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Taylor Five
A gripping, deeply moving adventure raises startling questions about what it means to be human.
Taylor Walker seems like any ordinary 14-year-old. Ordinary—if you overlook the fact that she lives on the island of Borneo, on a primate reserve run by her parents, and knows how to survive in the jungle. Obviously, Tay isn’t just like everyone else. But she is like one other person. She’s exactly like one other person. Tay is a clone, one of only five in the world, and her clone mother is Pam Taylor, a brilliant scientist.
When rebels attack the reserve, Tay escapes with her younger brother and Uncle, an exceptionally intelligent orangutan. As they flee through the jungle, Tay must look within to find her Pam’s DNA, tempered by Taylor’s extraordinary life. And she looks to Uncle for guidance—for Tay knows that the uncanny bond between Uncle and herself is the key to their survival.
Taylor Walker seems like any ordinary 14-year-old. Ordinary—if you overlook the fact that she lives on the island of Borneo, on a primate reserve run by her parents, and knows how to survive in the jungle. Obviously, Tay isn’t just like everyone else. But she is like one other person. She’s exactly like one other person. Tay is a clone, one of only five in the world, and her clone mother is Pam Taylor, a brilliant scientist.
When rebels attack the reserve, Tay escapes with her younger brother and Uncle, an exceptionally intelligent orangutan. As they flee through the jungle, Tay must look within to find her Pam’s DNA, tempered by Taylor’s extraordinary life. And she looks to Uncle for guidance—for Tay knows that the uncanny bond between Uncle and herself is the key to their survival.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
7 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
Ann Halam
38 books35 followersAnn Halam is a pseudonym of Gwyneth Jones.
As well as being a children’s author, Ann Halam writes adult science fiction and fantasy books as the popular and prizewinning author Gwyneth Jones. Her most recent titles for Wendy Lamb Books are Dr. Franklin’s Island, Taylor Five, and Siberia. She lives in Brighton, England.
As well as being a children’s author, Ann Halam writes adult science fiction and fantasy books as the popular and prizewinning author Gwyneth Jones. Her most recent titles for Wendy Lamb Books are Dr. Franklin’s Island, Taylor Five, and Siberia. She lives in Brighton, England.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 12, 2009
We find out immediately that Taylor is a clone of a famous scientist, but the focus quickly shifts to her life at a primate research station in Borneo. When rebels destroy the station Tay, her brother, and an orangutun who lives at the station must make a long and dangerous journey through the jungle to get help. The plot synopsis makes this sound much more science-fictiony than it is. The fact that Tay is a clone is really only significant in terms of her mental and emotional state: she is not altered to be abnormal in any way (the experiment was about finding an arthritis treatment) and she does not get captured by evil scientists/government agents/terrorists as often goes in these stories. It is basically a story of a young person trying to survive under extremely adverse and painful conditions, and her internal processes. I actually liked this approach because too many books especially YA take one trait that makes the protagonist different (cyborg, gay, psychic, artist, minority, whatever) and really reduces their experience and identity to being all about that one trait, as if something that makes a person "different" must completely define them.
September 24, 2021
Re-read this one in one sitting, and can see why it didn't stick with me as a kid. I'm going to analyze it as part of a larger project on medical abuse in young adult speculative fiction, and it'll be very useful in looking at the subgenre's engagement with (post)humanity, self-determination, and childhood/the subjugation of children. That said, the book itself isn't particularly well-paced, and the orientalist racism, while likely subtle to white readers at the time of publication (2004), has aged like rotten milk.
I wish Halam had dug deeper into Taylor's existential feelings around being a clone, her ambivalence toward her mother-creator, and her kinship with Uncle and the other ape test subjects (which speaks volumes about *personhood* and relationship to captivity/freedom as more meaningful than species in facilitating comradeship). The opening act of the novel could have used a bit more mapping, especially as a book meant for middle-grade/young adult readers: as an adult PhD student, I myself found sections disorienting. Still, in barely two-hundred small pages, Halam does manage to provoke profound questions about autonomy and destiny, and Taylor is a smart and relatable heroine who faces her situation with believable (and refreshing!) ambivalence.
I wish Halam had dug deeper into Taylor's existential feelings around being a clone, her ambivalence toward her mother-creator, and her kinship with Uncle and the other ape test subjects (which speaks volumes about *personhood* and relationship to captivity/freedom as more meaningful than species in facilitating comradeship). The opening act of the novel could have used a bit more mapping, especially as a book meant for middle-grade/young adult readers: as an adult PhD student, I myself found sections disorienting. Still, in barely two-hundred small pages, Halam does manage to provoke profound questions about autonomy and destiny, and Taylor is a smart and relatable heroine who faces her situation with believable (and refreshing!) ambivalence.
July 27, 2020
Not bad. I wish it'd dove more into the ethics/philosophy of cloning. Also, I wish the big twist would've been that the scientists were deliberately testing Taylor 5 the entire time, to see how she reacted to the horrific situation. That would've been really dark.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2024
Taylor Five is the story of Tay Walker, a teenager born and raised on a wildlife Refuge in the jungles of Borneo. Tay is also a clone, a fact which has had all sorts of ramifications for her and her relationship with friends and family, but she’s just beginning to cope when her home is raided by rebels and she is forced to flee through the jungle to the coast. Halam pulls no punches: in one terrible swoop, Tay loses her family, her friends, her home, all the things we use to define ourselves, all the things whose relationship with Tay were in flux because of her identity as a clone. Stripped of these things, alone but for the support of the Refuge’s mascot, an orang utan called Uncle, Tay’s struggle to survive is not only a physical one but a mental one as she tries to keep her fraying sense of self together.
This was almost as good as Dr Franklin’s Island, except the latter had the element of surprise which is what pushes it ahead by a beak. Oddly enough, for me at least, the book doesn’t really kick off properly until Tay reaches safety, about halfway through, meets her clone-sister and tries to rescue Uncle from being sent to a zoo. In fact, it’s fair to say that Tay goes a bit mad at this point and the reader is carried along on a wave of pure sympathy as we urge her to get through this and find some sort of peace of mind.
Taylor Five has the same sort of concerns Dr Franklin’s Island did, about scientific endeavour and the very human consequences thereof. Another unputdownable book.
Well, I’ll be looking out for more Ann Halam books. In fact, I think her new one, Siberia, is in one of the shops in town and I do believe I’ll be investing in that on Friday.
This was almost as good as Dr Franklin’s Island, except the latter had the element of surprise which is what pushes it ahead by a beak. Oddly enough, for me at least, the book doesn’t really kick off properly until Tay reaches safety, about halfway through, meets her clone-sister and tries to rescue Uncle from being sent to a zoo. In fact, it’s fair to say that Tay goes a bit mad at this point and the reader is carried along on a wave of pure sympathy as we urge her to get through this and find some sort of peace of mind.
Taylor Five has the same sort of concerns Dr Franklin’s Island did, about scientific endeavour and the very human consequences thereof. Another unputdownable book.
Well, I’ll be looking out for more Ann Halam books. In fact, I think her new one, Siberia, is in one of the shops in town and I do believe I’ll be investing in that on Friday.
April 2, 2020
There are times when the blurb of a book tells you nearly everything you need to know. In this case it tells you nearly nothing and is the better for the surprises it brings.
You could have guessed that the book has a strong environment message from the blurb. You couldn't have guessed how strong the human message is. There are genuine shocks and sad parts of the book. The fact that the main character is a clone is something that has less significance than you may expect but also adds to the story that is being told immensely.
The main non-human character has as much character development as the main character. Some of the secondary characters are as memorable as these two are and the air of mystery helps the book to a conclusion that, although not quite satisfying, works.
It is a young adult book but one that probably suits a more mature young adult audience. The length of it means that it could possibly be read in a day by the majority of the target audience. I hovered between 3 and 4 stars for this. I decided to go higher as it is different with a lot of ideas that I haven't read before.
You could have guessed that the book has a strong environment message from the blurb. You couldn't have guessed how strong the human message is. There are genuine shocks and sad parts of the book. The fact that the main character is a clone is something that has less significance than you may expect but also adds to the story that is being told immensely.
The main non-human character has as much character development as the main character. Some of the secondary characters are as memorable as these two are and the air of mystery helps the book to a conclusion that, although not quite satisfying, works.
It is a young adult book but one that probably suits a more mature young adult audience. The length of it means that it could possibly be read in a day by the majority of the target audience. I hovered between 3 and 4 stars for this. I decided to go higher as it is different with a lot of ideas that I haven't read before.
April 6, 2018
In the first chapter one of the characters says "It's the Rebels"(5) which is a foreshadowing. The Rebels are a big part of the book, in fact I believe they are the ones who take her parents. "Taylor Five" by Ann Halam is about a girl named Taylor who is a clone. To start with, she has to go on a long trip to find help. Additionally, she realizes that an orangutan is following her. Furthermore, in the end she ends up helping the orangutan. I would recommend this book because it is very exciting.
January 16, 2018
Quite interesting, slow start, powerfully emotional middle, but seems to tail off a bit at the end. Gets four stars for making me sob. uncontrollably. for several hours.
October 29, 2025
Reread and zoned out a bit but cute
May 8, 2008
Taylor has a fear: that her identity will soon be discovered and she will no longer be able to live the peaceful life she has always known. She lives on the orangutan reserve on the jungle island of Borneo, which is close to Singapore. Her secret that has been released to the world is that there have been five successful human clones, all teenagers now, but the identities were kept confidential.
Tay knew she was adopted and even that she was a test-tube baby. It did not bother her when she found out two years ago that her parent's best friend, Pam Taylor, was her gene mother, and that she has no father. But now that the news has been released, Taylor is anxious that the media will come chasing after her with unanswerable questions. She even feels strange with her brother, Donny, when he comes home from school for his summer holidays.
But that quickly passes and they fall into their familiar ways and spend an entire Saturday exploring miles of caves and beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. Then, tragedy strikes. While Tay and Donny are in the caves, a forest-fire rages outside, and all the workers of the orangutan refuge, including their parents, are kidnapped by rebels of the Sultan of Kandah. An adult orangutan with exceptional intelligence named Uncle finds the children and helps them travel through miles of jungle and desert. With his guidance, Tay must find her inner strength to reach safety in the face of tragedy and an unknown future.
Taylor Five gives insight to true friendship, happiness and tragedy. I haven't cried this much over a book since I read Where the Red Fern Grows in the fifth grade. It shows great appreciation of one of our closest animal relatives, and makes us question the ethics of science and creation.
Tay knew she was adopted and even that she was a test-tube baby. It did not bother her when she found out two years ago that her parent's best friend, Pam Taylor, was her gene mother, and that she has no father. But now that the news has been released, Taylor is anxious that the media will come chasing after her with unanswerable questions. She even feels strange with her brother, Donny, when he comes home from school for his summer holidays.
But that quickly passes and they fall into their familiar ways and spend an entire Saturday exploring miles of caves and beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. Then, tragedy strikes. While Tay and Donny are in the caves, a forest-fire rages outside, and all the workers of the orangutan refuge, including their parents, are kidnapped by rebels of the Sultan of Kandah. An adult orangutan with exceptional intelligence named Uncle finds the children and helps them travel through miles of jungle and desert. With his guidance, Tay must find her inner strength to reach safety in the face of tragedy and an unknown future.
Taylor Five gives insight to true friendship, happiness and tragedy. I haven't cried this much over a book since I read Where the Red Fern Grows in the fifth grade. It shows great appreciation of one of our closest animal relatives, and makes us question the ethics of science and creation.
October 29, 2013
A light and fluffy read with no mention of sex, just a faint whiff of drugs (but certainly not for recreational purposes) and a complete absence of rock 'n' roll.
I once read that the books of Charles Dickens are characterised by having happy endings (ok, I might have generalised a little too much there), and Taylor Five sufferes, IMO, from the same syndrome.
But actually, that annoys me less than the trend in Horror Movies (probably something to do with sequels) that sees the Hero banish the Beast to the Underworld, only to see, in the last seconds of the movie, the Beast chuckling away as it plans its next foray into the world. Grr; why can't horror movies ever have happy ending? But I guess, when I think about it, that that's part of The Horror. Hmm.
But I digress (surely that's not like me (well, maybe on occasion (ok, all the time dammit!))). For me to complain that a book suffers from a happy ending is just trite. But still, it rankles, it sticks in my craw, it goes against the grain, it rubs me up the wrong way, it.. it's silly. Life's just not like that. Anybody'd think this was a work of fiction designed to extract a few key events from a life and portray them in an arc: peaceful - wham! - run - escape - grow - resolve - return - happy. Hmm.
But still, it kept me from thinking about my own miserable little life for a few short hours - so what more can you ask?
I once read that the books of Charles Dickens are characterised by having happy endings (ok, I might have generalised a little too much there), and Taylor Five sufferes, IMO, from the same syndrome.
But actually, that annoys me less than the trend in Horror Movies (probably something to do with sequels) that sees the Hero banish the Beast to the Underworld, only to see, in the last seconds of the movie, the Beast chuckling away as it plans its next foray into the world. Grr; why can't horror movies ever have happy ending? But I guess, when I think about it, that that's part of The Horror. Hmm.
But I digress (surely that's not like me (well, maybe on occasion (ok, all the time dammit!))). For me to complain that a book suffers from a happy ending is just trite. But still, it rankles, it sticks in my craw, it goes against the grain, it rubs me up the wrong way, it.. it's silly. Life's just not like that. Anybody'd think this was a work of fiction designed to extract a few key events from a life and portray them in an arc: peaceful - wham! - run - escape - grow - resolve - return - happy. Hmm.
But still, it kept me from thinking about my own miserable little life for a few short hours - so what more can you ask?
April 19, 2010
Okay, Dr. Franklin's Island and Siberia: A Novel are not what I would call cheerful, but geez, at least they're not as depressing as Taylor Five. Taylor Walker lives with her biologist parents and her brother in Borneo, where her parents study orangutans; she seems like an ordinary teenager, but she's not -- she's a clone, of her parents' best friend Pam Taylor, a brilliant scientist. When a political uprising destroys Taylor's life as she knows it, she must survive in the jungle with the help of Uncle, an extra intelligent orangutan, and learn to come to terms with her existence.
As in her other books, Halam provides a lot of food for thought, here focused on cloning, personality, and intelligence, but the events of the book were just too grim for me.
As in her other books, Halam provides a lot of food for thought, here focused on cloning, personality, and intelligence, but the events of the book were just too grim for me.
September 4, 2008
I read Ann Halam's amazing _Siberia_ last year, and I think that's what motivated me to pick this one out of the YA section of my local library. Ann Halam writes science fiction that's very science-y, but also immensely nuanced and human. And, at least in this book, she does it all in slightly less than 200 pages. Every character felt vivid and multi-dimensional to me, and she has an interesting (and very shades-of-grey) take on human cloning.
I love big, labyrinthine, multi-volume fantasies when they're well done, but it's so refreshing to read a book that does it all in one (slim) volume. This author writes for adults as Gwyneth Jones, and I think I might need to check out her non-YA stuff at some point.
I love big, labyrinthine, multi-volume fantasies when they're well done, but it's so refreshing to read a book that does it all in one (slim) volume. This author writes for adults as Gwyneth Jones, and I think I might need to check out her non-YA stuff at some point.
December 21, 2011
I read this book a while ago, so this might not be a super accurate review..
After Siberia, which I thought was absolutely AMAZING, I was very excited to read other books by Ann Halam. This one, however, did not quite satisfy me. I was really into the characters and ideas and plot, and I love fast paced books, but this one was... TOO fast paced. I felt like there wasn't enough detail or description, and the end was lacking. The ideas were all there, but they just needed to be more developed...
After Siberia, which I thought was absolutely AMAZING, I was very excited to read other books by Ann Halam. This one, however, did not quite satisfy me. I was really into the characters and ideas and plot, and I love fast paced books, but this one was... TOO fast paced. I felt like there wasn't enough detail or description, and the end was lacking. The ideas were all there, but they just needed to be more developed...
August 23, 2014
A great novel by Ann Halam, although if you are expecting science fiction along the lines of her Dr Franklin's Island, you will be disappointed. Ostensibly, this is a book about cloning, but factually it is a story about a young girl who happens to be a clone. SF is not the focus of the novel and it could quite easily be read as a contemporary realist story about terrorism, survival, and human-orang-utan relationships in Borneo. Great characters and a thrilling plot.
December 1, 2014
Intense and brilliant, the evocative writing of Ann Halam forges a masterful storytelling set in Borneo that will entertain and shock readers from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Combining science-fiction elements in the jungles of Borneo this action packed adventure will appeal to a wide range of readers.
Order a copy from your library!
Order a copy from your library!
June 25, 2010
It's an okay book, but it has good messages. It teaches you that even if something bad happens you can grow stronger from that experience and it teaches you that be yourself and don't try to be something your not. I liked the messages.
July 9, 2010
An interesting sci-fi-ish YA novel recommendation by Amanda about some kids in an African reserve and a very smart primate. It took a while for me to get immersed in it, but ended up being quite good.
April 25, 2007
Heartbreaking. Feels too short to be truly complete. Breathtaking and original.
June 30, 2012
Wasn't overly impressed with this book, but had to read it as I'll be teaching it next year. If I could, I'd give it 3.5 stars. Uncle was the best character. :)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews