What do you think?
Rate this book
Between the Shimmer & the Blinding
To edit, or not to edit. That is the driving question in Christopher Lee’s debut novel, Between the Shimmer & the Blinding. Sam and Clara face a literal life-altering to edit or not to edit their unborn child’s genes. While Sam struggles with the idea of erasing his family history after having lost his father to cancer, Clara reckons with the ailments they could help their child avoid. As the couple searches for guidance wherever they can, they see the fates they may prevent through the editing, amplifying the magnitude of the stakes.
Between the Shimmer & the Blinding exposes the irreducible tension of progress and uncertainty. Playing out over two generations, it will shine a light on everything you know about genetic inheritance, your connection to the past, and your influence over the future. You’ll be relieved this decision isn’t yours to make—yet.
Between the Shimmer & the Blinding exposes the irreducible tension of progress and uncertainty. Playing out over two generations, it will shine a light on everything you know about genetic inheritance, your connection to the past, and your influence over the future. You’ll be relieved this decision isn’t yours to make—yet.
175 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 6, 2022
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 28, 2023
At the heart of Chris Lee’s Between the Shimmer & the Blinding is an existential question that 21st Century parents will be facing—if offered the chance to modify your unborn child’s genetic makeup to eliminate harmful traits, would you do it? Between the Shimmer & the Blinding is a compelling guideline for examining this conundrum.
Lee, through engaging character development and insightful prose introduces us to Sam and Clara who have been presented with the opportunity through genetic engineering to eliminate their unborn child’s risk of inheriting debilitating disease. Lee gives the reader a front row seat to see how Sam’s family history unravels and how they come to a decision that will alter their lives and the life of their unborn child.
Along the way we meet Sam’s father, Shields, and his mother Ann, whose stories and character have formed who he is today. If Sam and Clara take the path of genetically altering their expected child, will some of the memorable traits that made Shields and Ann unique individuals disappear. Is it worth that gamble in order to eliminate the child’s risk of inheriting a genetic disease?
Lee is able to integrate current and future scientific procedures into a captivating story of how these gene-altering procedures will affect the lives of future generations. By posing these life changing questions to Sam and Clara and seeing how they arrive at their anguished decision, Lee leaves his readers to ponder the human dilemma and consider how we as readers would decide.
Lee, through engaging character development and insightful prose introduces us to Sam and Clara who have been presented with the opportunity through genetic engineering to eliminate their unborn child’s risk of inheriting debilitating disease. Lee gives the reader a front row seat to see how Sam’s family history unravels and how they come to a decision that will alter their lives and the life of their unborn child.
Along the way we meet Sam’s father, Shields, and his mother Ann, whose stories and character have formed who he is today. If Sam and Clara take the path of genetically altering their expected child, will some of the memorable traits that made Shields and Ann unique individuals disappear. Is it worth that gamble in order to eliminate the child’s risk of inheriting a genetic disease?
Lee is able to integrate current and future scientific procedures into a captivating story of how these gene-altering procedures will affect the lives of future generations. By posing these life changing questions to Sam and Clara and seeing how they arrive at their anguished decision, Lee leaves his readers to ponder the human dilemma and consider how we as readers would decide.
August 12, 2022
This book is so compelling - the intricacies of science and the weight of history are woven together with the warmth (and conflict) of family dynamics and influential legacy, both past and present. Chris's book makes you think about who you are and where your innate motives and tendencies come from, while helping you appreciate the value of those who have walked before you and the impact they have on you now. Definitely worth the read!
August 21, 2022
Unique, brilliantly written, thought provoking, sentimental. Read it!
December 17, 2022
Lee has achieved quite a feat with this debut work; somehow knitting truly beautiful prose, plot suspense, and emotional anguish into a dissection of whether to edit the genes of future generations. Also a wonderfully effortless read you'll be tempted to complete in one sitting. Lee not only tackles an impossible decision - that many readers could one day face - with such honesty, empathy, deep thought, and torment (don't worry there is some slap-your-knee humor to get you through it), but he does so through rotating first-person accounts across characters and generations. I found this approach particularly engaging and enlightening in not only thinking through the gene editing dilemma but also for one's outlook on life in totality. How often do we dismiss or forget the experiences of those before us? Forget they lived a full life through world events, joys, tragedies, and tough decisions, as we do? Not take their wisdom, from a life hard fought, into account? Lee masterfully pulls us back and forth in time to live through their eyes in a worldview-altering way. Lastly, he weaves his grief and its impact into life and decision-making in a way that only those who have experienced painful loss truly can. I can't recommend this book enough.
October 22, 2022
Months after finishing this book, it has stayed with me. Thought provoking and inviting all at once. It delicately threads the past, present, and (potential) future together in a seamless way. The ethical implications of scientific advancements are captured in an approachable and personal manner.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews