“Most people don't realize how important librarians are. I ran across a book recently which suggested that the peace and prosperity of a culture was solely related to how many librarians it contained. Possibly a slight overstatement. But a culture that doesn't value its librarians doesn't value ideas and without ideas, well, where are we?”
― Neil Gaiman

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What Happens When We Start Custom-Ordering Our Human Servants?








Beta
By Rachel Cohn
http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781423157199


Elysia is Dr. Lusardi’s latest clone – a teen beta model.  She is stunningly beautiful and the Governor of Demesne’s wife just has to have her as a replacement for her daughter Astrid who is off on the mainland studying at the University.  Clones aren’t supposed to have emotions.  Clones aren’t supposed to be able to taste.  Clones are supposed to be obedient.  Clones aren’t human.  Are they?

Rachel Cohn does an excellent job with this dystopia of setting up a world that explores what it is to be human and poses some serious ethical questions.  Beta is an excellent book for classroom discussions in addition to being a nail biting read!  The surprise ending is clearly set up for a sequel. Five Stars!

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)