Hey lovelies!

Today I am going to be sharing with you a book review for Replica written by Lauren Oliver. I have been a huge fan of Lauren Oliver since reading one of her works, the Delirium trilogy and I have since then, made it a point to pick up her novels!

I was pretty excited to receive and read this one because it is BEAUTIFUL *insert heart eye emoji* and such a cool idea. If you don’t know the whole idea of the book, Replica is a book that has two stories from two different girls – Lyra on one side of the book and Gemma on the other. You can start reading Gemma or Lyra’s story or alternate chapters. Either way, the stories mirror each other’s and tell the tale in their own unique way! (If you would like to check out which side to start reading the book from, check out this cool infographic Epic Reads made to explain it!)

I used the infographic to make the decision to start reading from Lyra’s perspective and then moving to Gemma’s.

I loved the whole aesthetic of the book with the bright colours and the cover and the spine. I especially loved the butterfly and the representation that had within the book.

But enough chatting about the cover! Let’s just get started with the review!

About the book. 

{ WRITING }

I found the writing to be fairly okay in this book. It was easy and enjoyable to read and had a very good, steady flow to it. Most of the book was well explained and was easy to keep up with. With the whole ‘flip story’ it can be easy to get confused and lost and just jarred from the change however this book had a very smooth transition which I liked.

I also liked how the girls had a very distinct voice in the book that represented their character. I always knew who was talking and didn’t get confused as to what side I was reading. I found their individual character voices to be easy to distinguish and made it so much easier to read.

However, I feel like the writing could have done a little more for me. I wanted it to really claw me into the book and it unfortunately wasn’t able to do that. I didn’t end up fall in love with the characters either like I had originally thought I would have.

{ IDEA }

The idea of this book is so INSANELY cool! Firstly, let’s just chat about the whole flip book thing! I love flip books. I think they’re super awesome if done correctly and can add a whole new dimension to storytelling. I liked how well done the flip book was done in this novel. Like mentioned before, it wasn’t jarring or odd and forced. It flowed smoothly and filled in gaps along the way. I haven’t seen many flip books in YA literature (I’ve only read them before in middle grade books such as Go Girl, haha!) so it was cool to see Oliver introduce this!

Now onto the actual idea! I thought the cloning/replica/lookalike idea was pretty damn cool! It was a little bit of sci-fi mixed in with contemporary and romance and an overall great effect. I thought the idea was pretty fleshed out as well and had enough explanation to seem plausible and not weird or wacky.

What I will say was Lauren Oliver describes the two stories as ‘mirrors’ to each other however, after finishing the book, I found the two girls – Lyra and Gemma didn’t have any real direct connection OTHER than stumbling upon each other. I found the two stories to be fairly irrelevant to each other and while they were great separately and did play parts in the other’s tale, it wasn’t anything more than that.

{ PLOT }

This is what let me down. I just didn’t feel very ‘into it’ if you know what I mean. It was interesting enough but it didn’t capture my attention as much as I would have liked it to. It was slow moving at times and could have been more action packed.

There were some parts and terminologies that weren’t very well explained and some important parts were very vaguely brushed over. There wasn’t as much mystery and intrigue as I had hoped and I ended up feeling a little ‘meh’ about the whole thing.

I also found by the end of the book, not all the questions had been answered. It also felt quite abrupt and didn’t give much information on what would happen to the girls in the end.

{ CHARACTERS}

First to Lyra! I loved Lyra as a character. I though the way Oliver wrote her experiences out in the real world to be very authentic and I liked the way she was fascinated by small things and so unaccustomed to the things we take for granted. She was a unique protagonist with a very interesting way of looking at the world. I loved the way Oliver drew a comparison between Lyra’s character – like the way she treasured small things, showing how innocent she was but at other times, could talk about death easily, showing how much she’d gone through.

72 was another awesome character. I liked how closed off and sharp he was because I thought it was a realistic portrayal of him. But I also loved his and Lyra’s relationship, which I thought was the absolute sweetest. I liked how slowly it developed and how they just seemed right for each other.

Now to Gemma! I thought she was a cool protagonist as well. On the outside, she seemed unconfident and very introverted but as the book progressed, she showed another side of her. I liked how she was also a bit different with her weight and her real insecurities because she felt really normal.

Jake and Pete aren’t in the book a lot so I don’t have much to comment about them but I felt the sort of ‘love triangle’ and romance in Gemma’s side of the story was quite forced. In Lyra’s side, it flowed better and seemed sweet but in Gemma’s side, it was sudden and I feel, even unnecessary.

I didn’t connect with the characters as much as I would have liked to connect with them, which is so disappointing but oh well. I did like reading about their adventure, so that’s something I guess!

{ FINALLY…}

One thing that still puzzles me was how cheesy the ending was. Lauren Oliver does not write ‘happily ever after’ endings and I feel that this book just wasn’t her usual style, like what she wrote with Before I Fall and Delirium and Panic. I didn’t really connect with the characters and there wasn’t much suspense and a bit of unnecessary romance.

However, it is nice when authors write something new and that was more of a comment/observation rather than a criticism!

I did enjoy it and will recommend you read it! I loved the idea and the writing and the characters were pretty enjoyable to read from the perspective of.

OVERALL RATING:

Which side are you going to start from? Gemma, Lyra or alternating chapters?