Blog Tour- Half Life by Lillian Clark

Item: Half Life
Author: stuckint

Posted June 10, 2020 by stuckint in Blog Tours / 1 Comment

We are so excited for our stop on book tour for Half Life by Lillian Clark hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club.

About the Book

Half Life by Lillian Clark
Goodreads

An overachiever enrolls in an experimental clone study to prove that two (of her own) heads are better than one in this fast-paced, near-future adventure that's Black Mirror meets Becky Albertalli.
There aren't enough hours in the day for Lucille--perfectionist, overachiever--to do everything she has to do, and there certainly aren't enough hours to hang out with friends, fall in love, get in trouble--all the teenage things she knows she should want to be doing instead of preparing for a flawless future. So when she sees an ad for Life2: Do more. Be more, she's intrigued.
The company is looking for beta testers to enroll in an experimental clone program, and in the aftermath of a series of disappointments, Lucille is feeling reckless enough to jump in. At first, it's perfect: her clone, Lucy, is exactly what she needed to make her life manageable and have time for a social life. But it doesn't take long for Lucy to become more Lucy and less Lucille, and Lucille is forced to stop looking at Lucy as a reflection and start seeing her as a window--a glimpse at someone else living her own life, but better. Lucy does what she really wants to, not what she thinks she should want to, and Lucille is left wondering how much she was even a part of the perfect life she'd constructed for herself. Lucille wanted Lucy to help her relationships with everyone else, but how can she do that without first rectifying her relationship with herself?

About the Author

Lillian Clark is also the author of Immoral Code. A graduate of the University of Wyoming, she grew up riding horses, climbing trees, hiking, and going on grand imaginary adventures in the small-town West. She’s worked as a lifeguard, a camp counselor, and a Zamboni driver, but found her eternal love working as a bookseller at an independent bookstore in what was once a brothel in historic downtown Laramie, Wyoming. Now living with her husband, son, and two giant dogs in the Teton Valley of Idaho, she spends her snowy winters and sunny summers reading almost anything and writing books for teens. Learn more about Lillian online at LillianJClark.com and on Twitter at @LillianJClark.

Our Review

I loved this book. I am actually surprised how much I adored it. I was not expecting to enjoy it s much as I did.

It was billed as Becky Abertali writing an episode of Black Mirror and while I could see the comparison it wasn’t as dark as some of the episodes of the show.

Our protagonist is Lucille Harper: naive, overachieving, stressed out of her mind Lucille. I identified so much with her that I am pretty sure she could qualify as the spirit animal of my high school self. She struggles with insecurities about grades, friends and expectations she has placed on herself regarding the boxes she believes she should check to be successful.

I found underlying discussion surrounding the morality of cloning and it was fascinating to watch Lucille/Lucy navigate keeping it a secret. There was plenty of suspense and tension as I waited for the other shoe to drop.

Perhaps my only complaint about the book was that it left me wanting more. I would have loved a longer epilogue of sorts to know what happened but it’s nice problem to have and does not impact my 5/5 star rating.

I would recommend this standalone YA contempory with science fiction elements to people who loved books like: Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl and Nyxia by Scott Reintgen.