Replica

by Kelly Hashway

Emily Saunders knows what career she’ll have, who she’ll marry, and even how many children she’ll have. She’s known this since she was born. All thanks to the scientists who created the community of Theoria and decided planning out the future and eliminating chance by using people’s blood is the best way to live.
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Everyone is happy. Except Emily. But since her dad is one of the founding scientists, leaving Theoria is impossible. Worse, Emily starts getting visions of the future—a future that doesn’t fit what the scientists have planned. She has to hide her gift or she could be killed by the very people who are claiming to know the way to a peaceful existence. And when a stranger comes into the community and has the same gift, it threatens to expose them both.
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But the biggest secret is the one Theoria’s founders are keeping. Their experiment is so much greater than they’re letting on, and it could mean the end for Emily and everyone she cares about.

Genres: Science Fiction

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 19, 2018

About the author

Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn’t stop her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween. Maybe it was growing up reading R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books that instilled a love of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction for young adults, middle graders, and young children. Kelly is also USA Today bestselling romance author Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was part of the Wrath and Ruin Box Set which was fascinating, because this was the first truly sci. fi. offering of the set. I enjoyed the first half of the novel which read like some dystopian story reminiscent of Logan’s Run; however, somewhere in the middle it gets to be fantastical on a whole other level that stretches what the reader already understands to be the known parameters established. You see, and I hope this doesn’t sound disrespectful of the author’s work, when parameters are established for fully half the novel, you can’t change the plot devices to create different parameters. It feels like a cheat. I understand that the name of the book is Replica, so the clone idea hangs over the story waiting to be introduced and when it is, it just feels wrong, and the logic dissipates when you have the main character decide to go live in a town that is MORE restrictive of freedom. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the first part of the story, but the second half is rife with inconsistency. Emily is whiny and I absolutely loathed her. I love a strong female lead, but she almost got herself killed several times for opening her mouth at the wrong time. Gabe and Jake are great. These are good characters, but even the villains’ motivations seem obtuse and inconsistent. Sorry, if I sound overly harsh. It was just an OK for me.

[Darque Dreamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Replica. It was fast paced, unique, and mysterious. I loved the intensity of the story line and the unpredictability of the twists! It had intrigue, betrayal, and terrifying bits of science.
I found the world of Theoria to be well developed. It was futuristic, but modern, so it was still relatable, and felt attainable. But, it still offered intimidating technology that made the story intense and heart pounding!

The characters in this one were a little typical of “ya” characters, but were still enjoyable and dynamic in comparison to each other. I enjoyed Emily, our main character. She was feisty, independent, and very intelligent. Gabe was loyal and caring, and Jake was a little humorous, and very interesting.

It was refreshing to have a ya read where the love interest was not the center of attention. This one had more of a family feel to it. It combined things I love about ya with things I love about sci-fi and non-romance stories, but still offered intrigue of a potential relationship, and held excitement.

I felt satisfied after reading this. It was one of those books that made me think. It had me on the edge of my seat and held my attention until the very end. I’d definitely recommend it, and give it 4.5 stars!

[Maberan Potato · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't actually that bad. Emily is proactive and has enough of a personality to make me understand her, Gabe is a refreshing take on a love interest in that he's nice and trusts Emily, and THERE'S NO LOVE TRIANGLE!!! I know right?? Jake is actually Emily's brother!! Can you believe this, a man and a woman that aren't meant to be stuck in a love triangle together???

The pacing was very nice, things happened and while the plot was a little stupid and redundant at points there was always progress being made, even if it was only a little bit. Like, the first 3 chapters set up pretty much everything you need to know about the main characters and that's great.

The story tho... it's a little, let's say, dumb as fuck. I shall be spoiling random stuff below so just know that the story is really inconsistent and thus bad

Ok so the cause of this society is that some dudes invented a machine that tells the future from your blood. Not your future, the future. It'll tell you which job you will have, who you're going to marry- even gives names when that person might not even be born yet??- and how many kids you will have and fuck me if that's not something that'll ever fucking happen.

Like, I wanted there to be a reveal that this whole thing is just a placebo effect and they're just orchestrating the names and faking everything but no, this is supposed to be the actual future. And I'm sorry but Emily almost died like 7 times in this book, just that would prove the shit doesn't work because it paired Gabe with someone who wouldn't live to marry him or have his kids. Like, how do they explain someone killing themselves before they accomplish this "prophecy" of sorts? "hmm yeah the Occulus can tell you which thing society deemed necessary enough to have people focus most of their lives doing this specific thing aka job you're destined to do but it didn't see little timmy getting hit by a bus last week" how are those any different tho

ANYWAY this system is dumb and at at least Emily knows it. This whole thing is like super sci-fi technology- they made clones- but they also can't seem to do a blood test on Jake to see if he's related to anyone? THEY HAVE EVERYONE'S BLOOD WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THIS. Also they can remove emotion and pain from people and made clones with that to test their experiment without realizing that it wouldn't be the same experiment?? Who authorized this honestly, no way the US government would let them keep their fucking CLONING TECHNOLOGY to themselves

Also why did Emily Jake and Gabe suddenly decide to go live in Revelation, which is the same town as the one they're in except with clones?? Why didn't they stay and break the people out of the lies before going? They had Emily's dad on their side- whom I can't believe they forgave, he's so inconsistent it's dangerous; says he love Emily and her mom but needed the mom to trade her life for Emily's to not kill his daughter?? Like what is this hillbilly logic

AND WHY DID THE MOM JUST RUN BACK TO DIE?? They were FINE!! They were escaping!! But nope gotta go die for no reason I guess?? And then they leave and immediately plan to come back since without the mom they don't have a reason to go to revelation anymore?? /Yeah they changed that suddenly it was very weird.

I couldn't understand for the life of me why these people cared about this experiment so much when it's failed, they know it's not working properly and they get to the point of having to murder their own children to keep the facade going. And how in the hell would the US government get behind this?? America, land of the free except when your whole life is planned for you from birth I guess?

I was enjoying this until the cloning bit, that's for sure. That came out of fucking nowhere.

I still think they could've ended this a lot sooner...

[Kristine Schwartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot was quite the adventurous ride. The characters were well developed. And the pace was steady. It was a great read.

I thought Emily, the main character, was interesting. Her personality didn’t fit into the society she was born into, which took us, the readers, on one bumpy ride as she tried to find her place.

This was a page turner, and it was difficult to put down at times. The world the author painted was really intriguing, and it was fun reading about all of their society’s technological advances and way of life.

I did notice several editing errors, but they in no way detracted from the quality of the read. I’d recommend this to YA readers who enjoy fast paced plots full of twists.

[Katie Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect going in, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The romance plot was fresh, and the storyline as a whole was fun and unique. Well done!

[Kelsey Ketch]

DNF.