Vitro by Jessica Khoury Book Review

Back Cover Copy:

On a remote island in the Pacific, Corpus scientists have taken test tube embryos and given them life. These beings—the Vitros—have knowledge and abilities most humans can only dream of. But they also have one enormous flaw.

Seventeen-year-old Sophie Crue is determined to get to Skin Island and find her mother, a scientist who left Sophie behind years ago. With the help of Jim Julien, a young charter pilot, she arrives--and discovers a terrifying secret she never imagined: she has a Vitro twin, Lux, who is the culmination of Corpus's dangerous research.

Now Sophie is torn between reuniting with the mother who betrayed her and protecting the genetically enhanced twin she never knew existed. But untangling the twisted strands of these relationships will have to wait, for Sophie and Jim are about to find out just what happens when science stretches too far beyond its reach.

Rating: 4 stars (liked it, would recommend it)

What I Liked:
The concept is a very intriguing one. A girl supposedly receives an email from her scientist mother who's been working on an exotic island for a long while asking for immediate help? Definitely a premise that hooks you and pulls you in. Not to mention just how awesome the setting is. A tropical island off somewhere in the middle of nowhere, one that has such a haunting air about it that pilots don't want to fly anywhere near it? Count me in. Then there's the characters. All of them, from Sophie to Jim to Nicholas to Lux, they're all individuals with unique and... interesting personalities. Lux, I imagine, would have been a pretty difficult character to pull off, especially POV-wise for a few chapters. Jessica Khoury did a pretty good job of this, in my opinion.

What I Didn't Like:
For me, the overall story was definitely a good one; it just didn't pull me in completely and have me walking around the house in circles with a crazy smile on my face as I mumbled under my breath after finishing the last page. Maybe that's just me. One specific thing I noticed when I was reading this book was the way some of the characters were constantly in life-threatening situations and kept making it out. This in itself wasn't really all too much of a problem for me until one of these characters was involved in a situation that made the readers think it (using that word to avoid using the more descriptive he and she) was, by all logical reasoning, dead. Then, and this was the part that annoyed me, this character wasn't dead. *gasp* Recently I've discovered that I just don't like this trope. Readers being led into thinking that the character died, and then the author going "HA! HA! He isn't dead after all! Tricked you!" I realize that others might. I'm just not one of them. It's just a personal preference thing.

Summary:
Vitro by Jessica Khoury has an intriguing premise, great characters, and a good plot, with some minor problems that only slightly detracted from my enjoyment of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi novel in a not-too-futuristic world with an exotic setting.