This novel is a complicated look at both faith and scientific ethics wrapped up in a deceptively simple YA teen troubles story. The writing is excellent, enough to keep me reading when the main character adopted a holier than thou attitude that wore on me a bit, mostly because I fell into the trap of connecting the Abby’s beliefs and attitudes with those of the author and so expected this novel to end in a heavy, overly simplified moral. Boy was I wrong.

The basic premise of the story is that a scientist was maintaining a secret lab in which he produced clones for medical testing and something more nefarious that would end up killing them when they turned eighteen. Even worse, the staff was abusive, both physically with brutal testing and beatings, and psychologically by creating a scenario in which the clones were sacrifices to save the rest of the world, a lie the clones had no way of testing because they are never allowed out of the facilities.

Note the premise has nothing to do with Abby. She comes into it because her father is on an obsessive search for a cure to cancer after it stole his wife and Abby’s mother too soon. He’s lost sight of the bigger picture and is willing to do anything, even get mixed up with a bad scientist who thinks he’s above the law.

There’s a lot going on, both with Abby (enough to make her interesting despite being a fanatic) and with the clone who goes by the nickname Martyr because he defends the weaker clones against the stronger in what is a bit of a Lord of the Flies situation with little effort taken to keep the clones from establishing primitive order among their own. As long as they do no permanent damage to the most viable, the scientist and staff care little for what happens in the facility. It’s up to Martyr to step in, often to his own loss.
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