Lillian Clark (1) (1985–)

Half Life was such an amazing read! Combining typical high school drama-- romance, friendships, and academic pressures-- with slightly creepy, high-tech science, Half Life truly stands out.
I especially liked the way Lucille was depicted: I think her anxiety and need to be perfect was extremely well-written. Her struggles-- from her inner monologue about feeling like people are thinking badly about her to her need to overachieve, is extremely reflective of how I felt in high school and continue to feel today as a college student. All of the other excellent qualities of this book aside, I think that plenty of teens and even adults will be able to see themselves in Lucille.
Aside from that, the writing style drew me in immediately, and I loved every single character in the book. Even the side characters (like Cass's friends) were fully fleshed out and not at all flat or forgettable. I think it's incredible how the author was able to distinguish Lucy from Lucille so well. I often have trouble remembering whose point of view it is in a lot of books, even when one character isn't a literal clone of the other. I didn't have this problem once in Half Life. The story itself was constantly riveting: I couldn't put this book down and read it all in one sitting.
I highly, highly, highly recommend Half Life to anyone who likes sci-fi or contemporary, as well as anyone who's struggled with anxiety. This book now holds such a special place in my heart because of the way Lucille's anxiety and self-doubt was depicted, and I think that it could really resonate with many other readers as well.
4.5/5 stars*… (más)

Half Life was such an amazing read! Combining typical high school drama-- romance, friendships, and academic pressures-- with slightly creepy, high-tech science, Half Life truly stands out.
I especially liked the way Lucille was depicted: I think her anxiety and need to be perfect was extremely well-written. Her struggles-- from her inner monologue about feeling like people are thinking badly about her to her need to overachieve, is extremely reflective of how I felt in high school and continue to feel today as a college student. All of the other excellent qualities of this book aside, I think that plenty of teens and even adults will be able to see themselves in Lucille.
Aside from that, the writing style drew me in immediately, and I loved every single character in the book. Even the side characters (like Cass's friends) were fully fleshed out and not at all flat or forgettable. I think it's incredible how the author was able to distinguish Lucy from Lucille so well. I often have trouble remembering whose point of view it is in a lot of books, even when one character isn't a literal clone of the other. I didn't have this problem once in Half Life. The story itself was constantly riveting: I couldn't put this book down and read it all in one sitting.
I highly, highly, highly recommend Half Life to anyone who likes sci-fi or contemporary, as well as anyone who's struggled with anxiety. This book now holds such a special place in my heart because of the way Lucille's anxiety and self-doubt was depicted, and I think that it could really resonate with many other readers as well.
4.5/5 stars*… (más)

teen science fiction (cloning)
I read to p. 110 (less than half). This was ok--the characters are interesting/witty enough, but all the sci-fi bits (made up processes for assembling and habilitating the clone) went on and on, and were really not my thing. The foreshadowing with the first clone, the assistant Isobel (referring to her Original self, crying, etc.) was fine but just underscored how stupid the whole premise of the idea, making me impatient for the made-up technical stuff to end so they would get to the part where problems start happening (any minute now... nope, just more sci-fi mumbo jumbo).
I wouldn't recommend this book unless the reader is really into sci-fi and cloning. Otherwise it kind of drags.… (más)