Amaterasu Reads: ARC Review: Replication (The Jason Experiment) by Jill Williamson

God created humans. And with it comes the wisdom to do great things, but what if we have found a way to make copies of ourselves? What horrors and wonders do we find with this power to manipulate lives? To make them?

Title: Replication: The Jason Experiment by Jill Williamson
Pages: 304
Release Date: December 27th 2011
Published by: Zonderkidz
Source: Publisher (thanks Candice!)
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

When Your Life Is Not Your Own
Martyr---otherwise known as Jason 3:3---is one of hundreds of clones kept in a remote facility called Jason Farms. Told that he has been created to save humanity, Martyr has just one wish before he is scheduled to 'expire' in less than a month. To see the sky.

Abby Goyer may have just moved to Alaska, but she has a feeling something strange is going on at the farm where her father works. But even this smart, confident girl could never have imagined what lies beneath a simple barn. Or what would happen when a mysterious boy shows up at her door, asking about the stars.

As the reality of the Jason Experiment comes to light, Martyr is caught between two futures---the one for which he was produced and the one Abby believes God created him to have. Time is running out, and Martyr must decide if a life with Abby is worth leaving everything he's ever known.

Barely twenty pages in and I know I will not be able to put this book down from start to the end. It is THAT good.

I love, love love this. I was so surprised by how good this book actually was. The dialogue itself is nothing short of special, but what will compel you to read is the story itself. How will you feel when you find out you're nothing but a copy? That your whole life is a lie?

Martyr is such a special person. He touched my heart the moment I've read of him. He was a copy, and so is the other fifty five Jasons inside the facility. He shouldn't be different as all the other creations, but he was. He's a savior, a defender of the weak, the brokens like Baby. He's never been outside all his life and he's counting down the days until he dies. He has one wish: to see the sky. My heart just broke because of his innocence and his thirst for knowledge, for things he knows he shouldn't have. He believes he's serving a higher purpose with his death, as all "Jasons" die at eighteen. Martyr is a genuinely kind guy. I don't think I have ever seen any male lead that is as kind as he was. The way he loves, unquestionable and not asking for anything in return makes me want to tear up. He's this boy who will call out to your protective side. Readers will want to take care of him, and treasure the pureness in him. Oblivious of the ways of the world, untainted, simple. Martyr is a one of a kind character. He reminds me of what it is like to be a child, slowly growing up with his world unraveling before him.

Abby is struggling to move on with her life after her mother's death. She passed away with a lot of heavy feeling towards Abby's father, as her firm religious views and beliefs often clashes with the scientific practical side of her scientist dad. Abby just wants to find meaning in her life once more, and Martyr's appearance in her life challenged a lot of her beliefs and her faith. Here is a person who is a product of something that is wrong, and yet Martyr is everything that should be right in a person. He's also a human being. Martyr's quest to understand life and God helped Abby understand what His plans are for her. To save someone like Martyr. To save lives. Abby is a feisty character, smart and witty. She's also a bit of an oddball, always trying to see things through pros and cons, a black and white approach where one is right and the other is wrong, and that's just it.

I can't imagine what life is for JD. Being the 'perfect' specimen of a guy in a small town must have made him feel all high and mightily impressed of himself. His heart must have broken when he found out what he really was. JD is a version of Martyr who has grown up in a world that treats him as someone special. Martyr's complete opposite, confident, even cocky. Comparing the two, Martyr is a clean slate and JD is a canvass already painted with imperfections, still beautiful but flawed.

A lot of things seemed unusual, unconventional in this book, but I like how even in this awkwardness, love can bloom. Love is something that doesn't need to be taught, and even Martyr, who is still oblivious to a lot of things, feels this emotion. His love for Baby and for the other clones. And his love for Abby, the one person who treated him as a human being, not a test subject, not just J:3:3. There are a lot of endearing moments in the book and you can't just really demand for much more. I love the innocence of it all, the simplicity of emotions between Abby and Martyr, how their characters both grow by supporting each other.

My own beliefs were challenged by this book. There's a lot of controversial themes this book presents, cloning, stem cell research. Can you call it right if something inhumane is used to save lives? In the end, this is what I believe. Our lives are given to us as gifts, therefore we are to treasure it. It is not our own, so what gives us the right to manipulate it and use it for our own gain? I felt horrified by that particular aspect of the story, confining fifty six innocent boys in a facility all their lives, robbing them all of years that should have been used to explore the world, grow up, enjoy life. And for what? To kill them all for one particular man's selfish reason. It's not right to rob a person of his life just so you can prolong yours.

Kudos to Jill Williamson, I have never been this engaged, this engrossed in a story as much as I was with Replication! It took me a while to put two and two together but once I did, I couldn't stop until I reach the end. Replication is a highly gripping, emotional tale of two people brought together by unusual circumstance, both trying to find a purpose in life and finding so much more. Romance, faith and science all rolled into one amazing novel.

I HIGHLY recommend you buy this book once it comes out!

My rating:

Content (plot, story flow, character):

AMAZING!!!