Genre: YA Dystopia/Sci-fi
Pro-Feminist Content: ★★
Rage-Induction: >:( >:( >:( >:(
Yet another book I picked out based on the cover. I had no idea the author also co-wrote the Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist novel, but I understand that she's now contracted to write an entire series about the world described in Beta. Must be nice to have that kind of pull to lock in a multi-book deal when the first book is so awful.
On goodreads I did say that I'd bump up the rating just a little since I figure Cohn is a little out of her element genre-wise. That's why as bad as this book is, I'm hoping the feminist issues and shoddy writing get ironed out in the next book. Incidentally, the projected title for the second book--Emergent--sounds like it fits in better with the Divergent series, and seems titled that way to make people confused. Wouldn't it be better to name the book Alpha or Gamma or something? Or even, Beta: Insurgency or something.
My first issue with the book is Cohn's poor world-building. We're told that the novel takes place after the Water Wars, which seems to be a result of an environmental crisis due to global warming. Post-Water Wars, the earth is back to a Pangea-state called the Mainland (?), which has enclaves where people live in non-desert environments. The majority of the story takes place on Demesne, an island off the coast of the Mainland where only the wealthiest/most powerful residents can afford, due to the chief principle of the island being hedonism. The air itself is hyper-oxygenated, supposedly energizing the residents (i.e. making them high). The air thing makes me confused as to why the island's teens have such an addiction to Ataraxia (an opiod [?]--it's not real, and is barely described) called 'raxia if they're getting an oxygen boost. I am assuming the author is thinking of hyperbaric therapies, but most of those induce oxygen toxicity, so for the sake of my brain, I'm going to assume she means at a level that doesn't cause organ damage. If your body feels that good, why bother taking something that knocks you out from that good feeling?
Our protagonist is Elysia, a teen Beta, or testable human clone. Clones are used for service only in this world; they have no rights. This might have to do with the fact that clones are made of dead humans (the clone line's "First") who have been stripped of their souls so that they have no desires of their own. Elysia's own First might have been an athlete due to her svelte figure and innate swimming skills. Clones serve in various capacities (designated by the pattern on their faces): laborers, luxisstants (massage girls?), secretaries, housekeepers, etc. I had a lot of trouble reading through some of the descriptions because I wondered if Cohn's White Privilege caused some Unfortunate Implications in how the clones fit in the world. I mean, the laborers don't play much of a role, and the one that does fits a non-white Latino description and has the name Miguel. Mei-Xing is the Healer clone (on page 16 she is described wearing a Chinese dress and having alabaster skin with "slanted" eyes; I wish I were kidding). Tawny and Elysia were clearly picked for looks as they are white, and fit the typical house-slave dynamic. And of course the house-clones are the ones sexually harassed: Tawny the luxissant is Elysia's family's father's (the "Governor") companion, something that is forbidden yet broken, like anti-miscegenation laws of slavery era; Elysia gets raped and impregnated by her possessive and weird brother Ivan.
Mrs. Bratton buys Elysia initially as a companion in order to have someone at home about the same age as her first daughter, Astrid, who has left home to study at a prestigious university. Though we never actually meet Astrid, we know from how everyone (including her own family) talks about her as if she were some crazy social justice warrior that can't let things be. She's mentioned so often that I was disappointed that we never get to see her. The Bratton family is composed of the Mother who likes to get drunk; the Governor who regularly cheats on his wife with Tawny (there's also implications that he raped Astrid and might want to start with Liesel too); Ivan, the son who will be entering the military, who believes that Mother bought Elysia for his own pleasure purposes and seems to care enough about her to prevent his father from raping Elysia, but in the end rapes her himself; and Liesel, the youngest daughter who seems like she starts to love Elysia for real but has no common sense whatsoever. The clone members of the household include Tawny and Xanthe, the housekeeper.
Elysia gets paraded around by Mother and hangs out with Ivan's friends Farzad, Dementia, and Greer. The island teens don't do much other than try to seek thrills and do 'raxia, so Elysia's friendship with them is shallow at best. Elysia falls in lust-at-first-sight with Tahir, the wealthy scion of a Tunisian scientist that rebuilt parts of the Mainland after the Water Wars. Thrill-seeking and reckless, Tahir at one point dated Astrid Bratton and broke her heart. But after his surfing accident, his friends' drug abuse and spoiled lifestyle don't interest him anymore.
Elysia's second romantic storyline involves someone she dubs the Swimming God, who she thinks may have been her First's lover. The feelings she has for this person are strong, and it is the first indication that Elysia has feelings, which aren't supposed to manifest in clones. Elysia at first tries to keep her "quirks" (her ability to taste and enjoy food, romantic/sexual feelings, and anger) hidden so as not to cause trouble to her family, but as time goes on, she realizes she isn't the only Defect around. Other clones also appear to have feelings and desires as well, and in the background of the story, an Insurrection mounts.
Over the course of the novel, Elysia is convinced that she must join this resistance movement. One of the key events pushing her towards escape is when Ivan rapes her. In the process of defending herself, she ends up killing Ivan, and tries to swim away from the authorities. I'm not fond of rape-as-plot-device storylines, and this really goes into anti-feminist territory as she ends up pregnant from the rape. At this point, the Swimming God saves her and "imprints" on her (he's part of a genetically engineered race of perfect men, and those in that community mate for life), and forces her to keep the baby against her will. This is where the rage induction reaches the maximum; the only saving grace is that Elysia repeats that she does not want the baby, and we know this is the end of the novel. Because of that, I'm hoping that the next book will have Elysia exercising her rights and terminating the pregnancy.
I really can't fathom how Cohn can save the story in forthcoming novels, but she'll need a miracle. Not only did the plot and characters bore me, but the whole rape fallout made me sick. Perhaps the next novel should be named Delta, in the hopes that the feminist content changes.
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