent was inner strength. This was shown when Elysia had to live, even though she wanted to die. Zahara showed it when she got over her ‘raxia addiction. Exander showed it, when he chose to help Elysia, whether or not she wanted it. No matter what, the characters always used their inner strength to keep fighting for what they believed in.
Recommendation:
I recommended this book to teenage girls. I didn’t recommend this book to boys, because I felt the intent of the detail description would bore them. I did recommend this book to teenage girls, because I felt they would be able to relate. I wouldn’t recommend reading Emergent without reading Beta first. Otherwise Emergent won’t make sense, and the reader would be lost.

[AthinaB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μου άρεσε αρκετά το δεύτερο μέρος των Beta. Τόσο ώστε να καθυστερώ να διαβάσω το τέλος του, αλλά δυστυχώς όλα τα βιβλία τελειώνουν κάποια στιγμή.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm rather underwhelmed. "Emergent" is dominated by teenagers who act their worst.

I had real problems sympathizing with the Aquine that is not interested in his first love when he finds out she's alive because he already transferred his feelings to her clone.

Or with the clone who uses the Aquine because well - why does she? To escape, yes. But after that?

Because of Tahir, I understand why Zhara hurts to badly from losing Alex. You caused that hurt, darling.

Alex lives. I guess that's a good thing. For him. For me, not really.

"What'd I ever do to you?" Zhara asks [...].
"Not die. I think that's clear."

Can someone please slap Elysia? Or remove her from this book?

It's pathetic, really. Her First shows up - that's a shock, I get it - but she has no reason whatsoever to keep the act with Xander up And I can't even start on the way she tells him she doesn't need him anymore because her true love returned to her.

And then there's the First. Who lives together with the good looking clone Aidan who wants her and she wants him in a way as well but no, she still wants Xander because he's so superior and yeah... why was it again?

Sometimes I wonder what his holy appeal to me ever was. Then I look at his obscenely perfect body and face, and remember. Yes, I am that shallow. Want.

Oh wait, but wasn't Aidan just as good looking? Still, it takes Zhara the whole book to figure out she wants to be with Aidan.

And just for good measure, another quote by Zhara to outline how this book was about nothing other than hormones:

I shouldn't want to kiss someone who has treated me so callously. Maybe I just want him to want me, so I can have a turn rejecting him. Or maybe I want him so she can't have him.

So why on earth did I give this 3 stars? Because the 10% that are actually plot weren't half bad. Over and out.

[Brooke ♥booklife4life♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: Emergent
Series: Annex #2
Author: Rachel Cohn
Rating: 3.5 stars
Recommend to?: Clone lovers :]

My Review: Having loved the first book in this series so much, i dived right into this one upon finishing Beta. Sadly i was disappointed a bit.

It dragged in the middle badly. Probably could've taken out like 100 pages and the story still would've been fine.

This just didn't live up to the same hype the first one did.

I still will continue the series because the ending still left a lot of things unanswered or they didn't even really address it at all in the book even thou it was something major in the last book!!!

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well.. that was a major disapointment.

The ending was rushed and unfinished, so freaking frustrating. And don't get me started on the girls and their 3 boyfriends to exange. I rolled my eyes so many times God..
The only thing I liked was the time on Heathen and even for that I wanted to read something different, something more.

I guess I was not the right audience for this book.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told from both the clone and first's pov, this book further explores the world of Demense and the issues that arise from their "perfect society." The many layers of the middle of this trilogy really make me want to know what happens next and book 3 is a year away!

[Lei]

I will die with out this book!!!! :'(

[Sydney]

WHY WAS THE RELEASE PUSHED BACK TO 2014?!?!?!

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super good and interesting! Better than the first book!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad some things were resolved from the first book, but I wasn't happy with the baby situation. I will definitely read the next book, though!

[Madie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little better than the first. I was glad to see that Elysia was not forced to carry her pregnancy to term. I was also very happy to not read any more violations of bodily autonomy like the ones that occurred in the first book. This installment automatically gets a higher rating than the last one just for that. Also, I liked Zhara's character and POV, so that was a plus here, as well. However, the love pentagon (or I guess hexagon by the end?) in this book was all over the place, and it's very obvious that there was meant to be a third book in this series that was never written (or at least never published). I don't know if that's due to lack or sales or bad reviews or what, but the fact of the matter is that the second book ends on a cliffhanger that will never see a resolution. That brings the rating down for me personally, as I don't like unfinished endings. Overall, I wasn't as disappointed with this book as I was with the first one, but I still wouldn't recommend these books to anyone (unless they have a real desire to read them and don't have high expectations).

2.75/5 stars

[Michele Brack]

I finished this book some time ago, I've just been busy/lazy (and yes, that is possible at the same time) and I forgot to blog about it. This was a fine conclusion to the series. I like the open ending and the fact that everything remains up in the air NOT even in a good position, but literally could go either way. Clones are running around rampant, except some that are going back to being slaves, humans are the bad guys except when their not... It's just as confusing as real life and I kinda like that concept right now. Maybe it was the frame of mins I was in while I was reading the book, but I enjoyed it thoroughly.

I started reading a few books after this one and I ended up discarding most of them. I finally started another one and I hope to have it done within the next few days but I never know when I'll be in the mood to just sit down and immerse myself in a book.

Hopefully soon.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vapid. Completely and utterly useless waste of paper starring teen girls who I am so glad really do not exist in this world. I'm still wondering, "Did I really just...read that?" and the presence of the book at my side proves that I did, in fact, waste three hours of my life on this drivel.

The book starts off from Zhara's point of view. The reader gets to see how she ended up being considered dead and cloned and how she was living prior to reuniting with Xander on clone beach, or "Heathen" as it was so called for no reason. Zhara was supposedly heartbroken over Xander's "betrayal" before he left to fight for clone rights, but she has no problem simply moving her lustful feelings to the clone who rescued her. She admits to cozying up to him for survival reasons and because she wants to be queen of Demesne once the clones successfully take over. Yes, that is an honest explanation. Let's twirl our hair and pop our gum and talk about how, like, totally cool it would be to, like, be queen with this super hot clone guy. But then she finds out that Xander is still alive and that he's on the island, so she tells Aidan, her current live in clone boyfriend, that she wants to go along to get Xander. And when she sees him, this is what she thinks, "I hate him, but I'll never stop loving him, and now he's here." And this basically goes on throughout the book with her feelings for Xander and her feelings for Elysia. Because she hates Elysia on sight because this girl has her body and face, but Elysia's are, like, so much better, and that's just so not even fair! So she returns home with Aidan and finds a field where there are flowers that she makes raxia from and she gets all high. And then Aidan destroys the flowers so she can't get addicted and she tries to get in his pants so she can see if he's hiding some raxia somewhere on his person. In fact, Zhara spends a lot of time commenting on how hot some guys are and how much she would like to be in their pants. I think "jump his bones" also floated around in the text somewhere. Another example, "Sometimes I wonder what [Xander's] holy appeal to me ever was. Then I looked at his obscenely perfect body and face, and remember. Yes, I am that shallow. Want." And she is all for helping Elysia get rid of her baby, but then she becomes super attached to the idea of the baby and how it is kind of hers because Elysia's body is kind of her body and blah blah blah. She has no character growth of any kind. Actually, no one has character growth of any kind. All of the characters are shallow and superficial.

Seriously, I feel like the author faced a lot of backlash because of how the previous book ended and how Elysia was basically being forced to carry her rapist's child because it was some kind of strange symbol of hope for the clones. So she ends the book with Elysia having to carry this child and then there's this kind of backpedaling going on here where Zhara thinks about how wrong it is and how Elysia's feelings should be consulted and all I could think about were the many reviews that called the author out on her treatment of Elysia and her pregnancy at the end of the previous novel. So, she basically almost quotes some of the reviews I read and then has the baby cut out of Elysia and put in an artificial womb. Baby problem solved? I dunno. I feel like this continued to be really poorly handled.

And I feel like Elysia's presence in this book was completely unnecessary. She added nothing to the plot. She just kind of existed so that there could be a source for Zhara's angst. She's not any good at combat, even after training, and all she does is moon over Tahir and whether or not she will ever see him again. And she constantly worries about becoming "Awful" because that means death is approaching. But honestly, I can't, as the reader, even be worried about that because you know the clones are going to live. And if Elysia and Tahir end up not making it, who would really care? In fact, the book might have been better had they not been in it.

And the first half of the book is all about insurrection. The clones are prepping for it. They have combat exercises and they are able to manipulate weather and cause earthquakes and all kinds of things. There is a ton of buildup to insurrection. Does an insurrection ever happen? Nope. The last book built up to it, this book built up to it. And guess what, all those clones practiced for nothing because in the end, all it takes is Xander (yes, just one person), using borrowed clone powers to start an earthquake that basically destroys Desmesne. And it all goes down in the last twenty pages of the book

Anyway, the clones end up back on Demesne. Elysia is reunited with Tahir and they're all twitterpated and everyone comes to find out that Tahir's parents are trying to make a vaccine that will cure teenagers of "the awfuls". Yup, you know, like terrible two's, but for teens. And then all parents will have docile and obedient teens who won't engage in any kind of risk taking. You see, if First Tahir had not been a risk taker, he would not have surfed waves too big for him and died. Teens wouldn't get all strung out on raxia. They wouldn't argue with their parents. And then the parents wouldn't have to have all the stress of going through this period of child rearing. I just can't even. This is the stupidest thing I think I have ever read. But it's all "for the greater good", except that this concept was used a lot more accurately in Harry Potter. And the "imprinted" phrase comes up again. Sigh.

Don't pick up this book. Don't do it. It is completely useless. And for some reason there is going to be a third one. I would say, don't do that one either.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly, it was just an ok book for me. The ending didn't leave that much of an impact on me, there were too many unanswered questions left.

I felt that the second book felt quite dull compared to the first one.

[N.A. Fedorak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generic teenager-level romance/mild action/mild scifi series. Disappointing in the lack of character development, plotline, and general failure to delve into the depths of the problems presented by the setting.

[Ewelina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeszcze gorsza niż pierwsza część, mam wrażenie, że nic się w tej książce nie wydarzyło. Liczyłam na coś znacznie lepszego, bo pomysł na fabułę miał spory potencjał, który moim zdaniem w ogóle nie został wykorzystany.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy and entertaining read

The ending felt rushed but overall a really good read. Characters and their dynamics with each other were well thought out.